You want to start a conversation with someone before they think to ask. A proactive chat message does that: you write the message, choose what triggers it, and Yaplet delivers it into the chat widget, sent by Vex. The message also stays in the visitor's chat conversation, so it is still there when they open the widget. Nothing to install.
1. Open the chat message list
In the dashboard, go to Marketing → Engagement → Chat messages. Everything you have already built is listed here. Click Add Chat Message in the top right, then choose New Item to start from scratch, or pick one of the ready-made templates.
2. Write the message
Type the message into the Content field.
- Keep it to one or two sentences. Visitors skim.
- Ask a question. "Can I help you find the right plan?" gets more replies than a statement.
- Type
{{name}}(no spaces inside the braces) to insert the first word of the visitor's name — usually their first name. If Yaplet doesn't know their name, it stays blank, so make sure the sentence still reads well without it.
Under Action you choose what happens when the visitor taps the message. There are three choices: None, Start conversation (optionally starting one of the brand's chat workflows) and Open widget home.
3. Set the trigger
Click Trigger at the top of the editor. Under When to trigger, add one or more events — if you add several, any one of them can fire the message.
| Event | When it fires |
|---|---|
| Session | At the start of a visit. A new session begins after 3 hours of inactivity. Choose On session start to fire immediately, or After session start to wait a delay you set. |
| Page view | Every time the visitor opens a page. Again, On page view is immediate and After page view waits a delay. |
| Custom event | When your own site reports something happened. Your developer adds one line where the thing happens: Yaplet.trackEvent('customEvent', { name: 'your-custom-event' }); — then type that same name into the rule. |
4. Narrow the audience
Left alone, the message goes to everyone. Three more sections in the same panel narrow it down:
- Page rules — only on pages whose address matches, for example one that contains
/pricing. - Visitor rules — only visitors who match what you already know about them: country, plan, email, name, your own customer id, how many visits they have made, and more.
- Time on page — only after they have stayed on the current page for a while.
For every rule type and operator, see Trigger rules.
5. Set a frequency cap
At the bottom of the same panel, Frequency decides how often one visitor can be shown this campaign. Send once is the usual choice for a first-contact message. See Frequency caps for the other three options.
6. Publish it
Turn Published on and click Save. Matching visitors start seeing the message straight away.
Which visitors will see it
Every campaign has a Widget field. A chat widget belongs to one brand, and a brand has exactly one chat widget — so this field decides whose visitors get the message. With a single brand there is nothing to pick.
It also means the campaign lives and dies with that widget: if the chat widget is deleted at Brand → Chat widget → Features, its chat message campaigns go with it.
What happens when a visitor replies
The message is saved into the visitor's latest website chat conversation, or a new one if they don't have one yet, so the conversation is in your inbox before anyone replies. It stays quiet: nobody on your team is alerted, and it doesn't wait in Unassigned, until the visitor replies. Their reply lands right below your message, so whoever picks it up sees what they are answering. Assign it, answer it, or let the brand's Vex AI agent answer it — from that point on it behaves like any other chat.
What's next?
Chat messages are the simplest format. For something more visual try in-app banners, or walk new users through the product with a product tour.