# Chat Management: Settings > Set and communicate reliable support expectations with your customers. Source: https://kustomer.kustomer.help/en_us/settings-B1sdKbtz7 Last updated: 2026-06-30T16:36:02.706Z Set and communicate reliable support expectations with your customers. With Kustomer chat, you have control over each brand's chat settings and functionality. Choose when, where, and how your teams connect with customers over chat. In this article, we'll explore the main chat settings available in chat and how you can do the following for each brand: * Turn on chat settings * Tailor the chat support experience * Set chat widget business hours availability * Add a fallback email for missed chats * Assign a conversational assistant **Who can access this feature?** **User types** Admins can access chat settings. ### In this article * [Access chat settings](#access) * [Turn on chat for a brand](#enable-chat) * [Typing indicators](#typing-indicators) * [Synchronous chat settings](#synchronous-chat-settings) * [URL unfurling](#url-unfurling) * [Fallback email](#fallback-email) * [Business hours availability](#business-hours-availability) * [Default assistant](#default-assistant) ### ### Access chat settings To access the chat settings, go to **Apps![](https://cdn.kustomerhostedcontent.com/media/570fad9d9001bc1000163b28/36ceb1a9558fd45f76b419f5490cf883.png)****\>** **Chat** and then go to the **Settings** tab. ### Turn on chat for a brand Chat is turned on by default when you create a brand. This means the chat widget will be available for that brand's website. You can turn chat off for a specific brand by navigating to the Chat page, selecting the brand from the drop-down menu, and turning the Chat toggle off. ![](https://cdn.kustomerhostedcontent.com/media/570fad9d9001bc1000163b28/3f3908e0de29d4e4f12646a10b86eb7c.png) ### Typing indicators Typing indicators signal when the person on the other side of the chat is typing a response. With chat, you can provide typing indicators for agents, customers, or both. ![Chat Management: Settings, Typing Indicators, for Kustomer Chat 2.0.](https://cdn.kustomerhostedcontent.com/media/570fad9d9001bc1000163b28/b19a30bc851cb589b316d77798b8407c.png) **Note:** Typing indicators are also available in the [Kustomer Chat Mobile SDKs](https://developer.kustomer.com/chat-sdk/docs/welcome) for iOS and Android. ### Synchronous chat settings You can configure real-time chat settings to end customer chats to experience more synchronous chats with your customers. **Allow customers to end chats** Select the **Allow chats to be ended** option to allow customers to select **End Chat** in the chat widget to end a chat immediately for the customer and the agent. When a customer ends the chat, the widget notifies the agent that the conversation has ended. **Note:** This setting only controls whether customers can end a chat. Agents in Kustomer can always choose to end a conversation (subject to their permissions). ![Chat Management: Settings, Allow Chats to be Ended, for Kustomer Chat 2.0.](https://cdn.kustomerhostedcontent.com/media/570fad9d9001bc1000163b28/e04dce740b8cc63ca0d63f9dd67cb787.gif) Kustomer automatically completes and logs conversations ended by the customer without agent action. When a conversation is marked done in Kustomer, the Ended value for the conversation is set to True and customers must start a new conversation to request additional support. For a customer to be able to reopen their chat conversation, the value for Ended must be updated from True to False in Kustomer. ![Chat Management: Settings, Allow Chats to be Ended, for Kustomer Chat 2.0.](https://cdn.kustomerhostedcontent.com/media/570fad9d9001bc1000163b28/846c1747138ab6c3662f6d0a1d76f132.png) **Restrict to single open chat** Select **Restrict to single open chat** to ensure customers have only one chat open at a time. This means that a customer won't be able to open a second chat if they already have a chat open with an agent. **Note:** Select **Allow chats to be ended** to make this option available. **Hide chat history** By default, customers can see their previous chat history if Kustomer can identify them through their email address or other criteria you pass through the API. Select **Hide chat history** to hide the previous chat history from view for the customer. This option removes the current chat from the widget once the agent or customer closes the chat. **Note:** Select both **Allow chats to be ended** and **Restrict to single open chat** to make this option available. **Hide attachments button** Select the **Hide attachments** button to prevent customers from sending attachments in a chat message. **Display "Bot" as a note underneath automated messages** This option displays the word Bot underneath messages sent by the assistant to disclose to your customers that they are not speaking to a