DrBanny•4h ago

Widgets Self Auto-Popping

Have noticed that for some hours now a number of my clients chat widgets are auto opening without specifying it to do. Any assist on this? @Chidi

2 Replies

Tico | Voiceflow Assistant•4h ago

Why the widget suddenly "pops" open Voiceflow’s web-chat remembers the last state of the widget (open / closed + the current conversation) by default.
That’s because the standard embed snippet uses

assistant: {
  persistence: 'localStorage'   // default
}

assistant: {
  persistence: 'localStorage'   // default
}

With localStorage the widget saves a flag in the browser. If a visitor opened the chat at any point, every subsequent page load – even hours or days later – will reload the widget already opened. Nothing else in your code has to call open() for this to happen. --- How to stop it 1. Disable persistence entirely (widget always starts closed):

   window.voiceflow.chat.load({
     verify: { projectID: 'YOUR_PROJECT_ID' },
     url: 'https://general-runtime.voiceflow.com',
     versionID: 'production',
     assistant: {
       persistence: 'memory'   // no data stored → widget never auto-opens
     }
   });

   window.voiceflow.chat.load({
     verify: { projectID: 'YOUR_PROJECT_ID' },
     url: 'https://general-runtime.voiceflow.com',
     versionID: 'production',
     assistant: {
       persistence: 'memory'   // no data stored → widget never auto-opens
     }
   });

2. Only remember the session until the browser is closed (resets next visit):

   assistant: { persistence: 'sessionStorage' }

   assistant: { persistence: 'sessionStorage' }

3. Force-close on page load (if you still want to keep localStorage for the convo):

   window.voiceflow.chat.load({...}).then(() => {
     window.voiceflow.chat.close();
   });

   window.voiceflow.chat.load({...}).then(() => {
     window.voiceflow.chat.close();
   });

--- Things that do not open the widget • Proactive message bubbles – they sit on the launcher but won’t open the window.
• Normal incoming messages – only open() or the persistence flag re-opens it. --- Give one of the options above a try; once persistence is set to 'memory' or you manually call close() in the on-load callback the widget will stay minimised until the visitor decides to open it. Docs for reference:
Chat persistence options → https://docs.voiceflow.com
Custom triggers (open / close API) → https://docs.voiceflow.com

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DrBannyOP•4h ago

All uses "memory". @Chidi any assist

Widgets Self Auto-Popping

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