FloatMessage

Broadcast Messages

Broadcast lets you send a single chat message to every online visitor at once. It's perfect for live announcements, flash offers, support outages, or kicking off proactive conversations during a campaign.

How to send a broadcast

  1. Open Dashboard → Chat.
  2. Click the Broadcast button at the top of the conversations list.
  3. Type your message in the dialog. Keep it short — visitors see it as a chat bubble.
  4. Click Send. FloatMessage delivers it to every online visitor and shows a confirmation with the count.

Who counts as “online”

A visitor is considered online if their browser has pinged FloatMessage in the last 60 seconds. The embed script sends a heartbeat in the background while a tab is open, so “online” means “has your site loaded right now.”

Broadcast skips visitors who closed the tab — they won't be flooded with stale messages when they return.

What visitors see

  • If their chat panel is open, the broadcast appears as a normal message from you.
  • If their chat panel is closed, the chat bubble shows a red unread badge with a “1” — clicking it opens the panel and reveals the message.
  • A short preview bubble floats above the chat icon for ~15 seconds so visitors notice without having to open anything. Tapping it opens the full conversation.

Conversations created automatically

For visitors who don't already have an open conversation with you, FloatMessage creates a new one automatically and appends the broadcast as the first message. This means broadcasts also act as a way to start conversations with new visitors who've never chatted before.

Existing open conversations get the broadcast message appended at the end, just like any other message you send.

AI handoff

Because broadcasts are sent by you (the owner), they trigger the same admin-takeover behavior as any manual reply: AI auto-reply stops for any conversation that received the broadcast. The next time the visitor sends a message, you handle it manually unless you reset the conversation.

Use cases

  • Live event updates — “The product launch starts in 5 minutes — head to /launch.”
  • Time-sensitive offers — “30% off for the next 60 minutes — code FLASH30.”
  • Outage notices — “We’re investigating a checkout issue — back shortly.”
  • Webinar reminders — “The Q&A starts in 2 minutes!”
  • Proactive engagement bursts — kick off conversations with everyone currently on a high-intent page.

Best practices

  • Don't spam. Each broadcast pings every online visitor — use it sparingly so visitors don't mute the chat.
  • Keep it short. Chat bubbles are narrow. One or two sentences with a clear CTA reads best.
  • Time it. Send broadcasts when visitors are most engaged (peak hours, during a launch).
  • Be ready to follow up. Broadcasts disable AI auto-reply for the affected conversations — make sure your team is online to handle replies.
  • Use proactive triggers for ongoing one-off messages. See Chat for proactive messaging by URL, country, or visit count.