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Configuring chat

Get more out of the chat function during your webinar with the right configuration.

Tim avatar
Written by Tim
Updated over 5 months ago

When creating or editing a live webinar you can configure the chat settings.

The 'Webinar' section of the webinar wizard

Public and private chat

  1. Click on your webinar to select it.

  2. Click on 'Edit webinar.'

  3. Navigate to the 'Webinar' section.

  4. Choose 'Chat settings' within the 'Webinar' section.

You can choose between 'Public' and 'Private'. You can turn an option on or off by clicking the switch. You can also switch the chat on or off during the live webinar. After your webinar you can find an overview of all chat messages in the statistics.

  • Public chat

    In the public chat, conversations are visible to all viewers and messages can be sent by all participants. Everyone is able to respond and join the conversation. If you want to send a one-way message to your viewers, consider using an info box.

  • Private chat

    Use private chat for a one-on-one conversation. This is a conversation between the viewer and the presenter (or moderator). The contents of private chats aren't visible to other participants.

Setting up Public and Private chat in webinar wizard

Please note! The chat messages sent during a dry run will not be visible during the live webinar.

Forward all incoming private chat messages to an email address

If you want to receive all incoming chats through email, you can set it up in the chat settings as shown above. This is useful for automated webinars. If you receive an email, you can decide to log in to your webinar to answer the chat messages.

Public chat history

By default, when a viewer joins a webinar, they will only see public chat messages from that moment onward. However, if you wish to enable viewers to access the entire chat history, including messages exchanged before they joined the webinar, you have the option to toggle the 'Limit viewers' chat history' setting. To do this, follow the steps below:

  1. Click on your webinar to select it.

  2. Click on 'Edit webinar.'

  3. Navigate to the 'Webinar' section.

  4. Choose 'Chat settings' within the 'Webinar' section.

Toggling the public chat history in webinar wizard

Chat names

The default generated chat name for presenters and moderators consists of a first and last name. This can be edited by doing the following:

  1. If your webinar is already created and published, go to the 'General' section. If the webinar is still in draft mode and not published, click on 'Create'.

  2. Scroll down to the section labeled 'Webinar team.'

  3. Within the 'Webinar team' section, select 'Edit team member.'

Edit chat name.

Display viewer's last name in public chat

By default, only the first name of viewers is displayed in the public chat, even when you collect the last name during the registration. If you would like to display last names as well, enable this option. The last name of presenters and moderators will always be displayed regardless of this setting.

This setting is only visible when a last name field has been added to the registration page.

Display viewer's last name in public chat

Avatars

Apart from your username, you can also set a personalized image for your account to customize your chat appearance even further. This is possible for all chat users, so viewers will also have this option. You can learn how to set up your avatar here.

Automation rules

Enable automation rules to work with multiple moderators and easily manage chat conversations. There are a number of logic rules to help you handle large numbers of chats by automatically assigning chats according to your preference.

You can set these logic rules in the 'Chat settings'. Follow the steps below:

  1. Click on your webinar to select it.

  2. Click on 'Edit webinar.'

  3. Navigate to the 'Webinar' section.

  4. Choose 'Chat settings' within the 'Webinar' section.

Display viewer's last name setting in webinar wizard

The available rules are:

  • Assign unassigned conversations automatically to the person who opens them

This rule speaks for itself; the first person to open the conversation is assigned to it.

  • Assign unassigned conversations automatically to the person who replies first

This means that the chat will be assigned to the person who responds first. With this rule, you can open the chat without being assigned to it.

  • Assign new incoming conversations automatically to the next moderator (round-robin)

Each new chat is assigned in alphabetical order to a moderator with the least number of assigned chats. The presenter is not included here.

Keywords: arrange, arranging, compose

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