PLEASE READ FIRST – Frequently Asked Questions, and common issues

The WordPress Chat plugin offers an easy way to install Facebook’s Chat plugin onto a WordPress instance. In the vast majority of cases, installation is a smooth and quick process. Occasionally, however, there are issues which may need addressing in order for the Chat plugin to work correctly.

In this forum we respond to everyone who comes seeking help with installing and/or operating the WordPress Chat plugin. The majority of cases are successfully solved. If you are experiencing issues with the WordPress Chat plugin, please consider posting a support ticket before leaving a review. We’d be grateful for the opportunity to help you address your issue, so you can evaluate the plugin in its full glory!

When reporting an issue, please provide the URL of the affected website so we can take a look directly. Please ensure the plugin is still installed on that website. We can’t investigate a problem if the plugin has been removed!

Please be aware that the scope of this support is limited to the WordPress Chat plugin, and the associated infrastructure underpinning it. We’re not able to assist with issues for manual Chat plugin installations outside of the official WordPress plugin, nor are we able to assist with general Facebook account issues.

COMMON ISSUES

1. I’ve completed the installation process, but no code is shown to me to add to my WordPress site.

   A: Installing the Chat plugin using our WordPress plugin is codeless. The code is added automatically to your site at runtime. There is no need to copy and paste any code.

2. I’ve installed the plugin, but the Chat plugin is not showing up on my website. Or it’s showing up only on certain browsers/platforms.

   A: As part of the installation process, the Chat plugin is connected a Facebook page. If that Facebook Page has any restrictions applied (age, or location), then the plugin will only display for users who:

   a) Are logged in to Facebook in that browser,
   and
   b) Pass the restrictions successfully (i.e. are of sufficient age, or in the target region(s)).

   Additionally, if the Page is set to the “unpublished” state, then both the Page and the Chat plugin will only be available to users with an admin role on that Facebook Page.

   If you’d like the Chat plugin to be available to all visitors (including those not logged in to Facebook), then the Page should be set to the “published” state, and any active restrictions (age or location) should be removed. This can be done by a Page admin, via the Page settings.

3. I’ve ported my site to a new web address / domain name, but the Chat plugin is no longer loading up.

   A: Please re-run the setup process from the beginning, so the domain can be added to our allowlist. This is done automatically on completion of setup.

4. My site is only accessible via an IP address, and the Chat plugin doesn’t load up.

   A: Unfortunately sites accessed via IP addresses are not supported. The site must have a domain name associated with it in order to use the Chat plugin.

5. I have set up a “Get Started” button on my Facebook Page, however this button does not appear when the user engages with the Page via the Chat plugin.

   A: The “Continue as…” button(s) serve the same function as the “Get Started” button, in this context. Please refer to the documentation for more details on how to handle the callback events from these actions.

6. How do I receive push notifications for messages sent to my Page via the Chat plugin?

   A: Depending on the way your Page and Facebook apps are setup, you can usually receive push notifications via the following channels:
   – Facebook jewel notifications
   – Messenger notifications
   – Facebook Business Suite notifications

   These notifications can be toggled on and off for each of these apps, and also in the settings of the Facebook Page itself, so please check your configuration if you are not receiving the notifications you require.

   Additionally, Pages for which messages are handled by a Messenger bot will not send notifications for messaging, unless the threads are passed to the Page Inbox using Handover Protocol. This is by design.

7. The Chat plugin keeps blinking / refreshing, and it seems like there are multiple instances overlapping each other.

   A: This can happen if the Chat plugin code is installed more than once on the site. Other third-party plugins (such as WooCommerce) also include the Facebook Chat plugin as a bundled feature, so another instance of the Chat plugin might be enabled through those plugins too. Additionally, if code has been manually added to the WordPress files, this could also create another instance of the Chat plugin running in parallel. Removing/disabling these additional instances of the plugin will rectify this issue.

8. Can the plugin be configured to only display on certain pages of my site?

   A: This feature is coming soon!

9. Can the plugin be configured to *only* display on desktop/mobile?

   A: No, and this is by design. The Chat plugin is optimised for both desktop and mobile contexts, and is designed for cross-platform feature parity. Disabling it on a particular platform would potentially create a poor experience for the user, who might assume the feature was not working correctly if they are unable to access it on certain platforms.

10. My Facebook Page was upgraded to the “New Page Experience”, and now it does not appear as a selectable Page in the Chat plugin setup flow.

    A: This is a known issue that is currently being worked on. We apologise for the inconvenience.

11. Display issues

    A: The positioning of the Chat plugin icon, and the open/closed state of the chat window can be configured within the setup flow. If, after configuring these options, the Chat plugin is not displaying correctly, there may be CSS conflicts in the WordPress theme causing the plugin’s own style rules to be overridden.

    General CSS debugging tips:

• In most browsers, the developer debug tools can be used to analyse the styles being applied to each of the DOM elements. For example, in Chrome, in the options menu selecting More Tools -> Developer Tools will bring up the console.
• The Chat plugin parent DOM element is a div with the class name fb-customerchat.
• If you suspect that style rules from your theme’s stylesheets are causing issues with the display of the Chat plugin, you can try removing the references (style tags) to the stylesheets, in the developer debug console (making changes to the markup via these tools will not affect the content of the site). If there are several stylesheets referenced, you can try removing half of them, leaving the other half in place, and observing the effects on the Chat plugin’s display. Then repeat until you’ve been able to narrow down the offending stylesheet / rule, and modify accordingly.