person. ![](https://cdn.kustomerhostedcontent.com/media/570fad9d9001bc1000163b28/6be4d61a2fd696501658d83f09e9cfab.png) For additional tips on how to disclose that your conversational assistant is not a person, see our [best practices article](https://help.kustomer.com/best-practices-conversational-assistant-B1NCgLbJq#disclose). ### URL unfurling By default, a URL sent via chat will unfurl in the chat message. Unfurling can show the following, depending on how your store/application is configured: * The item page's title. * A description of the item from the item's page. * An image of the item from the item's page. * The item's price, from the item's page. For a preview to display correctly, the linked page needs to have metadata tags set up in its HTML. These are standard tags that tell Kustomer what title, image, description, and price to show. If the page doesn't have these tags, the preview may appear with no image, a generic title, or not at all. **Note:** These tags are set up on the page itself, not in Kustomer. If your store uses a platform like Shopify or WooCommerce, these tags are often added automatically. If you're not sure whether your pages are set up correctly, check with whoever manages your website. If previews still aren't appearing after confirming your tags are in place, your website administrator may also need to allow the Kustomer unfurler through your site's crawler settings. To toggle URL unfurling, scroll to **URL unfurling** and toggle on or off to **Enable URL unfurling**. When messages contain multiple links, they can be grouped together in chat. These grouped URLs are scrollable on mobile and desktop, presenting a carousel experience where customers can scroll and choose the item they want. Tick **Group multiple unfurled URLs** to turn this grouping experience on or off. This option is on by default. **Note:** If a URL doesn't generate a preview, the message still sends as a plain link. For full technical details on controlling what appears in previews, see [Customizing link previews](https://developer.kustomer.com/chat-sdk/v2.0-Web/docs/customizing-link-previews-with-url-unfurling) in the developer documentation. ### Fallback email Automatically deliver agent messages over email when a customer is inactive on chat. Select a fallback email address to send the agent message from when a customer leaves chat before the conversation is completed or the customer is inactive. When the Fallback Email setting is turned on, Kustomer Chat will send any missed messages to the customer if they are inactive for over 5 minutes. ![Chat Management: Settings, Fallback Email, for Kustomer Chat 2.0.](https://cdn.kustomerhostedcontent.com/media/570fad9d9001bc1000163b28/39cb867f10d79f795752af826939f73b.png) **Note:** You cannot edit the fallback email template and its contents at this time. ### Business hours availability **Note:** Define business hours for your brand with [business schedules](https://help.kustomer.com/business-schedules-SJj3ZxD1E) to use this setting. You can create up to 50 individual business schedules for the regions where you provide customer support. If you have business hours defined for your brand, you can decide how your chat icon (the icon customers use to open the chat widget) appears for customers outside of your set business hours. ![Chat Management: Settings, Business Hours Availability, for Kustomer Chat 2.0.](https://cdn.kustomerhostedcontent.com/media/570fad9d9001bc1000163b28/8601f2ededd5959d9e132b64b55eef67.png) **Appear Available** Select **Appear Available** to keep your chat icon available on your website outside of your set business hours. When customers open your chat outside of business hours, the chat widget displays your [Available Online Greeting](https://kustomer.kustomer.help/chat-design-Skgvx4KQf#team-info) and allows customers to create new conversations from the chat. The chat widget remains visible on your website but displays in an offline state. Customers can still submit messages through the widget — their submission creates a conversation in Kustomer. Use this setting when your team is unavailable to respond in real time but you still want to accept messages for follow-up. **Appear Offline** Select **Appear Offline** to keep your chat icon available on your site and to display your available offline greeting outside of your business hours. Learn how to create an offline chat greeting and prompt customers to leave a message with [Chat Management: Design](https://kustomer.kustomer.help/chat-design-Skgvx4KQf#team-info) settings. **Chat History** **Note:** Even when the chat history setting is turned off, customers may still see messages from their current session while they remain on the same webpage. This is expected behavior. The chat widget retains visible history only for the duration of the active session on a single page. When a customer navigates to a new webpage, the widget refreshes and the displayed chat history is cleared. This behavior