What are custom chat widgets?

The LiveChat Customer Chat API lets you build custom chat widgets that are completely embedded in your website, mobile app, or any other digital touchpoint. Unlike the standard LiveChat widget, which appears similar across implementations, custom widgets built with the Customer Chat API give you full control over design, behavior, and integration, while leveraging our messaging infrastructure.

How it works: When customers interact with your custom widget, the Customer Chat API processes their messages and routes them to your LiveChat app, where your agents respond. Your customers see your branded interface. Your agents use the full LiveChat platform they're familiar with.

The distinction:

A standard LiveChat widget gives you a pre-built interface with basic customization options (colors, position, text).

A custom widget built with the Customer Chat API provides a fully customized interface that you build to your exact specifications, integrated directly into your digital experience.

Think of it as the difference between using a template website builder versus hiring a designer to create exactly what your business needs.

When to build custom chat widgets?

Custom widgets solve specific problems that the standard widget can't always address. Consider custom implementation when you have one or more of these requirements:

Complete brand control and differentiated UX

Companies in competitive markets face a challenge. In luxury ecommerce, premium SaaS, and financial services, a generic chat widget creates visual discontinuity. This can undermine the trust you've built through your brand. Custom widgets eliminate this friction by maintaining seamless brand consistency.

Research shows that consistent branding across all customer touchpoints can increase revenue by up to 23%. What's more, 67% of customers believe trust is essential before they'll buy from a brand.

This matters most for:

• Premium brands where visual identity drives purchase decisions
• Companies with strong brand guidelines that must be maintained everywhere
• Businesses competing primarily on customer experience quality

Deep system integration

Generic widgets don't have direct access your proprietary systems. With the Customer Chat API, you can display any customer account information within the chat interface, perform actions specific to your product features, and pull data from any database to personalize each conversation.

Integrations like these eliminate the inefficiency of agents switching between systems. Unlike phone calls, where agents handle one at a time, agents can handle multiple concurrent chat conversations. System integration amplifies this efficiency.

This matters most for:

• Ecommerce companies wanting to instantly display order status in chat
• SaaS businesses needing to access customer usage data
• Financial services requiring secure account information display
• Any business with critical customer data in proprietary systems

Advanced personalization and behavioral targeting

Standard widgets offer basic triggers, such as time on page or exit intent. Custom widgets let you trigger conversations based on advanced, proprietary data, including cart value thresholds, customer lifecycle stages, product complexity indicators, or risk signals, such as repeated failed actions in your app.

Research shows that customers who engage with chat are 2.8 times more likely to convert than those who don't, and chat-engaged customers spend 60% more per purchase on average. Intelligent targeting maximizes these benefits by engaging the right customers at the right moments.

This matters most for:

• Ecommerce with sophisticated segmentation strategies
• SaaS companies with complex onboarding journeys
• High-consideration purchases (B2B, real estate, financial products)
• Any business with detailed customer behavior data

Native mobile app integration

Over 50% of live chat interactions occur on mobile devices. Web widgets embedded in mobile apps often create poor user experiences — they don't feel native, can't access device features, and don't support platform conventions.

The Customer Chat API lets you build native mobile chat experiences that integrate with device cameras, support push notifications, and follow your product design.

This matters most for:

• Mobile banking apps where chat is a primary support channel
• Delivery and logistics apps requiring real-time support
• Retail apps where mobile drives a significant percentage of transactions
• Any business with high mobile app engagement

Industry-specific compliance or features

Regulated industries often can't use standard widgets due to security, data handling, or audit requirements. The Customer Chat API gives you more control over the customer data you send through the API and lets you manage authentication and authorization systems.

This matters most for:

• Healthcare providers requiring HIPAA compliance
• Financial institutions with PCI-DSS requirements
• Legal services handling privileged communications
• Any business operating under strict regulatory frameworks

Who are custom widgets for?

The decision to build a custom widget isn't about budget alone — it's about strategic fit. Custom development makes sense when the standard widget creates meaningful gaps in your customer experience, brand presentation, or operational capabilities.

Ideal candidates for custom widgets

• You have development resources and a budget available
• You use live chat strategically for customer experience, not just as a support channel
• You need consistent brand presentation across all customer touchpoints
• You need to integrate with proprietary systems or databases
• You operate in a regulated industry with specific compliance requirements
• You have high-value transactions where small conversion improvements equal big revenue impact
• Your mobile app users comprise a significant percentage of customers

When the standard widget is the better choice

The standard widget delivers the core benefits of live chat — a 20% increase in conversions, 2.8 times higher conversion rates for chat users, and a 60% increase in spending per chat-engaged customer. For many businesses, this alone is sufficient and works great for their use cases.

The standard widget will be a good choice for you when you're still testing whether chat drives business value, your budget, time-to-market, or development resources are low, or when basic branding customization meets your needs.

Pros and cons of building a custom chat widget

Implementation outline

A stateful implementation uses WebSocket technology — the same real-time communication standard that powers Slack, WhatsApp, and most modern messaging applications.

The pattern is straightforward:

1. Authenticate using OAuth 2.0 (industry standard).
2. Open a WebSocket connection to maintain real-time communication.
3. Exchange messages as JSON events through that connection.
4. Customize product-specific behavior and widget design to your implementation needs.

The API handles all the complex backend operations — message persistence, agent routing, and chat management. Your development team focuses on the customer-facing interface and experience.

For teams experienced with modern web development, this is a well-understood implementation pattern. The effort scales based on the complexity of your design and custom features.

Passing custom information

Sending custom customer information to your agents is essential for customizing your widget flow. Custom widgets send this information through two mechanisms:

• Properties: Properties store persistent business context (account tier, purchase history, and support status) that remains valuable across all conversations with that customer. Think of properties as "who's this person to our business?"
• Session fields: Session fields track temporary browsing behavior (pages viewed, time on site, and current cart value) that's relevant only during the active visit. Think of session fields as "what's this person doing right now?"

Both appear in your agents' LiveChat app to help provide context and personalize conversations.

Next steps

1. Review the Customer Chat API documentation
2. Get to know the API usage details
3. Test with the standard widget first ›
4. Discuss your specific use case and implementation options with our team ›