Let's Chat - Communicating in WA Just Got A Boost!
Hi Everyone!
I hope that you are having a productive and awesome week! Today I'm excited to officially tell you about some WA platform updates that we've released in the past week or so, specifically related to the LIVE CHAT!
Over the years the live chat in WA has been the heartbeat of the community as it streams thousands of messages a day with everything form friendly "Hello's" to extremely helpful "How to's" and answers to all kinds of questions related to building a thriving online biz. Today I'm going to outline 5 updates to the live chat that we released with the intention of improving engagement, message notifications, and the overall efficiency of the platform.
I'll pose this question to you, and I'll give you my answer as well...
When having a conversation with someone (or many people), what is the most important thing that leads to that conversation being GREAT?
My answer: Knowing when others are speaking to you.
It's as simple as that.
When I'm having a conversation on a platform like the WA Live chat, I absolutely NEED to know when a message is for me, so that I have the opportunity to leave a reply. There's nothing more important than having that knowledge and that is the main thing that we set out to accomplish with this latest string of updates.
So, I post that question to you to answer in the comments below...
What is most important to you in a chat platform?
I'm going to get right into explaining the updates.
Update #1: "Carson is chatting..." tool tip
You'll notice that from time to time there is a little tool tip that pops down from the live chat icon in the main menu. Both on Mobile and Desktop versions of the chat, this pop down will read "Kyle is chatting...". This is meant to bring attention to the live chat after a period of inactivity. Sometimes there is a period where there is no chat going on - that is becoming less and less especially after our updates as the chat is 40% more active already...but there are "gaps" in the chat from time to time. The tool tip "Username is chatting..." is meant to bring attention to the live chat after a period of inactivity, and that period is set to 5 minutes.
Update #2: Browser Tab Message Count
If you are in any way like me (and Kyle too), it's normal to have many browser tabs open and a collage of apps that you are working with at any given time. From Google Analytics, to your website back-office, to Training in WA...there are lots of reasons that you may not have the live chat in front of you at all times. In any given tab or window that you are logged into WA with, we now update that browser with the count of how many messages there are that you may not have seen. We'll show them like this:
(1) WA Chat | Wealthy Affiliate <== Where the (1) represents the number of messages that are for you, and may have not been seen.
Update #3: Highlighted "For You" messages
A simple but powerful update so that you can quickly scan for messages in the chat that are for you. We've updated the background and added a label to chat messages that are directed at you. This has made my chat experience so much better being able to quickly find message directed to me, and it improves my ability to reply. Although we have had a notification bubble over top of the main menu chat icon for some time, it was always difficult to find the message, especially if it was a few minutes ago and is further down the message feed.
In the below screenshot I was able to quickly find a message reply from 7 minutes ago in a busy chat with lots of other messages.
Update #4: Animated Live Chat Icon
This is one of my favorites updates and one that has been on my "wish list" for years! The animated live chat icon! When the live chat is active and people are actively typing, the icon changes from its normal state to a colorful animated state! It's subtle, yet it's awesome to be able to know that the chat is active with just a quick glance. Both Desktop and Mobile versions of the live chat display the animated chat bubble. I love knowing when there is a chat going on as I like to pop in, offer help, and sometimes just say a friendly "Hello"!
Update #5 - Real-time typing feedback
This update was by far the biggest update to this roll out, being able to see who is chatting. When I'm interacting with others, it's nice to know when they are typing a message. This enables me to wait for them to finish typing - It's AWESOME to know that they are still present, and are about to send a message.
Bonus Update #6: Class Comments with Real-time Typing and Auto Mesage Update!
Our latest comment platform update made a number of weeks ago, now includes real-time typing feedback similar to the live chat. When commenting in Classes, you will notice that we show who is typing. When a new comment is posted, a message is displayed to load that comment. This enables the Comment platform to work more like a live conversation. Our new comment platform now mimics much of the functionality of the Live Chat.
In the very near future we will be rolling out one of our biggest updates in our history, with an update to the Blog/Question and Profile platforms and this is where the new comment module will really shine. When you post a blog, you'll be able to interact in the comment section in real time, see who's posting messages, and engage in conversation in a much more natural and real-time manner!
