SalesThumb gives you two ways to chat with people from the web. Whatever they send comes straight into your Inbox as a Web Chat conversation, and anything you reply from the Inbox shows up back in their chat window within a few seconds.
- A chat bubble on your own website: set it up under Settings → Website chat. You paste one line of code into your site, choose how the bubble looks and greets visitors, and can turn on the AI receptionist.
- A shareable chat link: a public, no-login chat page you can send customers to directly.
The chat bubble: Settings → Website chat
This is the way to put chat on every page of your site:
- Go to Settings → Website chat and make sure the switch says Chat is on.
- Click Copy code.
- Paste the line just before the closing </body> tag on every page of your website, or into your site builder's "custom code" box.
The same page lets you set the name and photo shown in chat, the greeting, the pop-up line next to the bubble, color, theme and corner. You can also ask visitors for a phone or email after their first message. And on the Growth plan and up, you can let the AI receptionist answer chats. Make a new code replaces your code. The old one stops working until you paste in the new one.
For every setting, see Adding a chat bubble to your own website.
The shareable link: Settings → Integrations → Public URLs
Every shop also has a public chat page. Go to Settings → Integrations and look for the Public URLs card, alongside your other shareable pages (virtual business card, online booking page, front desk kiosk). The Web Chat Widget row shows the description "Send customers here to chat, or iframe it on your site," the full link, and buttons to copy it or open it in a new tab. That link is unique to your shop. Put it in your email signature, a QR code, a text message, or your site's contact page.
What a customer sees on the shareable link
Opening the link shows a simple chat screen: a header ("Chat with us," with a note that you typically reply within a few minutes), a message thread, and a text box at the bottom. They type a message and hit Enter (or tap send) to start the conversation. There's a generous per-message length limit, so it stays a chat, not a form submission. The page remembers that visitor's conversation in their browser, so if they refresh or come back later on the same device and browser, they land back in the same thread instead of starting over. Switching devices or browsers, or clearing site data, starts a fresh conversation. While they wait for a reply, the page checks for new messages every few seconds, so your responses show up without them needing to refresh.
Replying from the Inbox
New web chat conversations show up in your Inbox as their own thread, tagged Web Chat (with its own icon and color) so you can tell them apart from SMS, email, and your other connected channels at a glance. A visitor who hasn't shared who they are opens in a simpler view than a regular customer thread: just the message transcript and a reply box, without the customer profile header or the AI-suggested-reply tools that depend on a known customer. Type your reply and send it the same way you would any other Inbox message. It's delivered back to that visitor's open chat window on their next check-in.
Things to know
- Both the bubble and the link are public by design. Anyone who lands on your site or has the link can open a chat, so treat them like any other public contact channel.
- The shareable link page doesn't ask for a name, phone number, or email, so those conversations start out anonymous and won't automatically match an existing customer. The chat bubble can ask for a phone or email after the first message. A visitor who shares new contact info becomes a customer and a lead.
- Contact info shared in a chat is never consent to text. Get the customer's permission before texting them.
- Both enforce their own message-length and request-rate limits behind the scenes to keep them from being abused. A normal back-and-forth conversation won't run into them.
- If the shareable link is broken or doesn't match a real shop, visitors see a simple "this chat isn't available" message rather than an error page. If you turn the bubble off, it simply doesn't show on your site.
Frequently asked questions
Q: How do I put a chat bubble on every page of my website?
A: Go to Settings → Website chat, click Copy code, and paste the line just before the closing </body> tag on every page, or into your site builder's custom code box.
Q: Do I still need the link from Public URLs?
A: Only if you want to send people straight to a chat page, for example from an email signature, a QR code or a text. For your website, use the chat bubble from Settings → Website chat.
Q: Do customers need to create an account or log in to chat?
A: No. Both the bubble and the link are public and need no sign-in. Visitors can start typing right away.
Q: Will a web chat conversation get matched to an existing customer's profile?
A: Not automatically. Chats from the shareable link start anonymous. If a bubble visitor shares contact info that matches a customer you already have, you confirm it from the Inbox.
Q: Where do I reply to a web chat message?
A: In your Inbox, same as SMS or email. The thread is labeled "Web Chat" so you can spot it. Replies you send there go straight back to that visitor's open chat window.
Q: What happens if a customer refreshes the chat page or comes back later?
A: On the same browser and device, they'll land back in the same conversation instead of starting a new one. Opening the link on a different device or browser, or clearing their browser data, starts a new conversation.