Migrating from live chat to messaging

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<p id="docs-hc-snippet" style="display: none;">Zendesk's own messaging functionality allows you to deliver rich, modern, and automated conversation experiences on your website and mobile apps.</p>
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<p class="p" dir="ltr">Zendesk's own messaging functionality allows you to deliver rich, modern, and
automated conversation experiences on your website and mobile apps. </p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">This article describes how to migrate your account from Zendesk live chat to
messaging.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">This article includes the following sections:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic-1__ul_mct_b21_bhb">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_c1g_2fq_wnb">Pre-migration tasks</a></li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr"><a class="xref" href="#topic_m1x_qhq_nkb">Preparing for migration</a></li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr"><a class="xref" href="#topic_cyn_4lq_nkb">Migrating from live chat to messaging</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_lwk_2xq_nkb">After the migration</a></li>
</ul>
<p class="p">Related articles:</p>
<div class="p">
<ul class="ul" id="topic-1__ul_stf_syv_1qb">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408846454682" target="_blank">About messaging</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408832031898" target="_blank">Setting up Web Widget for messaging</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_c1g_2fq_wnb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">Pre-migration tasks</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Before starting the migration process, we recommend you do the following: </p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_c1g_2fq_wnb__ul_ofl_cwc_zpb">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Evaluate your account</strong>. Use our checklist to determine whether your account is in
good shape for migrating to messaging. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408838065434" target="_blank">Evaluating your account for migration from live chat to
messaging</a>.</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<strong class="ph b">Compare messaging and live chat</strong>. Messaging and Zendesk Chat share many
of the same capabilities, and messaging offers features that aren’t available in Zendesk
Chat. For a complete assessment of feature parity, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408834108186" target="_blank">Why migrating from live chat to messaging is the right choice</a>. </li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<strong class="ph b">Understand how migrating to messaging may impact your workflow</strong>. If you
set up messaging to adopt the live chat conversational style there are minimal impact to
your workflows. If you choose to adopt other conversational styles there is a possibility
your workflows could be affected. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408846454682" target="_blank">About conversational support with messaging</a>.</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<strong class="ph b">Review how messaging impacts your functionality.</strong> Activating messaging
can impact features across your account, including the Web Widget, mobile SDKs, automated
conversations, and Agent Workspace. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408832031898#topic_nbq_ftm_jnb" target="_blank">Understanding how activating messaging changes your
account</a>. </li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<strong class="ph b">Learn about automated conversations</strong>. When you migrate to messaging, an
AI agent can be your first responder for customer requests. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408824263578" target="_blank">Creating an AI agent for your web and mobile channels</a>. </li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested1" id="topic_m1x_qhq_nkb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title3">Preparing for migration</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Before migrating, we recommend taking the time to make sure your account meets the
requirements for using messaging, take a look at your customer service needs, and prepare
your agents for their new work environment.</p>
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<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title4" class="topic nested2" id="topic_dxj_p3d_zpb">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title4">Checking your account requirements</h3>
<div class="body">
<div class="p">
<div class="div">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">If your account meets the requirements for using messaging, you'll see
an in-product message on your account's Channels page in the Admin Center.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">To migrate to messaging, you <em class="ph i">must</em> have an account with:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_dxj_p3d_zpb__ul_sp1_r3d_zpb">
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Zendesk Suite OR Support + Chat (Team plan or higher) with the Agent
Workspace activated. See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4581758611866" target="_blank">Activating and deactivating the Zendesk Agent Workspace</a>.
</li>
</ul>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Before migrating to messaging, we <em class="ph i">recommend</em> you have an account
with:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_dxj_p3d_zpb__ul_tp1_r3d_zpb">
<li class="li" dir="ltr">An active help center, with at least 10 articles that cover
commonly-asked questions.<div class="note note">
<span class="notetitle">Note:</span> A help center is <em class="ph i">required</em> if you plan to <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408821281818#topic_ewc_cmf_j4b" target="_blank">reference help center content</a> in AI agent
responses.</div>
</li>
</ul>
See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408846454682" target="_blank">About conversational support with messaging</a> for
more information.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title5" class="topic nested2" id="topic_yqs_p3d_zpb">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title5">Preparing your agents for messaging</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Share the links below with your agents, to introduce them to messaging and how
their workflows may change.</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_yqs_p3d_zpb__ul_ztd_z3d_zpb">
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408821905434" target="_blank">Agent Workspace for messaging</a> introduces agents
to their main screen, where they’ll be interacting with customers in real time, as well
as working with Support tickets. </li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408824482586" target="_blank">Managing conversation handoff and handback</a>
explains how messaging conversations are passed from AI agents to human agents, as well
as how and when a conversation ends.</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408832500506" target="_blank">Translating conversations in the Zendesk Agent
Workspace</a> explains the automatic translation feature, how it works and how
agents can manage it. </li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title6" class="topic nested1" id="topic_cyn_4lq_nkb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title6">Migrating from live chat to messaging</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">When you’re ready, you can begin the move from live chat to messaging. In this
section, we’ll offer a high-level guide to the tasks you may need to perform to migrate to
and set up messaging. Use the links below for detailed information and specific
instructions.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Note that you can <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408835784602" target="_blank">test how your messaging configuration performs</a> before launching it
in your production instance.</p>
<div class="p" dir="ltr">
<div class="note important">
<span class="importanttitle">Important:</span> If you are converting a Web Widget (Classic) over to the messaging
Web Widget, any active live chats will end and any in-progress tickets will remain
pending. Before doing so, we recommend that you close out any active live chats, take
agents offline, be aware of any pending tickets, and consider making this change in an
off-peak period.</div>
</div>
<div class="p">
<ol class="ol" id="topic_cyn_4lq_nkb__ol_nqf_gjd_zpb">
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408832031898" target="_blank">Activate messaging at the account level</a>. </li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408832031898#topic_tgg_5xj_knb" target="_blank">Update your Chat settings</a> to ensure a smooth
transition from live chat to messaging </li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Make sure your tickets get to your agents: <ul class="ul" id="topic_cyn_4lq_nkb__ul_oqf_gjd_zpb">
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408821752346" target="_blank">Organize agents into groups</a>
</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408829019162" target="_blank">Configure ticket routing</a>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Activate messaging on your channels: <ul class="ul" id="topic_cyn_4lq_nkb__ul_pqf_gjd_zpb">
<li class="li" dir="ltr"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408828655514" target="_blank">Working with messaging in the Web Widget
</a></li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408834810394" target="_blank">Working with messaging in your Android and iOS
apps</a>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title7" class="topic nested1" id="topic_lwk_2xq_nkb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title7">After the migration</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Messaging is functional as soon as it is enabled, as described in the
previous section. After migration, you can refine your messaging setup in the following
ways:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_lwk_2xq_nkb__ul_rkz_qjd_zpb">
<li class="li" dir="ltr"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408842866074" target="_blank">Creating an out-of-office message for
messaging</a></li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6970583409690" target="_blank">Designing an AI agent</a></li>
<li class="li">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408829095706" target="_blank">Allowing customers to continue their conversation over email</a>
</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408886173338" target="_blank">About the CSAT (customer satisfaction) user experience for email and messaging</a>
</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">
<a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408822342938" target="_blank">Messaging reporting in Zendesk Agent Workspace</a>
</li>
</ul>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">For all the messaging resources, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408836242714" target="_blank">Messaging resources</a>.</p>
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