Am I using live chat or messaging?

Question

Am I using live chat or messaging? What are the differences between the Web Widget and the Web Widget (Classic)? How can I choose between these two different products?

Answer

Your widget and settings are in different locations depending on:

Your plan

If you use Agent Workspace or the standard agent interface

If you use live chat or messaging

To determine which feature you use, see the sections below:

Understanding your plan

Understanding your interface

Are you using messaging in the Agent Workspace?

Are you using live chat in the standard agent interface?

Are you using live chat in Agent Workspace?

Choosing between the two widgets

Understanding your plan

You need billing admin or owner access to view plan settings and identify your plan type.

A Suite Team plan or higher has access to use Agent Workspace with either live chat or messaging.

An older Chat Team plan has access to the standard agent interface and live chat.

Understanding your interface

If you use the Agent Workspace, the UI looks like this:

If you use the standard agent interface, which is the previous experience that does not allow for messaging, the UI looks like this:

Are you using messaging in the Agent Workspace?

To understand if you are currently using the Web Widget, compare your widget to see if the appearance is similar to the image below:

If your widget doesn't look like the images above, you probably use the Web Widget with custom code or a different type of widget. To compare the widget options, see the articles: Which Zendesk widget do I have with my account and website?

Messaging requires you to enable Agent Workspace. Likewise in live chat in the Agent Workspace, your agents work in the Support interface.

Note: New Zendesk instances have Messaging enabled by default and can no longer opt out of Messaging. Existing customers who were using legacy Chat before Messaging became the default may still request an opt‑out through Zendesk Customer Support for review and approval.

Within Agent Workspace, you set your status for messaging from the top of your interface seen here on the right.

If your account has omnichannel routing enabled, routing happens differently, and you set your agent status from your profile instead.

Most accounts with messaging use the Web Widget, or embed social messaging across multiple social media channels

To check if you are using messaging and its Web Widget, in Admin Center, click Channels in the sidebar

When you use messaging, the widget settings are under Messaging and social > Messaging

These settings control the elements for Web Widget and messaging

If you have messaging, you also set up messaging triggers in Admin Center instead of triggers on the Chat dashboard

For an overview of the messaging settings within the agent workspace, see the video below:

Are you using live chat in the standard agent interface?

With live chat in the standard agent interface, your agents serve chats and set their online status from the Chat dashboard. To open the dashboard, use the products icon.

For most live chat accounts, you use the Web Widget (Classic) to embed chat on your website. Compare your account's widget to the images below to see if you currently use Web Widget (Classic).

For an overview of the interface in live chat in the standard agent interface, watch the video below:

Are you using live chat in Agent Workspace?

If you use the Web Widget (Classic) of live chat, the installed widget appears this way:

Agent Workspace moves the live chat channel to the Support interface and changes the location of specific settings for agents.

Within Agent Workspace, you set your status for live chat from the top of your interface.

If your account has omnichannel routing enabled, routing happens differently, and you set your agent status from your profile instead.

If you use the Web Widget (Classic) to embed chat on your website, it displays in the same way as in the Web Widget (Classic) in the standard agent interface.

Choosing between the two widgets

Messaging serves social messaging, AI and bot integration. However, if you simply want to connect your help center and live chat, use live chat. Live chat is a legacy product.

Note: If you have a newer account with messaging by default, you cannot turn off messaging.

For more information on the two widgets, see this article: Comparing the Zendesk Web Widgets.