Are there chat alerts for the agent?

Sometimes I get an alert, sometimes I don't. Other times when I reply to a chat, it appears in my chat window but not on the client's, then theirs eventually says no agents are available even though I'm trying to chat with them. Soemtimes it works, most of the time it doesn't. Not too impressed with chat so far, seems like a poor beta at this point.

Thanks, sounds like I better stick with the chat software I am using then. It was one of the reasons I wanted to use Freshdesk so I could have one product handling all my support but, I guess it's not ready for prime time.

Appreciate your response.

I am also testing the chat feature but it stopped working at all yesterday...the chat icon shows in red and when I click refresh it doesnt do anything. 

Thanks for your feedback, chat is a fairly new feature at Freshdesk and your feedback helps immensely in improving it. Could you try clearing your cache for the sound notification issue? We do have sound notifications available, and this should sort it out for you. Let me know if it works!

As for the other issue, we have some updates going out next week that should resolve the issue of the refresh button and improve connectivity. I apologize for the inconvenience, and will keep you posted on the update. Thanks again for your valuable feedback!

The chat refresh button has been fixed, it should work fine when you click on it. Let me know how it works!

I have noticed that if the agent closes a chat and the customer sends another message that there is no sound.  

Joe - The expected behavior is that when an agent closes a chat, and the customer send another message, for the first 5 minutes it is treated as part of the same chat window of the agent - a new chat notification is not sent out (hence no notification sound, only a regular chat ping sound). If the new message is after 5 min of closing the previous chat, then the message goes to all online agents like a new notification. 

Let me know if there is some other issue in your case.

Joe - this issue has been fixed, do try it out and let me know if you have any other issues.

Smrithi - you mentioned that 'for the first 5minutes it is treated as part of the same chat window of the agent...' - a nice feature would be to perhaps have this time parameter adjustable within admin?

Thanks for the idea, Bradley! Will def take it into consideration as we are building out the next set of customization options. Currently we are focusing on how we can scale chat for the increasing volume of customers using it.

We're still having this same issue on Windows (No sound alert for new chat initiated by customer). This is causing many missed chats. 

There are several issues / limitations:

a) On Windows we've spent 15+ hours testing and nothing works. Cleared cache; set alerts; checked sound; etc. 

b) The initial alert -if it does occur, is only a single alert. It should be a continuous alert or an option for the agent to set the alert to continue. Otherwise if you miss the one alert - you miss the customer's chat request

c) As noted above - if the same customer re-initiates a chaat within 5 minutes - there is not alert (or the alert is a single chirp when it works) - again easy to miss.

I see this feature thread has been around for 3 years. Any plans to fix this? - Thank you

Craig - we do have browser notifications available for chrome, safari, etc already. We have kept this thread open to enable a discussion on other options in alerts, or any issues customers are facing. 

We do some sound issues being fixed end of this week, so hopefully you will get sorted with that. But I would like to clarify that, once it is fixed you will have the behavior you mentioned (single alert and chirp). For customers who want a more pronounced notification we provide browser notification - though it is not available for IE browser. Can you confirm which browser and version you use?

Thanks - Chrome. Recommend considering an ongoing sound.  Or instead of a chirp, a chirp that repeats for a few seconds. Too easy to miss it if the agent is busy