# Live Chat Integration Guide

Live Chat lets you place a chat widget on your website so visitors can start a conversation, or place a call, with a single click. On your side, agents answer and follow up on all of those conversations from one place in the Cloud Voice App, alongside their other channels.

## What Live Chat gives you

- **Drop-in website widget.** Add the widget to any site by pasting in a snippet of embed code. No development work is required.
- **Free chat and calling for visitors.** People browsing your site can message an agent or start a voice call at no charge to them.
- **Controlled access.** Scope the widget to a specific website domain and cap the number of simultaneous calls, so it only runs on sites you trust and can't be used to drain your resources.

## Requirements

Confirm that your Cloud Voice system meets the following before you begin.

| Item | Requirement |
| --- | --- |
| Firmware | Version `84.20.0.128` or later. |
| Domain name | The domain name must not contain underscore characters. This is a restriction of the underlying messaging platform; a domain with an underscore causes the messaging channel to fail authentication or stop receiving messages. |
| Domain certificate | A valid domain certificate must be installed. |

:::caution
If your Cloud PBX (private branch exchange, the phone system that routes your calls) uses a custom root domain rather than one of the standard domains provided with your Cloud Voice service, install a valid domain certificate on the PBX first. Without it, the messaging channel will fail authentication or fail to receive messages.
:::

## Limitations

Keep the following constraints in mind when you plan how your team will use Live Chat.

| Item | Detail |
| --- | --- |
| Message types | Text, emojis, and images are supported. |
| Message direction | Inbound only. Agents can receive and reply to visitor messages, but they cannot start a chat or a call with a visitor from the widget. |
| File retention | Files remain available for 72 hours. |
| Active sessions | Up to 20 chat sessions can be active at once. |

:::note
Images must be in `.png`, `.jpg`, or `.jpeg` format, with a maximum file size of 10 MB.
:::

## How to set it up

Integrating Live Chat takes two steps:

1. **[Set up a Live Chat channel](/pbx/contact-center-guide/set-up-a-live-chat-channel/).** Configure a Live Chat channel on your Cloud Voice system to generate the embed code.
2. **[Enable Live Chat on your website](/pbx/contact-center-guide/embed-live-chat-on-your-website/).** Paste the generated embed code into the pages where you want the widget to appear.

:::note
The embed code is a short snippet of HTML that you copy from the channel you set up in step 1 and paste into your website's pages. It loads the widget for visitors, so no further coding is needed on your side.
:::