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.

Supported browsers

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.

Step 1: Customize your chat widget

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

1. Log in to Amazon Connect at https://instance name.my.connect.aws/. Choose Customize chat widget.

   

2. For Typeface, use the dropdown to choose the font for the text in the chat widget.

   

3. 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.

   

4. Optionally, you can add your company logo and other branding to the chat widget.

   The following image shows a widget with branding in the banner (the Logo URL) set to amazon, System Message Display Name set to System Message, Bot Message Display Name set to Alexa, Text Input Placeholder set to Ask a question, and End Chat Button Text set to End Session.

   

   1. Logo URL: Insert a URL to your logo banner from an Amazon S3 bucket or another online source.

      Note

      The chat widget preview in the customization page will not display the logo if it's from an online source other than an Amazon S3 bucket. However, the logo will be displayed when the customized chat widget is implemented to your page.

      The banner must be in .svg, .jpg or .png format. The image can be 280px (width) by 60px (height). Any image larger than those dimensions will be scaled to fit the 280x60 logo component space.

      1. For instructions about how to upload a file such as your logo banner to S3, see Uploading objects in the Amazon Simple Storage Service User Guide.

      2. Make sure that the image permissions are properly set so that the chat widget has permissions to access the image. For information about how to make a S3 object publicly accessible, see Step 2: Add a bucket policy in the Setting permissions for website access topic.

   2. System Message Display Name: Type a new display name to override the default. The default is SYSTEM_MESSAGE.

   3. Bot Message Display Name: Type a new display name to override the default. The default is BOT.

   4. Text Input Placeholder: Type new placeholder text override the default. The default is Type a message.

   5. End Chat Button Text: Type new text to replace the default. The default is End chat.

5. For Minimize chat icon, select the colors for the icon that customers will choose or tap to minimize the chat widget.

6. For Open chat icon, select the colors for the icon that customers will choose or tap to start a chat with your contact center.

7. For Select flow, choose the inbound flow that initiates when a customer starts a chat.

8. Choose Next.

Step 2: Specify the website domains where you expect to display the chat widget

1. 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 50 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.

2. 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.

3. Choose Save.

Step 3: Confirm and copy chat widget code and security keys

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.

Security key

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
                

Chat widget script

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.

1. 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.

To make changes to widget icons on the website, you will receive a new code snippet to update your website directly.

Getting error messages?

If you encounter error messages, see Investigate common issues with adding a chat user interface to your website.

More customizations for your chat widget

See the following topics for more you can do to customize the chat experience:

• Customize widget launch behavior and button icon

• Pass the customer display name when a chat initializes

• Pass contact attributes when a chat initializes

• Enable message Delivered and Read receipts in your chat user interface