Whew...what a post!
With everything we do at WA, we aim to improve the experience in an incremental and consistent way. Each and every week we push updates to the platform Monday - Thursday. Some are noticeable, some are very subtle, and some just make things work better/smoother/faster. We have big interface changes coming to continue improving how folks communicate in WA, changes that we've been working on for many months, and we cannot wait to see these updates make their way to the live platform. Live chat activity has increased 40% overall with the changes mentioned in this post, and on some days even doubling the average activity. Blogs, Questions, Profiles, Live Chat, Dashboard, Training, Website Management...and many more areas will be updated in the near future - stay tuned...
Tell me in the comments below if you've noticed the Live Chat updates? And let me know what's most important to you in a live chat platform! Your feedback helps us move forward and deliver the best experience we can to you :)
Carson
Recent Comments
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This is a great feature for normal people, only, since my latest attack on my brains I sense things as negative and this feature is really bad for my concentration. Everytime when it starts flashing my eyes will go in that direction and it has the same effect on me as a flashlight directly pointed at your healthy eyes.
I sure hope you programmers will come with a solution for people like me (highly sensitive was the word Google translate gave me) to switch the feature off. It's like a pop-up on a website, in that case I will click the "X" and leave such a site.
So Carson, could you please make it possible to give people like me the possibility to switch the little feature off?
It's terror for my concentration and I'm not going to glue any objects to my screen, which I became from an organisation so I can keep on working on my knowledge (WA) and websites.
Good morning Carson,
I hope you're doing well. Thank you for the update about the updates!
The updates sound like they will be really beneficial. One of the reasons I haven't used live chat very much is because I don't want to keep looking for replies. Just over the last month or so I have been using live chat a little bit more due to the notification appearing, it's very helpful indeed.
I have noticed that there is some really useful information in the live chat as well as friendly banter, which is great.
I look forward to making good use of the update.
Wishing you a great Sunday.
Roy
Hi Roy - I couldn't agree more with this. I've always found it challenging to use the live chat while multi-tasking because of not knowing when there are messages for me. If I'm in the chat having conversations with folks, I want to make sure I can reply to every message. This got a lot easier with the lates round of updates.
Really appreciate your feedback and I hope to see you in the WA chat soon!
Good morning Carson,
Thank you for your reply, I appreciated it as I know you're very busy.
Just about an hour ago I was on live chat with Kyle, the great thing was I didn't have to keep checking for his reply! It just flashed up as and when, a fantastic and great time saver! It's amazing how small things can make such a huge difference!
Have a great week and thank you for the update.
Roy
I love updates because they are always about making things run smoothly or improving experience! I noticed those too and I love it! Thank you Team WA for always advocating for your clients! 🤩 You guys are awesome!
For those who do not like it, maybe an option to turn it off would be nice.
Hoping to see maybe emojis or gifs in the near future! 😁🤞
Yes, I have noticed the difference. Whether I am on my I-pad, Samsung tablet, phone, laptop or desktop the layout is the same. and I can see who is chatting and when it is in response to my chat.
Very cool.
From back in the day of In Living Color and the Men on TV skit, Two cross snaps and a slap baby! mmmnnn.. Or, two thumbs up. Haha.
Awsome what ya all do here, thanks. Love how ya see something that is kind of buggin ya a bit, work on it, and blam, improvement!
I am doing that at the ice rink gig I got, just have to do it to where I make the old-schoolers look good, feel good for having me there, and make everyone else's life so much easier and I see that very same attitude in you with how you roll here.
Ya all Rock.
Lators gators,
The Zam man.
Thanks for the support Scott! There are always things that we find could be better and that is one element that drives many of our decisions - WA chat needed these updates, and there are more to come :)
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Carson, these communication updates are wonderful! Before I would never use the Chat feature because I would always "lose" the person I was trying to chat with as there were so many conversations going on at the same time! Sometimes before I could realize someone was chatting with me, there were so many other conversations going on it was too time consuming trying to locate responses! Making it easier to communicate and in a timely manner is a great improvement! I appreciate you, Kyle, and everyone behind the scenes who participate in keeping WA on top of things!