Recently one of our readers asked if it was possible to create chat rooms on your WordPress site for your users?
A chat room hosted on your site will allows your visitors to chat with each other without needing to install a third-party chat client like Slack or Discord.
In this article, we’ll show you how to create a chat room in WordPress.
Why Add a Chat Room in WordPress?
If you run a small membership website or an online forum, then you may want to add instant messaging chat room for your users.
Normally, you can use third-party services like Slack, WhatsApp, Facebook groups, Discord, etc. But the downside is that all the communication will happen outside your website.
An on-site chat room can make your small community come alive and allow users to talk to each other without leaving your website.
Note: These chat rooms are for small community of users. If you are looking for live chat for customer support, then check out our list of best live chat support software.
That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily add a chat room to your WordPress site.
Adding Chat Rooms in WordPress
First, you’ll need to install and activate the Simple Ajax Chat plugin. For more details, see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Once you’ve activated the plugin, simply go to the Settings » Simple Ajax Chat page to set up your chat room.
You need to go to the Plugin Settings section and change the name of your chat under ‘General Settings.’ We called it ‘My Chat Room’ for this example.
Under general settings, there are a bunch of options that you can use to customize your chat room.
For instance, you can require users to be logged in to use the chat feature. Or they can use their logged-in username as their chat name, and more.
You can also customize the appearance of your chat room and even manage banned words and phrases if you want to.
How to Display Your Chat Room in WordPress
The next step is to create the page where you want your chat room to live. On the settings page, scroll down to the “Shortcode & Template Tag” area and click to open it.
You’ll see the shortcode that you need to copy:
Next, go to Pages » Add New in your WordPress admin, and name your page.
After that, you can add the shortcode ‘[sac_happens]’ to display your chat room.
To add the shortcode, first you’ll need to click the circle with the ‘+’ sign in the upper left corner of the WordPress block editor. Next, type in ‘short’, and you’ll see the shortcode option.
Click the shortcode button to add it to your page and then paste the shortcode ‘[sac_happens]’ into that area.
Now you can click the Publish button to save your changes. After that, go ahed and check out your page to see your live chat room in action. This is how it looked on our test site.
We hope this article helped you learn how to create chat rooms using WordPress for users. You might also want to see our guide on the best chatbot software, and how to add web push notifications in WordPress to connect with your visitors after they leave your site.
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Aks says
Hey, does everyone who wants to partake in the chat require a wordpress account?
WPBeginner Support says
The users do not need a WordPress account but you can require an account on your site if you wanted.
Admin
Alexi says
Wow, great article!
WPBeginner Support says
Thank you
Admin
Maja says
It’s a pity that you can not embed room
on any page, e.g. shordcode, widget etc.
WPBeginner Support says
We will be sure to look into alternatives with that option for future updates
Admin
Ahshan says
a how can i delete chatbox pragraph
Tijjani Isah says
Really Appreciate It
Ahmed Barwari says
I installed and activated the plugin but its not working.
403 Forbidden
The website’s configuration prevents you from accessing this page.
Saminu Eedris says
This is great.
I just got a job for an online bar, not really and online bar but there would be a platform where the visitors can interact with some of the brand ambassadors.
I think I will try out this plugin to see how it works.
Thanks,
Saminu!
asad ali says
Hi
i have chat room site and i want to use wordpress chat room their is any plugin that i can use on my blog right now i am using someone else chat room scrpit but i want to add mine chat room please suggest if their is any good chat room thanks
anand kjha says
how many users can use the facility of chat room at a time?
Giorgios says
I used that plugin on my website – it works fine but is too simple. Mainly no file sharing feature so I switched to Chatwee. It suits me better.
HappyMoon says
Hello. How do I create something like the top of your site, such as HOME »BLOG» WORDPRESS PLUGINS »HOW TO CREATE CHAT ROOMS …
Editorial Staff says
Its a plugin called Breadcrumb NavXT. You can see more about it on our Blueprint page.
https://www.wpbeginner.com/blueprint/
Admin
HappyMoon says
Thank you so much
Khürt L. Williams says
I’m always looking for way to increase the use of our organization’s WordPress install. We have a bulletin board running on another system but I want to centralize systems. Perhaps bbpress with this plugin is the way forward.
ivica says
Did you see this WP chat plugin? One of the best, if not THE best:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/quick-chat/
Made in Croatia
Ivica
Editorial Staff says
Didn’t know about that one. Will have to take a look at it.
Admin
Thomas says
Have to agree with this. Looked into both and the one you posted is way better! I’ve been looking for something JUST like this for my site at NE1UP.com so I really appreciate it!
No worries, @WPBeginner, still love your site and it’s so beautiful.
Wouldn’t have figured this out if you hadn’t posted about WordPress chat in the first place!
Thanks guys!