Supported browsers Step 1: Customize your chat widget Step 2: Specify the website domains where you expect to display the chat widget Step 3: Confirm and copy chat widget code and security keys Getting error messages?More customizations for your chat widget

Add a chat user interface to your website

To support your customers through chat, you can add a chat widget to your website that is hosted by Amazon Connect. You can configure the chat widget in the Amazon Connect console: customize the font and colors, and secure the widget so that it can be launched only from your website. As a result, you will have a short code snippet that you add to your website.

Because Amazon Connect hosts the widget, it ensures that the latest version is always live on your website.

Tip

Use of the chat widget is subject to default service quotas, such as the number of required characters for each message. Before launching your chat widget into production, make sure that your service quotas are set for your organization's needs. For more information, see Amazon Connect service quotas.

The pre-built chat widget supports the following browser versions and higher:

Google Chrome 85.0
Safari 13.1
Microsoft Edge version 85
Mozilla Firefox 81.0

The chat widget supports browser notifications for desktop devices. For more information, see Browser notifications.

In this step, you customize the experience of the chat widget for your customers.

Log in to Amazon Connect at https://instance name.my.connect.aws/. Choose Customize chat widget.
For Typeface, use the dropdown to choose the font for the text in the chat widget.
For Chat widget, choose the colors for the widget header, chat message bubbles, and launch and minimize icons by entering hex values (HTML color codes) that align the chat widget with your website branding.

As you choose colors, the chat preview updates automatically so that you can see what your widget will look like.
For Minimize chat icon, select the colors for the icon that customers will choose or tap to minimize the chat widget.
For Open chat icon, select the colors for the icon that customers will choose or tap to start a chat with your contact center.
For Select flow, choose the inbound flow that initiates when a customer starts a chat.
Choose Next.

Enter the website domains where you want to place the chat widget. Chat loads only on websites that you select in this step.

Choose Add domain to add up to five domains.
Important
- Double-check that your website URLs are valid and does not contain errors. Include the full URL starting with https://.
- We recommend using https:// for your production websites and applications.
Under Add security for your chat widget, we recommend choosing Yes, and working with your website administrator to set up your web servers to issue JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) for new chat requests. This provides you more control when initiating new chats, including the ability to verify that chat requests sent to Amazon Connect are from authenticated users.

Choosing Yes results in the following:
- Amazon Connect provides a 44-character security key on the next page that you can use to create JWTs.
- Amazon Connect adds a callback function within the chat widget embed script that checks for a JWT when a chat is initiated.
  
  You must implement the callback function in the embedded snippet, as shown in the following example.
```
amazon_connect('authenticate', function(callback) {
  window.fetch('/token').then(res => {
    res.json().then(data => {
      callback(data.data);
    });
  });
});   
```
If you choose this option, in the next step you'll get a security key for all chat requests initiated on your websites. Ask your website administrator to set up your web servers to issue JWTs using this security key.
Choose Save.

In this step, you confirm your selections and copy the code for the chat widget and embed it in your website. If you chose to use JWTs in Step 2, you can also copy the secret keys for creating them.

Use this 44-character security key to generate JSON web tokens from your web server. You can also update, or rotate, keys if you need to change them. When you do this, Amazon Connect provides you with a new key and maintains the previous key until you have a chance to replace it. After you have the new key deployed, you can come back to Amazon Connect and delete the previous key.

When your customers interact with the start chat icon on your website, the chat widget requests your web server for a JWT. When this JWT is provided, the widget will then include it as part of the end customer’s chat request to Amazon Connect. Amazon Connect then uses the secret key to decrypt the token. If successful, this confirms that the JWT was issued by your web server and Amazon Connect routes the chat request to your contact center agents.

JSON Web Token specifics

Algorithm: HS256
Claims:
- sub: widgetId
  
  Replace widgetId with your own widgetId. To find your widgetId, see the example Chat widget script.
- iat: *Issued At Time.
- exp: *Expiration (10 minute maximum).
* For information about the date format, see the following Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) document: JSON Web Token (JWT), page 5.

The following code snippet shows an example of how to generate a JWT in Python:


payload = {
'sub': widgetId, // don't add single quotes, such as 'widgetId'
'iat': datetime.utcnow(),
'exp': datetime.utcnow() + timedelta(seconds=JWT_EXP_DELTA_SECONDS)
}

header = {
'typ': "JWT",
'alg': 'HS256'
}

encoded_token = jwt.encode((payload), CONNECT_SECRET, algorithm=JWT_ALGORITHM, headers=header) // CONNECT_SECRET is the security key provided by Amazon Connect

The following image shows an example of the JavaScript that you embed on the websites where you want customers to chat with agents. This script displays the widget in the bottom-right corner of your website.

An example of where to find your widgetId.

When your website loads, customers first see the Start Chat icon. When they choose this icon, the chat widget opens and customers are able to send a message to your agents.

To make changes to the chat widget at any time, choose Edit.

Note

Saved changes update the customer experience in a few minutes. Confirm your widget configuration before saving it.