Channels

A channel is a place where customers can talk to Chatty: one website or one app. Each channel has its own chat window, and all of them feed the same Inbox.

Open Channels

Add a channel

Click Add a channel. If you have not set Chatty up yet, start setup first. Chatty then takes you through five steps. Click Cancel before the fourth step is done and no channel is made.

1. Where it goes. Give the channel a name that only your team sees. Choose On a website or Inside an app, then list the websites allowed to show it, one per line, for example example.com. Chatty adds the www version too. The chat window will not work on any other site, even with the key. A website channel with no website listed cannot be used.
   • On a website: visitors are anonymous.
   • Inside an app: for signed-in customers. Your developer signs a short-lived token that tells Chatty who the customer is. This lets Chatty show answers meant only for customers.
2. How it looks. Set the title, the subtitle, the colours, the first message and up to six suggested questions. More options sets which side of the page it sits on, the hint in the message box, a picture and the message shown when Chatty is paused. A preview in the corner shows how it will look. The preview's answers are examples. Your real Chatty answers from your knowledge.
3. What it knows. Add a website, documents, a YouTube channel or written answers, as in Knowledge. Chatty answers from the same knowledge on every channel, so what you add here is not only for this channel. If Chatty already knows something, you can continue without adding more. What you add is read as soon as you continue.
4. What it follows. Write a skill, such as how you handle refunds, or skip this step. Chatty follows every skill on every channel. The channel is made when you finish this step.
5. Put it live. Copy the install code and paste it into your website, or email it to your developer.

A channel for an app is made Active with a secret that Chatty creates for you. The last step shows the secret once: copy it and give it to your developer, who keeps it on your server and uses it to sign the customer token. Until the token is signed, visitors are treated as anonymous. To make a new secret later, open the channel under Channels, choose Who and where, then Make a new secret.

Change a channel

Your channels are listed one to a row, with whether each is live. With more than one workspace, the folder button on a row moves the channel to another workspace. Click a channel, or its pencil, to open it in a window. It has five tabs:

• Who and where: the name, whether it is on a website or inside an app, its status (Active or Paused), the websites allowed to show it, and for an app how the token is signed.
• Look: the title, the subtitle, the colours, which side of the page it sits on, a picture, the hint in the message box and the first message customers see. The preview in the corner updates as you type.
• How it answers: the suggested questions, up to six, and the message shown when Chatty is paused or you have run out of credits.
• Knowledge: what this chat can answer from. This chat can use lists the sources its visitors can be given answers from. Not available to this chat lists the rest and says why: a source for signed-in customers is not offered on a website channel, where visitors are anonymous, and a team-only source is never offered to customers. Add or change sources in Knowledge.
• Install: the code to copy. Paste it just before the closing </body> tag on every page, or click Email it to my developer. It does not slow the page down. For an app channel, your developer also needs to sign the customer token. This tab has an example, and a step-by-step guide can be downloaded from the channel settings. The secret or private key stays on your server and never goes in the page.

Replace the key

The install code holds a key, which only identifies the channel and works only on the websites you listed. Like a password, it is hidden until you click Show key, and Copy code always copies the real code. You rarely need to touch it. To replace it, open the Install tab, expand Advanced, add a new key, put the new code on your site, then Revoke the old key. Nothing breaks while both work.

Pause a channel

Set the status to Paused in Who and where to stop a chat window without removing it. Switch it back to Active when you are ready. The channel's card shows Live while it is active.

Who can use it

Owners and admins.