Get Started: Beacon with Live Chat

Learn more about Beacon and live chat.

In This Article

Beacon Feature List

Live Chat

Customers only see a chat interface when they’re connected with someone on your team. 
Live chat is available in Beacon on a current Standard or higher plan. Legacy plans and Basic plans do not include live chat. Your Account Owner can upgrade to a new plan at Available Plans if you would like to add live chat to your Beacon. 

Custom Fields

Custom Fields help categorize and prioritize conversations in the mailbox. You can now show your custom fields on the Beacon contact form, allowing customers to categorize their support requests. Custom fields work alongside Workflows, reports, and the API right out of the box. Custom Fields are available on the Plus plan.

Beacon Sidebar App

We made improvements to what the “identify” method can do in Beacon. Fields saved using the identify method appear in the customer sidebar, and they’ll show up when you load customer conversations. It’s a great way to get valuable customer context into the sidebar, without having to build a custom app. Eventually these fields will be actionable by Workflows, Report Views, etc.

Beacon Builder

We’ve built a new UI for customizing all of the Beacon settings in Help Scout. You don’t have to mess with JavaScript code to make changes. When you update a Beacon in the UI, changes are pushed to your live Beacon embed right away.

Customer Support History

Beacon includes a basic and secure way to authenticate your customers using a single line of JavaScript and a little server-side code. Your customers will never have to worry about logging in. As soon as they open Beacon, they’re a click away from their support history.

Suggested Content

Suggested content lets you surface specific articles to customers as soon as they open Beacon. For example, if your Beacon is on a pricing page, you might want to show pricing specific help articles right away. You’ll see suggested articles on the Beacon welcome screen.

In-app Notifications

Customers receive a Beacon notification when there's a new chat or email message. They can click the notification to open the conversation in Beacon, taking them to the latest reply.

JavaScript API

Control your Beacon programmatically with the Beacon JavaScript API.

Mobile SDKs

SDKs (software development kits) allow you to add Beacon directly to your mobile apps. Customers can browse your knowledge base, send an email, or start a live chat through the Beacon SDK on mobile platforms. Get started  at Beacon for Mobile. We offer SDKs for both Android and iOS.
Please note: The Beacon SDKs do not support React Native at this time.

Learn More
Get Started with Live Chat
About the Chat Interface
Chatting with Customers
User Availability and Maximum Chats
About Chat Notifications
About the Options Menu
End a Live Chat

Common Questions

Is there a limit to the number of Beacons I can create?
No. You can create as many Beacons as you’d like. Each Beacon must be linked to a mailbox but we do not limit how many Beacons can be linked to a mailbox.

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