# Chat in the widget

A chat in the widget is a conversation with your bot right on the website. A visitor opens the widget, writes a message, and the bot replies by the scenario: with buttons, images, files. There is no need to go to a messenger.

The chat works through the bot's "Web chat" channel. How the channel itself works, what the operator sees and how to disconnect the channel is on the [Web chat](https://support.watbot.org/chatbots/channels/web) page. This page covers the chat settings in the widget.

## What you need

- **A bot in the same project as the widget.** The chat can be linked only to a bot of its own project.
- **A Pro subscription for the bot's owner.** The widget itself does not need a subscription, the chat does. Without Pro the chat will not turn on, and if the subscription has ended, the widget stays on the website without the chat.
- **Contact count.** Every visitor who opens the chat becomes a contact of the bot — just like a person who wrote to the bot in a messenger. The Pro price depends on the number of contacts: see [The Pro plan](https://support.watbot.org/billing/pro).

## Turn on the chat

1. Open the widget and click the gear button in the builder — the "Widget settings" panel opens.
2. In the "Chat with the bot" row, turn on "Show a chat with the bot in the widget".
3. In the "Bot" field, choose a bot of the project.
4. Click "Save".

![Chat settings and an open conversation with the bot in the widget](https://support.watbot.org/_media/en/04-widgets/_images/chat.webp?v=1791781230)

When saving, the platform connects the "Web chat" channel to the bot by itself if it is not connected yet. If the widget is already [installed on the website](https://support.watbot.org/widgets/install), the chat appears in it without changes on the website.

With the chat turned on, links are not required for the widget: you can leave just the chat.

## Chat settings

| Setting | What it sets |
|---|---|
| "Bot" | Which bot of the project the visitor talks to |
| "Chat title" | The line in the chat header, up to 50 characters. If empty — the bot's name. The bot's avatar is shown next to it |
| "Button label" | The chat row in the list of ways to contact you, up to 50 characters. If empty — "Start a chat" |
| "Input placeholder" | Grey text in the empty input field, up to 100 characters. If empty — "Write a message…" |
| "How to open" | The chat mode — see below |
| "Accept files from visitors" | Whether the visitor can send files |
| "New visitors per IP per hour" | Protection against inflating contacts. The field is the last one in the panel |

Under the settings is the line "Visitors who wrote from this chat: …" with the number of contacts who came through this widget, and the "Open conversations" link: it leads to the bot's "Messages" section.

### Modes: "How to open"

| Mode | How it looks on the website |
|---|---|
| "As a button in the channel list" | The widget opens as a list: the chat is the first row, your links are below it. The chat opens on a tap on the row |
| "Chat first" | The widget opens straight into the conversation. The "Back" arrow in the chat header leads to the list of links, if there are any |

The first mode fits when the chat is one of the ways to contact you, on a par with messengers. The second — when the chat is the main one.

### Accepting files

The "Accept files from visitors" switch is on by default. A paperclip appears in the chat's input field, and the visitor can send:

- images — JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP;
- documents — PDF, Word, Excel, text files and CSV;
- audio and video.

Limits: a file up to 10 MB; from one visitor — no more than 20 files and 50 MB per day.

> [!NOTE]
> The setting is shared by all widgets with this bot: turn it off in one widget — and the paperclip disappears in all of them.

### New visitors per IP per hour

Every new chat visitor is a paid contact of the bot. To keep someone from creating them by the hundreds by opening the chat again and again, the platform limits the number of new visitors from one IP address per hour. The default is 20; you can set from 0 to 1000; 0 removes the limit.

A visitor beyond the limit sees "The chat is unavailable right now, please try again later". Conversations that have already started are not affected by the limit.

> [!TIP]
> Increase the value if your customers often go online from one address — for example, employees of one large company or visitors of one coworking space.

## Test the chat

In the builder the chat is live: open it in the widget and write a message. This is a bot test — the same as the "Test the bot" window on the scheme: the bot replies by the scenario, and such a conversation adds no contacts or statistics.

## How the chat works for a visitor

- A visitor becomes a contact when they open the chat, not when the website page loads.
- The conversation is remembered in the visitor's browser. Coming back to the website from the same device, they see their history and continue the conversation.
- Operator messages from the "Messages" section arrive in the same chat.
- While the chat is open, the widget's banner is hidden.

### How a visitor learns about a reply

If the visitor has minimized the widget or gone to another tab, and the bot or an operator has replied, the widget calls them back:

| Way | What the visitor sees |
|---|---|
| Badge | A red circle with the number of unread messages on the widget button; more than nine — "9+" |
| Hint | A card above the button: the bot's name (or "Operator") and the beginning of the message. A click opens the chat, the cross closes the hint |
| Tab title | A number in brackets before the page title — for example, "(2) Daisy — flower delivery" |
| Sound | A short beep. It plays only for messages that arrived while the page was open: after a reload, missed messages are shown silently |

![Collapsed widget: reply preview and badge](https://support.watbot.org/_media/en/04-widgets/_images/unread.webp?v=1791781230)

The widget checks for new messages about once every 20 seconds, so the badge appears with a slight delay. The widget does not ask for browser notification permission. Notifications work only for those who have already opened the chat on this device.

## Chat limits

- A visitor can send no more than 30 messages per minute.
- A message is up to 4096 characters.
- A file is up to 10 MB; 20 files and 50 MB per day from a visitor.
- When the widget is moved to another project, the chat in it is turned off.

The chat texts — the title, the button label and the placeholder — are checked by the platform just like the widget's other texts: see [Widget checks by the platform](https://support.watbot.org/widgets).

## If something does not work

- **"The Web chat channel of this bot is turned off, so the chat is not shown on the site."** A warning in the settings panel: the channel was disconnected on the bot's scheme. Click "Connect channel" right in the warning.
- **A window offering to get Pro opens when saving.** The chat turns on only with a subscription.
- **"The bot was not found in the widget project."** The chosen bot was deleted or moved to another project. Choose another one.
- **The "Bot" list is empty — "The project has no bots yet".** Create a bot in this project or move the widget to a project with a bot.
- **There is no chat on the website although it is turned on.** Check in order: whether the bot owner's Pro is active, whether the bot has the "Web chat" channel connected, whether the widget is saved.
- **The visitor sees "The chat is unavailable right now, please try again later."** The reasons: the bot owner's subscription has ended or the new visitor limit was triggered.
- **The visitor sees "Too many messages, please wait a moment."** The limit of 30 messages per minute was triggered.
- **The visitor cannot send a file.** Chat messages explain the reason: "The file is too large: up to 10 MB.", "This file type is not supported. Images, video, audio and documents are fine.", "Too many files, please try again tomorrow." or "Files cannot be sent in this chat." — if accepting files is turned off.