In the Slack integration, any team member who has access to the chat channel can act as a live chat agent. Below we cover how agent assignment works, how to manage channels, and how Social Intents creates per-chat channels for organized conversations.
How Agents Work in Slack
Social Intents identifies agents by matching Slack user profiles to your account. When a team member responds to a chat in Slack:
- Social Intents looks up the Slack user by their user ID
- The user's email, display name, and profile photo are pulled from their Slack profile
- The agent's name and photo appear in the visitor's chat window
There is no separate agent provisioning step. If someone is in the Slack channel and responds to a chat, they are an agent.
The Default Channel
During setup, you select a default channel. This channel serves as the notification hub where all new chat invitations are posted. When a visitor starts a chat, a message appears in this channel with the visitor's name, the page they are on, and their initial message.
Common choices for the default channel:
#live-chat- A dedicated channel that all agents monitor#apoyo- If your support team already uses this channel#sales- If the primary chat audience is sales leads
Changing the Default Channel
To change which channel receives chat notifications:
- Go to My Widgets and select your widget
- Find the Slack channel setting
- Select the new channel from the dropdown
- Save the settings
Per-Chat Channels
One of the key features of the Slack integration is per-chat channels. When a visitor starts a conversation, Social Intents automatically creates a new Slack channel dedicated to that single chat session. The channel name is based on the visitor's name (truncated to 21 characters if necessary).
This provides several benefits:
- Conversation isolation - Each chat is in its own channel, so multiple simultaneous conversations do not get mixed together
- Multiple agents - Several team members can join the per-chat channel and collaborate on the response
- Clean history - The full conversation transcript is contained in one place
- Automatic cleanup - When the chat ends, the channel is archived
Agent Features in Slack
Comandos de barra
Social Intents provides slash commands that agents can use within chat channels:
| Command | What It Does |
|---|---|
/end | Closes the chat and archives the channel |
/transcript | Sends the full chat transcript to the visitor |
/chatbot o /ai | Invokes the AI chatbot to generate a response |
Agent Profile Information
Social Intents can show the agent's Slack profile photo and display name in the visitor's chat window. You can configure this behavior in your widget settings:
- Display name - Use the agent's Slack display name or real name
- Profile photo - Show the agent's Slack photo in the chat widget
- Typing indicators - Show when the agent is typing
Compartir archivos
Agents can share files through the chat. Social Intents supports file uploads up to 25 MB. Certain file types are blocked for security: executables (.exe), archives (.zip), scripts (.js, .py, .bat), and other potentially dangerous formats.
Multiple Widgets, Multiple Channels
You can create multiple widgets, each connected to different Slack channels:
- Widget A (marketing site) routes to
#chat-de-ventas - Widget B (support portal) routes to
#support-chat - Widget C (product app) routes to
#product-help
Each widget maintains its own default channel, AI chatbot settings, and appearance configuration.
Best Practices
- Use a dedicated channel - Do not use
#generalfor chat notifications. Create a channel specifically for live chat so notifications do not get lost in other discussions - Enable channel notifications - Make sure agents have notifications enabled for the default chat channel so they do not miss incoming chats
- Limit channel access - Only add team members who should handle chats. This prevents people from accidentally joining visitor conversations
- Use the /end command - Close chats properly with
/endto keep your channel list clean. Archived channels can be reopened if needed
Preguntas frecuentes
Do agents need Social Intents accounts?
No. Agents respond through Slack using their existing Slack accounts. The widget owner manages settings through the Social Intents dashboard.
What happens to the per-chat channel after the conversation ends?
The channel is archived. It remains in your Slack workspace and can be searched or unarchived if you need to reference the conversation later.
Can I prevent certain Slack users from joining chats?
Use a private Slack channel as your default chat channel. Only members of that private channel will see incoming chat notifications.