Welcome to the Platform

If you're wondering whether the Platform suits your business, this is where you can get started. We'd like to tell you about our products, their main functionalities, and their high potential for customization. Let's take you on a small tour!

What Text is about

The Text Platform is an ecosystem for developers that grew mainly from two Text products, LiveChat and HelpDesk. From a more tech perspective, the Platform provides:

• open messaging protocol with real-time and web APIs
• rich messaging tools and chatbots
• reporting and data extraction APIs
• management and configuration APIs
• monetization tools and Developer Console
• authorization tools
• the LiveChat Marketplace and HelpDesk Marketplace of apps and services

Meet LiveChat

LiveChat helps you handle conversations with customers visiting your websites. Customers can start chats with your agents, but it can also be the other way around. Your agents can initiate chats, making your visitors feel welcome and valued. If you're up to some automation, you can engage them in a conversation with targeted messages. Also, delegating some work to bots is an option when running a business on a bigger scale.

Your customers can start multiple conversations with agents and continue existing ones - it's up to them. Keeping track of chat history is easy, as agents can scroll up to get a preview of all the exchanged messages in a conversation.

All of these functionalities are guaranteed out of the box, but this is just a tiny bit of what LiveChat offers. If you're interested in other default features, see the full list of LiveChat features.

What LiveChat can be

We're constantly trying to put forward new ways customers could integrate with LiveChat. Certain business needs call for specific customization, whether it's creating an app or just tweaking the look & feel.

Extending LiveChat

LiveChat can extend its interface by building apps to add new panels, widgets, and UI elements. Developers can choose from various options when integrating with the LiveChat Agent App. All options were designed to extend different app locations, making it very flexible. Our Platform offers, for example, apps in the Details section (widgets), fullscreen apps displayed in the main menu, or apps in the Customer Details section (Customer Details widgets). Learn more... The Agent App SDK is currently the primary way to develop your own widgets.

Just as there are ways to build upon an app, there are also ways to extend the Chat Widget using Chat Widget JavaScript API or Chat Widget Customer SDK.

Besides extending LiveChat UI, you can also develop LiveChat using our Messaging and Management APIs or by interacting with data.

Monetizing your LiveChat app

After building your LiveChat app, personalizing it, and fitting it to your customers' needs, you can monetize it and place it on our LiveChat Marketplace to reach many potential customers and gain some profit.

💡 If you want to read about building LiveChat apps, go to our tutorial.

Meet HelpDesk

• Canned responses
• Statuses
• Private notes
• Filters and tags
• Teams

What HelpDesk can be

As the Platform tries to follow the needs of our developers so they can build a wide range of integrations that perfectly fit their customers, you can extend HelpDesk in many different areas.

Extending HelpDesk

The first and definitely most fun way to extend HelpDesk is by playing with its interface. It can be done by adding widgets and placing them in many different locations of your app. You can choose one of the following placements: the Details section, Fullscreen apps, or Settings (Learn more...). The HelpDesk SDK is currently the primary way to develop your own widgets.

You can also let users sign in to your service via Accounts SDK or automate various tasks using HelpDesk APIs.

HelpDesk API

When you build HelpDesk applications with our Platform, they may need to use our HelpDesk API. It's fully available to experiment with and discover its potential, which is developed in many useful areas:

• Account and users
• Tickets
• Managing your emails
• Automating your work
• Analyzing your reports

Monetize HelpDesk apps

Our Platform also provides you with monetization tools that can help you gain profit for the created integrations after publishing them on the HelpDesk Marketplace.

💡 If you want to read about building HelpDesk apps, go to our tutorial.

Authorization

LiveChat and HelpDesk use the OAuth 2.1 protocol to authenticate and authorize their services.

To access basic information in LiveChat and HelpDesk accounts, you will use Accounts SDK (Sign in with LiveChat), which is the simplest way to do that.

The Platform also provides you with a Global Accounts service which is very useful for customers who use ChatBot, HelpDesk, or KnowledgeBase. It allows customers to configure standard options and resources across all products.

