---
title: "Live chat"
description: "Take live chats that end users start from the Outpost tray app, work the chat queue, review transcripts, and set chat policy for your endpoints."
url: "https://support.outpostplatform.com/service-desk/live-chat/"
product: "depot"
type: "how-to"
status: "draft"
ai_summary: "Live chat in the Outpost console. End users select Start a live chat in the tray app; technicians with chat:agent turn on Taking chats, Accept offers or Take it from Chat > Queue, and End chat. Unanswered chats are missed after chat.queue_seconds and become tickets. Transcripts need chat:read for others' chats. Live chat is part of the service desk, on Enterprise and MSP only. Policy keys chat.*."
availability:
  plans: ["enterprise", "msp"]
  permission: "chat:agent"
  preview: false
source: "https://gitlab.com/outpostplatform/docs/-/edit/main/src/content/docs/service-desk/live-chat.mdx"
license: "CC BY 4.0"
---

# Live chat

Live chat lets an end user talk to your desk from the Outpost tray app on
their computer, instead of filing a ticket and waiting. A technician who is
taking chats is offered the conversation in the console, answers it, and ends
it when the problem is solved. This page shows how to take chats, work the
chat queue, review transcripts, and set chat policy for your endpoints.

Live chat is part of the service desk, so it is available on Enterprise and
MSP. On Home Lab and Essentials, the tray app does not offer live chat or
past chats. See [Plan feature reference](/reference/plan-features/#service-desk).

## How live chat works

1. An end user selects **Start a live chat** in the **Support** view of the
   tray app. See
   [Use the Outpost tray app](/tray/using-the-tray/#live-chat).
2. Outpost offers the chat to the technicians who are taking chats. The first
   to accept it holds it.
3. The technician and the end user talk until one of them ends the chat. The
   end user can then rate it: **It helped** or **It did not help**.
4. If no technician accepts the chat in time, it is marked missed and turned
   into a ticket, so somebody follows up.

Every chat is kept as a transcript.

## Before you begin

- To take chats, you need `chat:agent`. To read transcripts of chats other
  technicians handled, you need `chat:read`. You can always read chats you
  handled yourself. See
  [Roles and permissions](/depot/roles-and-permissions/).
- Chat must be allowed for the endpoint by the `chat.enabled` policy setting,
  which is on by default. See [Set chat policy](#set-chat-policy).

## Take chats

1. In the console header, select **Not taking chats**. It changes to **Taking
   chats**, and Outpost starts offering you chats.
2. When a chat is offered, the **Incoming chat** window opens. Select
   **Accept** to take it, or **Decline** to leave it for someone else.
3. Write in the chat panel. <kbd>Enter</kbd> sends.
4. When the conversation is finished, select **End chat**.

While you hold chats, the header shows how many, such as **2 of 3** when you
can hold three. To stop being offered chats, select **Taking chats**. Chats
you already hold stay open. While you hold a chat and the chat panel is
closed, selecting the button opens the panel instead.

If you are idle for too long while taking chats, Outpost marks you **Away**
and stops offering you chats. Select **Away** to start taking chats again.

## Work the chat queue

The chat queue shows everyone waiting for a technician, longest wait first.

1. Select **Chat** > **Queue**. On the MSP plan, select **Chat queue** to see
   waiting chats across every client.
2. Check **Waiting** and **Technicians taking chats** at the top.
3. Select **Take it** on a chat to take it straight away.

## Review transcripts

1. Select **Chat** > **Transcripts**. The list opens on the **Last 30 days**.
2. Choose a view to narrow it: **Nobody answered**, **Rated poorly**, **Nobody
   rated these**, or **Became a ticket**.
3. Select a chat to read it. The **Details** card shows the requester, when
   the chat ended and who ended it, its rating, and any ticket it is attached
   to.

Reading a chat that someone else handled is recorded in the audit log.

## Turn a chat into a ticket

When a chat needs follow-up work, keep it with a ticket.

1. Open the chat from **Chat** > **Transcripts**.
2. Do one of these:
   - To create a ticket from the conversation, select **Raise a ticket**.
   - To add the chat to a ticket the person already has, choose it in
     **Attach an existing ticket**.

A chat can be attached to one ticket. To remove the link, select **Unlink**.

A missed chat is turned into a ticket automatically, with the transcript.

## Set chat policy {#set-chat-policy}

Chat behavior is set by policy settings on profiles, so it can differ between
sites, device groups, and endpoints. See [Profiles](/automation/profiles/) and
[Policy settings](/automation/policy-settings/).

| Setting | Default | What it does |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `chat.enabled` | On | Whether people on the endpoint can start a chat from the tray app. If any profile that applies turns it off, it is off. |
| `chat.queue_seconds` | 45 | How long a chat rings before it is marked missed and turned into a ticket, in seconds. `0` rings until the person gives up, and never creates a ticket. |
| `chat.away_minutes` | 30 | How long a technician who is taking chats can be idle before they are marked away, in minutes. `0` never marks anyone away. |
| `chat.max_concurrent` | 3 | How many chats one technician can hold at once. `0` means no limit. |
| `chat.retention_days` | 365 | How many days a finished transcript is kept, counted from when the chat ended. `0` keeps transcripts until someone deletes them. |

Where several profiles set a number, the smallest positive value wins.

## If something goes wrong

The tray app says why chat is not offered:

| Message in the tray app | Cause | Fix |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Live chat is turned off for this PC by your IT team.** | `chat.enabled` is off for the endpoint. | Turn it on in a profile assigned to the endpoint. |
| **Live chat is not available for your account.** | The person is blocked from chat. | The block is the `chatBlocked` field on the person, changed with `PATCH /api/v1/named-users/<person-id>` and the `identity:manage` permission. The console has no control for it. |
| **Live chat is not available on this PC.** | Your plan does not include the service desk. A chat already running when the plan changed can finish. | Upgrade to Enterprise or MSP. Transcripts are kept and the tray shows past chats again once the plan includes the service desk. |
| **Nobody is on the support desk right now.** | No technician is taking chats. | Select **Not taking chats** in the console header to start taking chats. |
| **You are not connected right now.** | The endpoint is offline. | The end user can open a ticket, which is sent when the endpoint reconnects. |

## Next steps

- [Tickets](/service-desk/tickets/)
- [Use the Outpost tray app](/tray/using-the-tray/#live-chat)