What it is
Your website chat is shown to visitors only when everything it needs is in place. If anything is missing, the bubble stays hidden, with no error, so customers never see a broken chat. Live on your website in Chatbot → Embed / API tells you which: Yes, or Not yet with each reason and a button to fix it.
Unlike other channels, a paused agent, an agent set to Off (staff replies), or Aria switched Off hides the website chat completely instead of leaving visitors waiting for a person.
How to use it
- Open Chatbot and select the widget.
- Under Embed / API, check the status reads Published · version N. If not, select Publish this version.
- Read Live on your website. For each reason under Not yet, select the button beside it and fix it.
- Come back and reload Aria Lab until it says Yes.
- Under Website access, check your website's address is listed. Fix it, select Save configuration, then Publish this version.
- Ask your web team to confirm the embed code is on the page and the website was published after they added it.
- Wait about 30 seconds, then open your website in a private browser window.
- Open the chat and send a message. The conversation appears in Intake.
What the data means
Reasons about the widget: "Publish this widget to put it on your website."; "Add your website's https address under Website access…"; "The chat needs a location to answer for." or "The chat's location is inactive." (Open Locations); "QualiFlow is setting up website chat. It switches on by itself." (Contact support).
Reasons about Aria and the agent: "AI is turned off for this workspace." (Open AI settings); "Aria's replies on live channels are off." (Turn on replies); the agent has no published version, is paused or is set to Off (staff replies) (Open Agents); "Main Aria needs setup." (Set up Aria); the agent doesn't answer customers in chat (choose another agent).
Reasons about the location's rules and sending: "This location has no approved response policy for live replies." (Approve Aria's rules); the policy is Off (staff replies), doesn't allow replies, or doesn't allow answering people who message first (Open response policy); "Pause all sending is on." (Open sending controls).
Each visitor chat arrives in Intake as a Website chat conversation from "Website visitor", under the widget's location, and moves to the Inbox by the usual rules. Your team can read it, add internal notes and take it over, but replies to a visitor can't be sent from QualiFlow: use the phone number or email they gave.
If a visitor types one new phone number or email that nobody in your workspace has, QualiFlow creates an unverified contact with no consent recorded. If the detail already belongs to a contact, it is never linked automatically; link it in Intake.
Possible issues and fixes
We published the chat, but visitors don't see the bubble
Symptom: Your website shows no chat button.
Why: The widget is back in Draft after a save, Live on your website says Not yet, the page's address isn't under Website access (another subdomain or a staging site counts as a different address), the embed code isn't on that page, or the page loaded within 30 seconds of publishing.
Fix: Follow the steps above: publish, clear every Not yet reason, check the address list, confirm the embed code, wait 30 seconds and reload.
How to check: In a private window the bubble shows in the corner you chose, and the greeting appears when you open it. The Live preview doesn't prove the live website works.
Visitors can chat, but nobody answers
Symptom: A visitor's message gets no reply, or they see "We could not confirm this message was sent."
Why: Pause all sending is on, or the widget went off the website while their chat was open (unpublished, or the agent paused). Staff can't reply in website chat.
Fix: In Settings → Go-live checklist → Safety controls, select Resume sending. Check Live on your website says Yes. Contact the visitor by the phone or email they gave.
How to check: A new test message from your website gets Aria's reply.
A visitor's chat ended or says it is unavailable
Symptom: The visitor sees "This chat session expired. Reload it." or "This conversation reached its message limit. Contact the business directly."
Why: A chat stops after 30 minutes without the visitor opening it or sending a message, and one conversation takes up to 50 messages.
Fix: Ask the visitor to reload the page to start a new chat, or contact them by phone or email.
How to check: After reloading, the chat opens with the greeting.
