How to Add a Live Chat App to a WordPress Site?

Adding a live chat app to a WordPress site can greatly enhance the user experience by providing quick and tailored responses. One popular live chat plugin is Tidio, but many others are also available – such as LiveChat, ChatBot, and several more. Let’s use the Tidio live chat integration as our primary example for this discussion (Source: WPBeginner).

First, go to your WordPress dashboard and click on ‘Plugins’. Select ‘Add New’ and type ‘Tidio Chat’ into the search bar. Once Tidio Chat appears, click ‘Install Now’ followed by ‘Activate’. Once you’ve activated the plugin, the Tidio chat panel will be visible on your WordPress dashboard (Source: Tidio Live Chat Tutorial).

Secondly, you need to create a Tidio account. Click on the Tidio chat panel in your dashboard and you will be redirected to the Tidio website to finalize your account setup. After that’s done, go back to your WordPress dashboard and your Tidio chat will be operational (Source: WPBeginner).

Customizing your chatbox is the next step – change the colors, set up automatic messages, and more. To do this, open Tidio from your WordPress dashboard and find the ‘Settings’ tab in Tidio’s side menu. There, you can alter the look and functionality of your chatbox to satisfy your site’s particular needs (Source: Tidio Live Chat Tutorial).

If Tidio or some other live chat plugin doesn’t satisfy your needs and you’d rather use a live chat API such as Comm100’s API, that requires more expertise. You’ll need to copy the API’s JavaScript snippet code, go to ‘Appearance’ in your WordPress dashboard, and select ‘Editor’. In the ‘Theme Footer’ (footer.php), you must paste the API’s snippet code before the closing body tag (). After saving your changes, the live chat service should appear on every page (Source: WPBeginner).

Each live chat app will differ in the steps to install and activate it. However, most will be similar to the process described above. Before settling with an app, it’s a good idea to investigate different ones and see which will suit your site and setup best. Not every website will need the same live chat app due to variations in price, compatibility, and features.

Sources used:
1. WPBeginner: https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-plugins/how-to-add-a-free-live-chat-in-wordpress/
2. Tidio Live Chat Tutorial: https://help.tidio.com/docs/en/categories/setting-up-your-chat
3. Comm100: https://www.comm100.com/platform/live-chat/live-chat-api/