What is live chat?
Live chat is a website widget that lets visitors message your team instantly, without leaving the page. It helps you answer questions in real time, capture leads, and resolve issues faster than email or phone.
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Live chat is a small messaging window embedded on a website. Visitors click it, type a question, and get an answer right there – without leaving the page. It’s the fastest way to talk to a business online.
Unlike email, where you wait hours or days, live chat gives help in seconds. That’s why teams add it to pricing pages, onboarding flows, and support portals. It keeps people moving forward instead of hitting dead ends.
Common features you’ll see in live chat tools:
- Instant messages between visitors and your team
- File sharing and screen glimpses so you can show, not just tell
- Canned replies for questions you hear again and again
- Mobile apps so your team can reply from anywhere
- Proactive triggers that open a chat when someone seems stuck
Why live chat changes how you work
- Repeat questions get answered once and reused – less typing, more helping
- Visitors convert better when they get answers during their first visit
- Support teams can handle several chats at once, which email can’t do
- You build a searchable library of every conversation for later review
Many live chat tools now include an AI layer that reads your help guides, FAQs, and product docs. Instead of making you write bot scripts, the AI pulls from what you already have. That means your site can answer questions 24/7, even when your team is asleep.
Chatref’s live chat works exactly this way. You add your content once – help articles, guides, even plain files – and the chat answers from that material. When a question goes beyond what your content covers, it hands the conversation to a human, complete with the full chat history. No dead-end suggestions, no made-up answers. It’s live chat built for teams that already document their product.
FAQ
Related questions
How is live chat different from a chatbot?
A chatbot often follows pre-written scripts or searches the web, while live chat connects visitors directly to a person in real time. Many modern live chat tools blend both: AI handles routine questions from your own content, and humans step in for complex issues.
Can live chat work when my team is offline?
Yes. You can set away messages or let an AI layer answer from your help docs around the clock. Chatref, for example, resolves common questions using your content, so visitors get help even outside business hours.
Do I need to install software for live chat?
No – most live chat tools work through a snippet of code you add to your website. Once added, the chat window appears on every page automatically
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