is consistent with how the Kustomer Chat SDK and widget are designed to work — history is session-scoped and does not persist across page navigations or full page reloads by default. **Hide Chat** Select **Hide Chat** to remove the chat icon from your site outside of your business hours. Removing the chat prevents customers from opening chat to chat with your agents or conversational assistant. The chat widget is fully hidden from your website. Customers cannot see it or submit any messages. Use this setting when you want to completely prevent new inbound chat contact during a specific period. **Note: There are two exceptions to the Hide Chat behavior:** * **Active session:** If a customer opened the chat widget before the end of business hours, they can continue sending messages for the duration of that browser session. The chat icon will be hidden if the customer refreshes their browser or navigates to a new page. * **Existing open conversation:** If a customer already has an open conversation, they can still access the chat form and send messages outside of business hours, even when Hide Chat is enabled. This is expected behavior. The Hide Chat setting prevents new customers from initiating contact — it does not block customers who have an active open conversation. ### **Compare availability settings** **Setting** **Widget visible to customer** **Customer can submit a message** **Conversation created in Kustomer** Appear Available Yes Yes Yes Appear Offline Yes (offline state) Yes Yes Hide Chat No No No **Note:** If you want to prevent customers from submitting messages outside of business hours, use **Hide Chat** — not Appear Offline. Appear Offline still accepts message submissions. ### Chat availability by time zone Kustomer provides the ability to set the availability of your chat widget for multiple regions and time zones. After you define the [business schedule](https://help.kustomer.com/business-schedules-SJj3ZxD1E#Multiple) for a particular region, your developer team can use the `schedule` attribute to include the individual ID for the schedule in your `Kustomer.start()` function. You also can override the default business schedule. For more information, see the [Kustomer Chat SDKs](http://developer.kustomer.com/chat-sdk/docs). ### On Android, you can initialize the chat with options to [override the business schedule id.](https://developer.kustomer.com/chat-sdk/v2-Android/docs/override-business-schedule-id) On iOS, you can use the **businessScheduleId** option on chat initialization to pass in a specific business schedule. See [Chat iOS SDK](https://developer.kustomer.com/chat-sdk/v2-iOS/docs/configuration). ### Testing business schedules It's important to confirm that business schedules (and any configured routing) are working as intended. Here is a quick method to test: 1. Create a business schedule that begins and ends during the hour you are testing. 2. Assign this schedule to your chat widget's business hours availability. 3. Send a message before your schedule begins, during your schedule's operating hours, and after the operating hours. ![](https://cdn.kustomerhostedcontent.com/media/570fad9d9001bc1000163b28/30bd8e8c818b533f4b942b71b62d32ae.png) In this screenshot, Monday's hours are set from 8:15 AM - 8:30 AM. Assign this test schedule to a chat channel and then send messages to see how it responds and whether any adjustments need to be made. The same testing method works for holiday scheduling. From your test business schedule, click the **Holidays** tab and then **Add a holiday**. Give your holiday a name, a description, and select today's date. Assign the business schedule with this test holiday to your chat channel, and you can test how your channel responds to incoming messages. ****Note:**** If a customer loads the chat widget before business hours end, they can still send messages after hours. The availability setting controls whether the widget appears for new page loads, but does not disconnect active sessions. ### Default assistant You can assign a default conversational assistant for each channel and brand by going to **Settings![](https://cdn.kustomerhostedcontent.com/media/570fad9d9001bc1000163b28/9ddeb3fd952785cf8c0a9dfe10b60179.png)****\> Kustomer IQ > Conversational Assistants**. Select the **Rules** tab to see a list of available conversational assistants for the available channels. Your chat widget will automatically implement the selected assistant for chats unless you have another assistant specified in the Chat SDK. ![](https://cdn.kustomerhostedcontent.com/media/570fad9d9001bc1000163b28/3071eabaa397f75f74c7ddc1dbfca213.png) Learn more about [conversational assistants](https://kustomer.kustomer.help/introduction-conversational-assistants-BkgBYEbLw) in Kustomer. Learn more about conversational assistant overrides in the [Kustomer Chat SDK](http://developer.kustomer.com/chat-sdk/docs) developer documentation.