Developer Console tools

If you want to save time while building your app and don't want to play with APIs, the Developer Console comes with a helping hand to provide easy access to all tools and resources for developers who want to build their apps. It is a place where you can configure your application, set up its most crucial functions, create all the necessary extensions, and display your app on the Marketplace.

API Usage

If you’re looking for precise details about your API calls and requests, refer to the API Usage reports.

API Usage is a tool for reporting and managing various development-related activities in your organization. The interface combines all the information about your requests usage, the API you called, and the app that sent the request. It includes a visual representation of your API use and aggregated and raw data reports for your API calls.

Text API

We want to provide you with a technology that allows you to build applications that meet all the customers' current needs and follow all the trends set by the world. Text API is open to the public and enables the building of powerful products using various text operations. Learn what the Text Universe can already give you, and take a look at what we're about to offer soon.

Messaging

Many LiveChat applications built upon the Platform need to use our API. For that reason, we make it accessible and let developers experiment with it. You can choose between:

• Agent Chat API
• Customer Chat API

Together, the Agent Chat API and the Customer Chat API create the Messaging APIs. It is a full set of methods to use either as an agent or as a customer. We divide it, though, to make it more use-case-specific. The distinction is intuitive; when you want to join a chat as an agent, use the Agent Chat API. To interact as a customer, use the Customer Chat API.

These two sets of APIs are very versatile. The Agent Chat API lets you build your custom Agent App, as well as browser chat archives, or ban customers. With the use of the Customer Chat API, you can build a custom chat widget. Both APIs allow for interactions, such as joining a chat, posting messages, etc.

If Messaging APIs seem overwhelming, or you don't have time to play with them, Chat SDK comes to the rescue. It was designed to allow developers to build apps quickly. It comes with a method template for sending plain text messages. Based on that method, you can easily build new methods.

The Platform also provides two Software Development Kits, LiveChat Go SDK, written in Go, and LiveChat JS SDK, written in Typescript. They are tools for developers to build external backend apps which extend LiveChat features. The SDKs make it easy to use the Agent Chat API, the Customer Chat API, and the Configuration API.

Management

The Configuration API is a service for storing license configurations. It can be used to build complex integrations or to configure resources directly via the API.

The Configuration API allows for:

• Properties setup to store information about chats or events.
• Webhook management to connect LiveChat with different services and react immediately to the things happening in the chat.
• Bot agent configuration to connect LiveChat with AI solutions.

Interacting with data

One of the most extensively used sections in the Agent App is Reports. We provide several types of reports which help managers with the analysis. You can measure chat satisfaction and duration, keep track of agents' activity, or compare time periods to observe trends.

Again, this is just a tiny bit of what's available in terms of reporting. Yet, we're aware that what we offer does not cover every single business case. This is where Reports API comes into play. It serves as a set of tools to create apps that interact on the server side. With this API, it's possible to design exactly what you need.

Chat Widget solutions

Suppose you want to integrate your website or application with the Platform, monitor and interact with your users, or build advanced custom solutions. In that case, you can do all of this with the help of multiple Chat Widget solutions:

• Mobile Chat Widgets for Android or iOS.
• JavaScript API for changing the look and behavior of the Chat Widget.
• Moments allow customers to perform specific actions.
• Rich messages make your messages more stylish and interactive.
• Customer SDK allows you to build a chat widget from scratch.
• Custom Identity Provider gives you the possibility of creating cross-platform communication.
• Chat Widget Adapters allow you to use the Chat Widget with popular frontend frameworks.

Monetization

The Platform provides you with monetization tools allowing you to start getting a profit from the apps you have created. All the payments are processed within the Text ecosystem. Thanks to this solution, you have more precise control over monetizing features of your app.

We want you to deliver well-designed and efficient apps for users. We put apps through the app review process before they are published on the marketplace and provide developers with some guidelines that help improve apps and make them more attractive to customers.

The Partner Program API offered by Text allows you to build tools to help you use your data better and develop your business. Play with the API and decide what you want to create.

Contact us

If you feel that our Platform is the platform you'd like to build upon, don't hesitate to contact us at developers@text.com and join our Discord to learn, get inspired, and meet other developers.

Got any questions or feedback? We'll be happy to hear from you!