Live Chat

Odoo Live Chat allows users to communicate with website visitors in real-time. With Live Chat, leads can be qualified for their sales potential, support questions can be answered in real time, and issues can be directed to the appropriate team for further investigation or follow up. Live Chat also provides the opportunity for instant feedback from customers.

Enable Live Chat

The Live Chat application can be installed multiple ways:

  • Go to the Apps application, search Live Chat, and click Install.

  • In the Website app, go to Configuration ‣ Settings, scroll to the Email & Marketing section, check the box next to Livechat, and click Save.

    screenshot: livechat-livechat-enable-setting
    menu
    Website ‣ Configuration ‣ Settings
    shows
    The Website settings page scrolled to the Email & Marketing section with the Livechat checkbox enabled.
    highlight
    The Livechat setting (red frame).
    data
    Website 'My Website'.
    module
    website_livechat
    notes
    English UI, light theme, 1440px width.

Note

After the Live Chat application is installed, a live chat Channel is created, by default.

Create live chat channels

To create a new live chat Channel, go to the Live Chat app. Then, click New to open a blank channel detail form. Enter the name of the new channel in the Channel Name field.

To configure the remaining tabs on the channel detail form (Operators, Options, Channel Rules, and Widget), follow the steps below.

screenshot: livechat-livechat-open-channel
menu
Live Chat ‣ Configuration ‣ Live Chat Channels ‣ New
shows
A live chat channel form with the Channel Name field and the Operators, Options, Channel Rules and Widget tabs.
highlight
The Channel Name field and the tab row (red frame).
data
Channel 'YourCompany'.
module
im_livechat
notes
English UI, light theme, 1440px width.

Tip

The channel detail form for any channel can be accessed by navigating back to the Website Live Chat Channels dashboard, via the breadcrumbs. Find the Kanban card for the appropriate live chat channel, hover over it, and then click on the (vertical ellipsis) icon to open the drop-down menu. Click Configure Channel to open the channel detail form.

Operators tab

Operators are the users who act as agents and respond to live chat requests from customers. When a user is added as an operator in a live chat channel, they can receive chats from website visitors wherever they are in the database. Chat windows open in the bottom-right corner of the screen.

screenshot: livechat-livechat-pop-up
menu
Live Chat ‣ Configuration ‣ Live Chat Channels ‣ (channel) ‣ Operators tab
shows
The operator pop-up window opened from an operator's avatar in the Operators tab, showing the operator's name, email and live chat settings.
highlight
The operator pop-up window (red frame).
data
Operator 'Mitchell Admin'.
module
im_livechat
notes
English UI, light theme, 1440px width.

On the channel detail form, click the Operators tab. The user who originally created the live chat channel has been added as an operator by default.

Note

Current operators can be edited, or removed, by clicking on their respective boxes in the Operators tab, which reveals a separate Open: Operators pop-up. In that pop-up, adjust any information, as needed. Then, click Save, or click Remove to remove that operator from the channel.

Click Add to reveal an Add: Operators pop-up window.

In the pop-up window, scroll to find the desired users, or enter their name in the search bar. Then, tick the checkbox next to the users to be added, and click Select.

New operators can be created and added to the list directly from this pop-up window, as well, by clicking New, and filling out the Create Operators form. When the form is complete, click Save & Close, or Save & New for multiple record creations.

Danger

Creating a new user can impact the status of an Odoo subscription, as the total number of users in a database counts towards the billing rate. Proceed with caution before creating a new user. If a user already exists, adding them as an operator will not alter the subscription or billing rate for a database.

Options tab

The Options tab on the live chat channel detail form contains the visual and text settings for the live chat window.

Livechat button

The Livechat Button is the icon that appears in the bottom-right corner of the website.

Change the text in the Notification text field to update the greeting displayed in the text bubble when the live chat button appears on the website.

The Livechat Button Color alters the color of the live chat button as it appears on the website. To change the color, click on a color bubble to open the color selection window, then click and drag the circle along the color gradient. Click out of the selection window once complete. Click the (refresh) icon to the right of the color bubbles to reset the colors to the default selection.

