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’s header shows a green online dot on your team’s avatar during your hours; outside them the dot goes and the subtitle reads We’re away right now.
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.