Beacon Support History Security Options
The support history feature allows a customer to see their previous conversations in Beacon. This includes Beacon contact form messages, chat transcripts, as well as direct email history.
About Basic Security
Beacon uses the basic security option out of the box, which limits history shown in the Previous Conversations section of Beacon to the customer’s browser session and device. With Basic security, Beacon will create a device ID the first time a customer visits the website, and it will store that device ID in the visitor's local storage. We’ll send that device ID with every new conversation (chat or email) that the customer starts. On subsequent visits, we’ll retrieve all conversations started using that device ID.
This mode is limited to the device ID. If a customer accesses the Beacon from a different device or they clear their local storage, Beacon is not able to show message history. This also means that only conversations started via the Beacon will be visible.
About Secure Mode
With secure mode, we use a combination of the customer’s name, email address, and a secure key passed through the
identify method. This code is generated using a key that’s shared between Help Scout and the customer, and it needs to be server side to keep it secret.
Secure mode brings the best of both worlds. It’s secure, because no one will be able to impersonate a customer without access to the secret key and it will provide a real record of conversation history that doesn’t depend on the visitor's local storage. Beacon can show support history across multiple devices and sessions as the user is securely authenticated.
It takes a few lines of code to implement secure mode. We’ve created a couple of code snippets for some of the most popular server-side languages to help get you started. Read our
developer documentation for more information.
Finding or regenerating your Secure Key
Help Scout creates a secure key that is unique to each Beacon. To find your secure key:
- Head over to Manage > Beacon, then click the Contact tab in the left hand sidebar.
- Under the Contact Form section, you will find the Support history security setting.
- Clicking the toggle button will reveal the key. Be sure to click Save to save your settings and key.
To get a new key for any reason, scroll down on the Contact tab and find the red link to Regenerate key.