Tip

Color selection, for the button or header, can be made manually using a slider or through RGB, HSL, or HEX color code entries from the pop-up color selection window that appears when either of the color bubbles are clicked. Different options are available, depending on the operating system.

Example

With the following settings, the live chat button appears on the website as shown:

  • Notification text: “Have a Question? Chat with us.”

  • Livechat Button Color: set to purple

screenshot: livechat-livechat-chat-button
menu
(website)
shows
A published website page with the live chat button in the lower-right corner.
highlight
The live chat button (red frame).
data
Website 'My Website', channel 'YourCompany'.
module
website_livechat
notes
English UI, light theme, 1440px width.

Livechat window

The Livechat Window is the space where the live chat conversation with website visitors takes place.

Edit the Welcome Message to change the message a visitor sees when they open a new chat session. This message appears as though it is sent by a live chat operator, and acts as both a greeting and an invitation to continue the conversation.

Edit the Chat Input Placeholder to alter the text that appears in the box where visitors type their replies. This message prompts the visitor to initiate the chat.

The Channel Header is the colored bar at the top of the chat window. The Channel Header Color can be changed following the same steps as the Livechat button.

screenshot: livechat-livechat-chat-window
menu
(website)
shows
The opened live chat window on the website with the channel header, the welcome message and the message input with its placeholder text.
highlight
The channel header and the message input (red frame).
data
Channel header in the channel's colour, placeholder text 'Say Something...'.
module
im_livechat
notes
English UI, light theme, 1440px width.

Channel Rules tab

To configure which website user actions open the live chat window, go to the Channel Rules tab on the live chat channel detail form.

To create a new channel rule, click Add a line. This opens the Create Rules pop-up window.

screenshot: livechat-livechat-create-rules
menu
Live Chat ‣ Configuration ‣ Live Chat Channels ‣ (channel) ‣ Channel Rules tab
shows
A channel rule form with the Live Chat Button, Chatbot, URL Regex, Open automatically timer and Country fields.
highlight
The Live Chat Button and URL Regex fields (red frame).
data
Rule for the URL `/contactus`, button set to 'Show'.
module
im_livechat
notes
English UI, light theme, 1440px width.

Create new rules

Fill out the fields on the Create Rules pop-up window as instructed below, then click Save & Close.

The Livechat Button is the icon that appears in the bottom-right corner of the website. Select from one of the following display options:

  • Show: displays the chat button on the page.

  • Show with notification: displays the chat button, as well as a floating text bubble next to the button.

  • Open automatically: displays the button, and automatically opens the chat window after a specified amount of time (designated in the Open automatically timer field, that appears when this option is selected).

  • Hide: hides the chat button on the page.

Note

In order to track the geographical location of visitors, GeoIP must be installed on the database. If the feature is not available, contact your hosting provider or system administrator.

Widget tab

The Widget tab on the live chat channel detail form provides an embeddable code snippet for external, non-Odoo websites. This code can be added to a website to provide access to a live chat window.

Tip

The live chat widget can be added to websites created through Odoo by navigating to Website app ‣ Configuration ‣ Settings. Then, scroll to the Email & Marketing section. In the Channel field, select the channel to add to the site. Click Save to apply.

To add the widget to a website created on a third-party platform, click the first (copy) icon on the Widget tab, and paste the code into the <head> tag on the site.

Likewise, to send a live chat session to a customer, click the second (copy) icon on the Widget tab. This link can be sent directly to a customer. When they click the link, they are redirected to a new chat window.

screenshot: livechat-livechat-widget-code
menu
Live Chat ‣ Configuration ‣ Live Chat Channels ‣ (channel) ‣ Widget tab
shows
The Widget tab with the embeddable code snippet and the Copy button, plus the direct chat URL.
highlight
The code snippet and the Copy button (red frame).
data
Channel 'YourCompany'.
module
im_livechat
notes
English UI, light theme, 1440px width.

See also