Before the chat starts
Pre-chat form decides what a visitor is asked before they can send their first message.
The built-in screen is why website chats arrive with a real contact attached rather than an
anonymous visitor. A phone number given here is matched against your existing contacts, so
somebody who already reached you on WhatsApp stays one contact.
Only published forms are offered. A draft would configure something that silently never
appears. Build and publish one under Forms.
Business hours
Off means always available. On, the widget tells visitors We’re away right now outside your hours.
Add two rows for the same day to model a lunch break —
Mon 09:00–13:00 and
Mon 14:00–18:00. A day with no row is closed all day.
When you are away
Form to show when you’re away decides what an out-of-hours visitor gets.
Either is fine. A form is the better choice when you need an email address to reply to,
because a website visitor who leaves cannot be messaged back — the channel has no way to
push to a closed tab. See Website chat.
What answers a website chat
When a visitor sends a message, Watx offers it to the engines in order and the first one that handles it stops the rest, so nobody gets three replies.1
Automations
Rules with a message trigger. Website chats also fire a dedicated Web chat started
trigger on the visitor’s very first message, so you can greet website visitors without
also greeting every new WhatsApp contact. See
Triggers.
2
An AI agent
Answers anything the automations did not, when AI replies is on under
Widget settings and an agent covers the website channel. See
Routing.