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Customize the chat widget

Everything visitors see — the chat button, the panel, the wording, the logo — is set in the admin app under Settings → Chatbox Widget (named Chat Studio on newer accounts). You never need to touch the code on your website to change how the chat looks.

One thing to know up front, because it trips people up: your changes reach the live widget automatically, but not instantly. Settings are cached briefly on the way to your website, so allow about a minute, then reload the page. The full explanation is below.

Two versions of the settings page

Accounts are moving to a newer settings surface called Chat Studio. Both live in the same sidebar spot — the entry reads Chatbox Widget on the classic version and Chat Studio on the newer one — and both control the same widget — but they save differently:

  • The step-by-step wizard saves automatically. Every change saves itself about two seconds after you stop typing; a “Saved just now” indicator sits under the preview.
  • Chat Studio holds a draft until you click Publish. Nothing reaches visitors until you do. After publishing you’ll see: “Published — live for visitors in about a minute.”

The chat button

These control the button (the “launcher”) visitors see in the corner of your site:

  • Position — Bottom left or Bottom right. Default is bottom right.
  • Color — any hex color. The default is navy (#000666). When we can read colors from your logo, the picker suggests them; otherwise pick or paste your brand color.
  • Icon — Chat, Help, or Message.

The chat panel

These control the panel that opens when a visitor clicks the button:

  • Display name — the name at the top of the chat, up to 60 characters. Leave it blank to use your Workspace name.
  • Greeting — the welcome message a visitor sees when they open the chat, up to 200 characters.
  • Panel colour — the open panel’s buttons and header. This is separate from the button color on purpose: the button is one setting for your whole account, while the panel color is set per Workspace.
  • Panel logo — the image in the panel header (see the next section).
  • Allow file attachments — on by default. Lets visitors attach images and PDFs (up to 10 MB each) in the chat. Turn it off to hide the attach button.
  • Message sound — off by default. Plays a subtle chime when a new reply arrives while the chat is closed.

Chat Studio also gives you the panel’s wording on its Wording tab — the hint text inside the message box, the online/away status lines, the opening note shown when no greeting is set, and your privacy policy link.

Your logo, and the letter circle

The round image at the top of the chat panel is your Panel logo. Two honest facts about it:

It’s a link, not an upload. You paste an https:// link to an image you already host — the logo file already on your website works. There is currently no file-upload button for it.

When there’s no logo, visitors see initials instead. If the logo field is blank, or the link stops working, the circle shows one or two letters taken from your display name (for “Acme Corp”, that’s “AC”). This is the built-in fallback, not an error. If you’re seeing letters where you expected your logo, check that the Panel logo field has a working https:// link to an image.

The assistant’s identity

If the AI assistant answers in your chat, Chat Studio’s Identity tab controls how it shows up:

  • Assistant name — the name it signs replies with. Leave blank to use the Workspace name.
  • Workspace name — the business name visitors see, including in the AI disclosure line.
  • How the assistant sounds — a tone setting (Professional, Friendly, Matter-of-fact). It adjusts wording only, never the facts it answers with.
  • Who answers first — Autopilot answers visitors on its own, Copilot drafts and your team sends, Off is humans only. See AI modes.

Why aren’t my changes showing?

“I changed the color and position and nothing happened” is the most common widget question we get. Work down this list — it’s ordered by how often each one is the cause.

1. Give it about a minute, then reload the page. Settings pass through two short caches on the way to your site: our servers hold them for up to a minute, and the visitor’s browser holds the previous look for up to another minute. The widget also reads its settings when the page loads — an already-open page won’t restyle itself. So: save, wait a minute, then reload your website. If you checked within a minute or two and didn’t reload, you haven’t seen your change yet — that’s expected, not broken.

2. In Chat Studio, did you click Publish? Chat Studio keeps your edits as a draft. The preview updates instantly, which makes it easy to believe you’re done — but visitors see nothing until you press Publish.

3. Is your website’s domain on the allowed list? The widget fetches your saved settings from our servers, and that fetch only succeeds for websites on your list (step 3 of the wizard, “Where will this appear?” — or “Websites that can show your chat” in Chat Studio). Off the list, the widget falls back to the look that was baked into the code when you pasted it, and no amount of waiting changes that. Check the exact domain your site is served from is listed, including subdomains (www.yourbusiness.com and yourbusiness.com are different entries; *.yourbusiness.com covers all subdomains).

4. Does your site set a Content-Security-Policy? A CSP missing connect-src https://widget.jiviq.com silently blocks the settings fetch — the button appears but keeps its pasted defaults. See the CSP section in Install the widget.

5. Still stuck? Re-copy the snippet. The button’s color, position, and icon also ride inside the pasted code as the “first paint” look, before the live settings arrive. Copying a fresh snippet from the admin and replacing the old one updates that baked-in look. This is the last resort, not the normal path — if you find yourself re-pasting for every change, something in points 3 or 4 is wrong, and we’d like to hear about it at support@jiviq.com.

Preview vs. live

The preview inside the admin updates as you edit — it’s showing your draft, straight from your keyboard. Your live website follows the rules above: saved (or published) settings, about a minute of caching, and a page reload. When the two disagree for a minute, the preview is ahead, not wrong.