Would you like to have direct contact with visitors to your website? So that you can immediately answer questions from (potential) customers. Then use a chat widget.

What is a chat widget?

A chat widget is an icon, often at the bottom of your screen. When you click it, it will show a screen so you can chat with one of the contributors who is currently online. You can add the widget like this on to your own website, with custom colours, messages, size, position and language.

There are several extensions that allow you to add a chat function within Joomla. These can be found on the Joomla Extensions Directory.

Personally, I like to use the (free) service Tawk.to

Configuring Tawk.to

The installation of Tawk.to live chat does not start on your own Joomla website but starts with registering on https://tawk.to. On this website, you can set all kinds of things, such as language, colours and triggers (when will a visitor see the chat screen).

Link Tawk.to to Joomla

After you have created an account and set up your widget, you will receive a widget code, which you can add in the index.php of your template, but if you find this difficult, Tawk.to also has its own Joomla plugin and module that you can use without any technical knowledge.

How can I chat with a visitor?

The visitor will leave a question or comment in the chat window. At that moment, you will be notified when you are sitting at your PC and logged in to the tawk-to-management environment. Of course, you are not going to sit around all day waiting for a chat message, so it is also possible to install the app on your phone. If a message arrives, you will see the notification and you can immediately engage with the visitor.

Specify availability with the scheduler

You can specify when you are available for instant messages, e.g. daily until 5 pm. Or when you are on holiday for a week. If you are not available, the visitor will not see a chat window but can leave a message in the contact form.

Free chat window

Tawk.to is a free service, but you can purchase extensions.

For example, if you want to remove the tawk.to logo, you pay $12 a month; personally, the logo doesn't bother me, but for larger companies, a white-labelled chat window may look more professional. You can also hire external chat operators who will take care of visitors first and only redirect them for more specialised queries.

I have by no means discussed all the possibilities of Tawk.to. If you have any tips, let me know in a comment. Do you use another chat application? If so, let us know in a comment why you chose that application.