Help Center Live Chat (Messenger)

Live Chat (Messenger)

Features Updated Apr 27, 2026

Overview

Live Chat lets you or your team members chat with visitors in real time directly from the Relio dashboard. When a visitor asks to speak to a human, the AI continues the conversation while you receive a notification. You can then join the chat, respond, and close the session when done.

Live Chat is built on top of Human Agent Handoff. Handoff creates the lead and collects visitor info; Live Chat adds real-time messaging on top of that.

Requirements

Requirement Detail
Plan Advanced, Boost, or 2Performant Partner
Human Agent Handoff Must be enabled first (Live Chat is a sub-feature of Handoff)
Working hours Must be configured so the system knows when your team is available

Live Chat is not available on the Free or Starter plans. Users on those plans still get lead capture through Handoff, but cannot join real-time conversations.

Enabling Live Chat

  1. Go to Chatbot > Features
  2. Scroll to Customer Support
  3. Enable Human Agent Handoff (the parent toggle)
  4. Check the Live Chat checkbox that appears below the Handoff settings
  5. Select your timezone
  6. Configure your working hours for each day of the week
  7. Click Save

Working Hours

Working hours determine when live chat requests are accepted. Outside these hours, visitors who ask for a human are informed that the team is offline, and the AI continues helping them.

You configure working hours per day:

  • Check the box next to a day to mark it as open
  • Set the start time and end time (e.g., 09:00 to 18:00)
  • Unchecked days are treated as closed (e.g., weekends)

All times are based on the timezone you select in the Live Chat settings (e.g., Europe/Bucharest, America/New_York).

Tip: If your team is not available on a given day, simply uncheck it. The AI will inform visitors that the team is offline and continue assisting them.

What Visitors See

Here is what happens from the visitor's perspective:

  1. Visitor asks for a human in the chat widget
  2. The chatbot shows a lead form (name, email, optional phone)
  3. After submitting, a live chat session is created
  4. The visitor sees a message that their request has been sent
  5. The AI keeps chatting while waiting for an agent to join
  6. When an agent joins, a system message appears: "{Agent Name} joined this conversation"
  7. The visitor and agent can now exchange messages in real time
  8. When the agent ends the session, a system message confirms it: "{Agent Name} has left the conversation. Our AI assistant is here to help you."
  9. The AI resumes handling the conversation

Important: Visitors are never left without a response. The AI fills the gap before and after live chat.

The Messenger Dashboard

The Messenger page is your live chat control center. Access it from the left sidebar in the Relio admin dashboard.

Layout

The Messenger uses a 3-column layout:

Column Content
Left Session list with status filters (All, Pending, Active, Ended)
Center Chat thread showing AI conversation history and live messages
Right Visitor details: name, email, phone, session status, products discussed

On mobile, the layout switches to a single-column view with navigation between the list and the chat.

Session Filters

Use the tabs at the top of the session list to filter:

  • All: Shows pending + active + recently ended sessions (last 24 hours)
  • Pending: Sessions waiting for an agent to join
  • Active: Sessions currently in progress
  • Ended: Completed, declined, or expired sessions

AI Conversation History

When you select a session, the center column first shows the full AI conversation that happened before the visitor requested a human. This gives you context about what the visitor was asking about and which products were discussed.

A dashed line separates the AI history from the live chat messages.

Actions

Depending on the session status, you can:

  • Join: Accept a pending session and start chatting
  • Decline: Decline a pending session (the visitor is informed that the team is unavailable, and the AI resumes)
  • End Conversation: Close an active session

Session Lifecycle

Each live chat session goes through these states:

Status Description
Pending Visitor requested a human; waiting for an agent. Shown with a red pulsing dot.
Active An agent has joined and is chatting. Shown with a green dot.
Ended The agent ended the conversation. Shown with a gray dot.
Declined The agent declined the request. The AI informs the visitor and continues.
Expired The session timed out without an agent joining.

When a session is declined or expires, the visitor receives a translated message: "Our team is currently unable to join. Our AI assistant will continue helping you."

Notifications

When a visitor requests live chat, you receive:

  • Email notification: Sent to the account owner (and any team members with notifications enabled). The email includes the visitor's name, email, phone, and a direct link to the session in Messenger.
  • Sound alert: The Messenger page plays a notification sound when a new pending session appears.
  • Badge counter: A red "X pending" badge appears in the session list header.

Email notifications respect your Notification Settings (Account > Notification Settings). If lead notifications are disabled, you will not receive live chat emails either.

Multi-Language Support

System messages shown to visitors during live chat (like "Agent joined" or "Team unavailable") are automatically translated to match your site's language.

Supported languages include: English, Romanian, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Russian, Ukrainian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Greek, Turkish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Arabic.

The translation is based on your site's primary language setting. The admin dashboard always shows system messages in English for consistency.

Team Members & Live Chat

Team members with any role (Support or Administrator) can access the Messenger and handle live chat sessions. When a team member joins a session, their display name and avatar are shown to the visitor.

This means you can delegate live chat to your support team without giving them access to billing, products, or other admin settings.