Messenger
The messenger is the chat box Cactus puts on your own website, so visitors can ask about your product where they are. You set it up in the web app, list the sites it may run on, and choose how it looks.
On this page
Set it up on your site
Sign in to The web app, and open Messenger.
In the Set it up card, select the button that opens your coding agent. The agent puts the messenger on every page and checks that it works.
Or open Paste the snippet yourself, choose a framework, and copy the snippet. For Script tag, put it in the shared root layout or footer template, just before the closing body tag, so it loads once on every page.
Wait for the first visit. The site appears under Sites the first time the messenger loads on it, and the set-up card goes away.
See which sites run it
Each row under Sites shows one site and whether the messenger has loaded there lately.
- Live on the site's address: the messenger loaded there in the last 24 hours.
- Not seen today: the messenger has not loaded there in the last 24 hours.
To add another site, select Add another site under the list. The set-up card comes back above it.
Only these sites can load it
Until you save a site, any site can load the messenger. Once you save one, only the sites on the list can.
In Only these sites can load it, type a site's address and press
Enteror,. An address withouthttps://is saved with it added.Select Save. The button reads Saved once the list matches what is saved.
Check a site
Open Check a site, type the address, and select Check. The check looks at the saved list only, so save your domains first.
Read the result under the field.
- Your key answers from the site and the messenger will load and chat there.
- The site isn't on the list, so the messenger is blocked there. Select Add with the address to add it and save.
- The address isn't a valid site URL.
Signed-in users
Signed-in users stays off until a signing secret is created, and only a teamspace owner can create it. Until then, guests ask with no setup.
In Signed-in users, select Create signing secret.
Copy the secret that appears. It is shown once, and no later read gives it back.
On your server, sign each user's id with the secret, and pass the result to the messenger's identify call. The section shows the code for both.
Refuse users who are not signed
The Refuse users who are not signed switch can be turned on only once a signing secret exists.
Off, guests can ask as well. On, a caller without a valid signature is turned away, so use it only on a site where everyone is signed in.
Appearance
Open Appearance to change how the messenger looks. The preview shows it on a simulated site, and Light or Dark above it sets that site's background.
- Name is the name the messenger says in its words, such as its intro and the launcher's ask. It is the product's name until you type another in the Name field, which sits beside the launcher.
- The closed button can be the lit character, a drawn mark, a chat bubble, your own picture, or a frosted glass pill that says its words.
- It sits in a bottom corner, or at the foot of the middle for the glass pill.
- The chat bubble takes your brand colour, or two colours you pick.
- An intro says hello once a session, a moment after the button arrives, and is on unless turned off. While the intro would cover a part of the page marked with
data-cactus-keep-clear, it waits, and says hello once that part is clear of it. - Sounds, citations and Cactus's cursor can each be switched; Cactus's cursor is off unless turned on.
- The greeting, placeholder, button label and intro message are your words, translated for each help center language.
The messenger's own primary and secondary colours are set under Accent in Settings, not on this page.
Talk to a human
Talk to a human is on by default exactly when the team has somewhere for a handoff to land, such as a Slack channel, a Discord channel or a saved escalation email. A choice the owner has stored overrides that default.
What happens to the question after that is told on Handoffs.
- A visitor who is not signed in can ask for a person 5 times an hour from one connection.
- The whole site can ask for a person 20 times an hour.
- A thread holds one place for an hour, so every press on it in that hour uses that one place.
Visitor limits
A visitor who is not signed in can send 30 questions an hour on your site.
Past that, the messenger asks the visitor to slow down. The count frees up as the hour's earlier questions age out.
If the messenger doesn't load
What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
"This messenger is not set up for this site yet. Check the install key and allowed domain." | What it means Your site is not on the list, or the install key is wrong | What to do Add the site under Only these sites can load it and select Save |
"The messenger API endpoint was not found. Check the script/API URL for this install." | What it means The address the script loads from was not found | What to do Copy the snippet again from Set it up and put it on the page |
"Add your site to “Only these sites can load it” first. Without it the messenger loads unstyled and chat is blocked." | What it means The list has sites, and yours is not one of them | What to do Add your site and select Save |
"Cactus couldn’t create your install key." | What it means The product has no install key, so Set it up cannot run | What to do Reload the page and try again |
"Upload a picture for a light ground before choosing Your own image." | What it means You chose your own launcher picture before uploading a light one | What to do Upload a light picture, then choose Your own image |
"Too many requests to reach the team right now. Try again later." | What it means Too many requests to reach a person came in, so the handoff was refused | What to do Try again later |
"Cactus had trouble answering. Please try again in a moment." | What it means Cactus's server did not answer | What to do Try again in a moment |