Channels
Web
The web channel is the default way to interact with your bot and is enabled for all bots. You can speak to your bot via the Chat Thing user interface or by embedding it as a widget or iFrame.
Interacting with your bot via the web channel
The web channel is the default way to interact and test your bot. All bots created have the web channel enabled, and you can interact with them on their unique URL, like: https://chatthing.ai/bots/ef08f86b-cd55-4705-b7a1-aa1f3e8d9910
Web channel settings
You can open the settings for the web channel by scrolling down on your bot’s dashboard and clicking the small “settings” icon button in the web channel card. In the web channel settings, you will be able to turn on password protection or theme your bot.
Finding your bot’s URL
You can find your bot’s unique URL by clicking the “Open Bot” button on the bot's dashboard.
Embedding your bot
The web channel can be embedded into your site in two different ways. You can either embed it on a page as an iFrame, or you can add a floating chat widget to your site.
To get the embed code for your bot, click the “Embed” button in the bot dashboard and follow the instructions there.
First message preview
You can add the bot’s first message preview to the chat widget. The bot’s message appears as a small bubble above the chat widget after a given delay.
To add this functionality to your chat widget, go to the Web Channel Settings, enable the First message preview and set the Message preview delay. Click Update settings.
The appearance of the bot message bubble is customisable. It supports both dark and light modes based on the Theming in the Web Channel Settings.
Web channel settings
You can open the settings for the web channel by clicking the Channels tab on your bot’s dashboard, and clicking the small “settings” icon button in the web channel card. In the web channel settings, you will be able to turn on password protection, or theme your bot. 
Theming your bot
After opening the web channel settings, you can turn on bot theming by using the theming toggle.
Once theming has been enabled, you will be able to choose light or dark mode, and set a primary colour.
Standard, Pro & Enterprise plans can also remove the Chat Thing branding.
The primary colour will be used to colour the send buttons and the bot avatar background. The secondary colour will be used to colour the user avatar. You can now also upload your own icons for the avatar and user icons.
Here's an example of a bot in light mode with a red primary colour. 
Dictation & Spoken Responses
Enhance your bot's accessibility and provide a more natural conversational experience by enabling voice input and output. This allows users to speak their questions directly to the bot and listen to its responses read aloud.
How it works for the user
When Audio Input is enabled, a microphone icon appears in the input bar. A user can click it to record their message.
Once they've finished speaking, they click the checkmark, and their speech is transcribed into text, ready to be sent.
When Audio Output is enabled, a speaker icon appears next to each bot response. Clicking this icon will read the message aloud.
How to configure voice features
These features can be toggled on or off within the Web Channel Settings.
- In the settings panel, scroll down to find the Audio input and Audio output toggles.
- Enable one or both features to suit your needs.
- Click Update settings to save your changes.
Password protecting your bot
By default, bot URLs are publicly accessible, but in some cases, you may want to enable password protection if your bot has access to sensitive information.
You can turn on password protection from the web channel settings.
Once the toggle has been enabled, enter the desired password, and click “Update settings”.
If you now try and visit the bot, you will be asked for the password before you can use the bot.
Spam protection
If you are experiencing spam via your embedded bot you can turn on spam protection. This will enable captcha powered by Cloudflare turnstile that will require users deemed likely to be bots a challenge before they can send your bot messages.
We recommend leaving this feature turned off if you aren't experiencing spam to avoid unnecessarily annoying your users with challenges.
