Set Up for Live Chat for Microsoft Teams - First Time Setup

In this article, we'll show you how to set up the Live Chat app for Microsoft Teams which will allow you to talk to your website visitors right within teams. If you haven't added the app yet, you can add it directly to Teams in the Microsoft Teams App Marketplace or in Microsoft AppSource. Simply add the app to your Teams to get started.

First Time Setup for adding Live Chat to Teams

Just getting set up? We'll guide you through your first-time set-up tasks here.

Here are a couple quick tips to keep in mind before getting started:

* The Microsoft Teams Team and channel that you add the Live Chat tab to must be ‘Public’. This is required so that our application can send notifications to your Posts tab in teams and you can receive audio and visual notifications of new chats arriving in teams. Teams does not allow bot interaction with private channels.

* Each Team member should add the Live Chat app onto their Microsoft Teams workspace in the left sidebar so that they can access and update their Personal Agent Settings like their nickname and agent photo that can be seen by visitors in the website live chat.

That's it for the quick tips, let's get started with how to get set up the first time with Live Chat.

Step 1. Add a Live Chat Tab to your Team in Microsoft Teams.

If you have already added a Live Chat tab to your Team while installing our app, great! Your tab should look like the image below and will include the circled Live Chat tab.

Add Live Chat to Microsoft Teams

Now, select the ‘Sign In with Microsoft’ button to login to the Live Chat app using the Microsoft Teams login process. Just enter your Microsoft login and password, the same as your Teams login. Once you do this the first time, we will automatically create your 2-week free trial.

If you have not yet added a Live Chat tab to your Team or do not see the Live Chat tab yet, just click the '+' button at the end of the tab list.

Then search for 'Live Chat' in the popup and select it. It will look simliar to this:

Once you select the Live Chat save the settings, you are all set with Step 1.

Now website Live Chat requests will be sent directly to the Team and Channel in Microsoft Teams that you added the Live Chat app to. What to set up Department based route or route to more than one Team? No problem, just add the app to whatever team you want to be able to route to and we'll show you later how to set up the routing appropriately.

Live Chat requests to Teams

You can reply to chats from the Team conversation or the dedicated ‘Live Chat’ tab.

Replying to live chats in Teams

Step 2. To Access your Chat Settings, add the Live Chat app to your personal workspace.

Click on the 3 dots in the left sidebar and search for ‘Live Chat’ to add the Live Chat settings app to your workspace in team. This is where you can customize your live chat widget settings, update your agent settings, or see plan information.

Add Live Chat to your Teams Workspace

If you have not yet added Live Chat to your Team and, First choose the option ‘Add to a Team’ and select the Team that you have added your Live Chat tab to, then, select ‘Add’ to add Live Chat to your personal workspace.

(Note: If you don't see it in the left sidebar when selecting the horizontal dots icon, search for ‘Live Chat’ and select it.)

Each Team member should also add your Live Chat app to their workspace individually, as this is how your Team members can change their Agent Settings, such as their photo and nickname.

* If you aren't receiving chat requests to your team:

If you are not receiving Live Chat request notifications to your Team, you may not have added the app to a Team when originally installing. You can always uninstall and re-install the app to your workspace in the following article. See this article on how to uninstall and reinstall the app to your personal workspace.

Step 3. Turn on your Channel Notifications.

By default, new Post Notifications are turned off. To make sure you never miss a Live Chat request, turn on your Channel Notifications. Just click the 3 dots next to your Team’s channel. Then, on the popup, choose ‘All New Posts’: 'Banner and feed': then ‘Save’.

You can also choose to display notifications 'Only in feed'. Either will option work.

Step 4. Add your Code Snippet to your Website.

Go to the Live Chat app settings from the left sidebar in teams to find your code snippet. and select the ‘Code Snippet’ option to find your code snippet.

You can access the Live Chat app settings from the left-hand navigation by clicking the horizontal 3 dots, then choosing Live Chat. If you don't see your Live Chat listed here, add it by selecting the ‘Browse all apps’ button, then search for Live Chat.

Once in the app settings, choose the ‘Live Chat Settings’ tab, then click on 'Install Code Snippet'.

Simply copy and paste this code into any website where you would like to add your Live Chat Widget. Once you do this, you can chat with website visitors right from Teams.

Step 5. Preview your Live Chat and send a Test Chat.

Now to test out your live chat, go to the Live Chat ‘Chat Settings’ page and select the ‘Preview’ option. You can also get there from the welcome message we sent to you when you added your Live Chat appEnter any test information in the pre-sales chat form and click submit. Once you do this, a Live Chat request will be sent directly to the Team you added your Live Chat to.

Upon receiving the request, reply to the chat right from Teams. You'll see a Live Chat request like this:

If you don't see the chat request in your Team, then you may not have added the bot to your team when originally installing the app. Please see this article on fixing this issue.

There are two options for answering chats, clicking Open Chat Console or clicking Join Chat

Typically, the easiest way to answer the chat is to click Open Chat Console which will direct you right to the Live Chat tab that you added. Simply type a message and click the send button to answer the chat.

The second way to join the chat, is to answer right from the Posts tab in teams by clicking Join Chat. Then reply to the conversation making sure to mention '@Live Chat' in your reply so the messages are sent to our bot. This allows you to have side bar conversations with other agents without sending every message to your customer.

And that’s it! Happy Chatting!