Conversation Starters

Learn how conversation starters help you proactively engage visitors in the chat widget.

Conversation starters help you proactively engage visitors in the chat widget. They can open the widget, show a message, ask a question, or start a specific scenario when a visitor does something on your website.

Use conversation starters to create timely, helpful experiences such as:

• welcoming visitors on important pages

• offering help after a visitor has been inactive

• guiding visitors who abandon a form

• routing visitors to the right scenario based on availability or page context

• showing an attention seeker without immediately opening the chat

Conversation starters only run when they are published. Draft conversation starters are saved in Ebbot, but they are not active in the chat widget.

How conversation starters work

A conversation starter has two main parts:

Part	What it controls
When	The visitor behavior, chat state, or availability condition that must happen first.
Action	What the chat widget should do when the conditions are met.

A conversation starter can also start a scenario. The widget action and the scenario are independent, which means you can use one, the other, or both.

For example, a conversation starter can:

• show an attention seeker only

• open the chat and start a scenario

• start a scenario without showing a visible widget action

• show an attention seeker and start the scenario only after the visitor confirms

Conditions

A conversation starter runs when all configured conditions are met.

If you add multiple conditions, they are combined with AND logic. This means every condition must match before the conversation starter can run.

Visitor and page conditions

Condition	When it runs	Good to know
User opens chat	When the visitor opens the chat widget.	Useful for starting a flow when the visitor chooses to open the chat.
User closes chat	When the visitor closes or minimizes the chat widget.	Useful for follow-up prompts or reminders.
User visits page	When the current page URL matches your configured URL rules.	Supports URL rules such as contains, equals, starts with, and excludes.
User clicks on button	When the visitor clicks an element that matches one of your CSS selectors.	If the selector is invalid, the conversation starter will not run.
User scrolls on page	When the visitor scrolls past the configured percentage of the page.	For example, 50 means more than halfway down the page.
User is inactive	When the visitor has not interacted with the page for the configured time.	The timer resets when the visitor moves the mouse, touches the screen, clicks, or types. Uses seconds.
User leaves a form	When the visitor leaves a matching form field and stays away for the configured time.	This is based on leaving a form field, not submitting the form. Uses seconds.
User interacted with bot	When the chat has been initialized.	Useful when a conversation starter should only be available after the chat has started.

Agent availability conditions

Condition	When it runs	Good to know
Agent is available	When agents are available.	Can be limited to one or more specific skills.
Agent is unavailable	When no agents are available.	Can be limited to one or more specific skills.

Conversation inactivity conditions

Conversation inactivity conditions are tied to both the current conversation status and the latest conversation activity. A new message or other conversation activity can move the timer forward.

Condition	Conversation status	When it runs	Good to know
Chat is inactive while user waiting queue	Visitor is waiting in queue	When the visitor is waiting in queue and enough time has passed since the latest conversation activity.	Opening or closing the widget does not reset this timer. Uses seconds.
Chat is inactive in agent conversation	Conversation is handled by an agent	When the conversation is handled by an agent and enough time has passed since the latest conversation activity.	Opening or closing the widget does not reset this timer. Uses seconds.
Chat is inactive	Any active, non-closed conversation except the queue and agent-handled states above	Most commonly used for ongoing bot conversations.	Opening or closing the widget does not reset this timer. Uses seconds.

How inactivity timers behave

Inactivity timers use the latest conversation activity together with the current conversation status.

This means:

• opening or closing the widget does not reset conversation inactivity timers

• a new message or other conversation activity can move the timer forward

• if the conversation status changes, the timeout is recalculated

• inactivity settings use seconds, not minutes

The general User is inactive condition works differently. It responds to recent page activity signals, such as mouse movement, touch, clicks, and typing, to decide whether the conversation starter should run. These signals are not saved as an activity history. Because opening or closing the chat involves a click, it can reset the User is inactive timer.

Actions

Choose what the chat widget should do when the conversation starter runs.

Action	What it does	Good to know
Do nothing	No visible widget action is performed.	If a scenario is configured, the scenario can still run.
Open	Opens the chat widget if it is not already open.	Useful when you want the visitor to enter the chat immediately.
Show attention seeker with message	Shows a short message outside the chat widget.	Can include options such as image, auto-hide timing, close button visibility, avatar visibility, and device targeting.
Show attention seeker with question	Shows a message with confirm and ignore options.	The selected scenario starts only when the visitor confirms.
Show attention seeker with quick replies	Shows a message with one or more buttons.	Buttons can start a scenario, open a URL, or close the attention seeker.
Show attention seeker with rating	Shows a rating prompt.	Ratings can be shown as stars or emoji.
Show attention seeker with input	Lets the visitor enter a response directly in the attention seeker.	Can include placeholder text, an input scenario, and a follow-up action after the input is completed.

Attention seeker options

Depending on the selected action, you can customize how the attention seeker looks and behaves.

Option	What it does
Delay	Waits the configured number of seconds before showing the attention seeker.
Image	Shows an image together with the attention seeker.
Hide close button	Removes the close button from the attention seeker.
Display on device	Controls whether the attention seeker is shown on desktop, mobile, or both.
Hide attention seeker after	Automatically hides the attention seeker after the configured number of seconds.
Hide attention seeker avatar	Hides the avatar in the attention seeker.

Starting scenarios

A conversation starter can start a scenario when it runs.

The action and the scenario are separate settings. You can show something in the widget, start a scenario, or do both.

Important behavior to know:

• Show attention seeker with question does not start the scenario immediately. The scenario starts only when the visitor confirms.

• If the selected scenario is a close-chat scenario, the conversation ends instead of continuing.

Frequency

Use frequency settings to control how often a conversation starter can run.

Setting	What it means
Once every page load	The conversation starter can run again after the visitor reloads the page or visits another page.
Once per session	The conversation starter only runs once during the visitor's chat session.

General settings

Setting	What it does
Disable all other conversation starters after this one	Stops any other conversation starters from running during the same session after this one has run.
Do not run if conversation is active	Prevents the conversation starter from running when there is already an active conversation.
Do not run if conversation is handled by agent	Prevents the conversation starter from running when the conversation is currently handled by an agent.
Publish conversation starter	Makes the conversation starter active in the chat widget.

Best practices

Start with a small number of conversation starters on your most important pages. This makes it easier to understand which prompts help visitors and which ones may feel interruptive.

• Keep messages short and helpful.

• Use delays to avoid interrupting visitors too quickly.

• Use device targeting when a prompt is better suited for desktop or mobile.

• Use Do not run if conversation is active for prompts that should only appear before a conversation starts.

• Use Disable all other conversation starters after this one for high-priority prompts that should take over the session.