Kustomer.start()

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First, initialize chat fully

Kustomer Chat must finish initializing fully with Kustomer.start() before you can execute any additional Web SDK methods.

Tip: Call other methods inside the callback of Kustomer.start() to ensure Kustomer Chat always completes initialization before the code tries to run other methods.

To learn more, see Troubleshooting: Kustomer method calls won't execute.

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Guide: Start chat with a custom button 📙

Visit Start chat with a custom button to learn how to start and open chat with custom button.

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Guide: Load chat asynchronously 📙

Visit Load chat asynchronously to learn how load chat asynchronously.

Examples

We've provided code samples of different ways to initialize and start chat:

Start chat

// Start chat
Kustomer.start();

Start chat and run a callback after chat initializes

// Start chat and run a callback after chat initializes
Kustomer.start({}, function () {
  console.log('Kustomer Chat Widget started!');
});

Start chat with options and open chat

// Start chat with options and open the chat widget

Kustomer.start({
  assistantId: 'SOME_ASSISTANT_ID'
}, function () {
  console.log('Kustomer Chat Widget started with options!');
  Kustomer.open();
});

Syntax

Kustomer.start(options, function)

options

hideHistory

You can set the hideHistory parameter to true to prevent a user from viewing their conversation history list entirely. If you do not specify a value, hideHistory defaults to false.

Use case

Set the hideHistory parameter to true for cases when you want to:

1. Open the chat widget directly to a conversation using either Kustomer.openConversationById() or Kustomer.createConversation().

and

2. Prevent the user from going back to the full conversation list with their entire conversation history.

We've provided a code sample below.

// Creates and opens a new conversation view for the user. Hides the back button in the chat UI.

Kustomer.start({ hideHistory: true }, () => {
  Kustomer.createConversation()
});