Outhouse › Annoyance › Interruptions

Chat widget

A chat window that offers help, then sells something.

Why it matters

Visitors with questions are visitors with objections. A chat widget meets them early, in the corner of the screen, with a friendly face and a typing indicator, and turns every question into a conversation about upgrading.

The best widgets open by themselves after a few seconds with the words Hi there! 👋. Fewer than 1% of visitors reply. It exists to start the session recording.

How Outhouse measures it

Outhouse checks whether the page loaded a known chat or support-widget service. Any one scores in full.

This audit counts towards Annoyance, with a weight of 1. A category is 75% its two highest-scoring audits and 25% all of its audits, weighted, so a site is judged mostly on what it does most and partly on how many things it does.

How to improve your score

Install Gary. Available on selected plans. See all products.

Related audits

• Popups covering content: Overlays that cover most of the screen until the visitor deals with them.
• Cookie or consent banner: A banner asking the visitor to agree to cookies before they can do anything else.
• Push-notification service: A service that asks to send the visitor notifications after they have left.
• Permission prompts on arrival: Requests for location, notifications or the camera before the visitor has done anything.
• App nagging: Banners and buttons insisting that the visitor would be happier in the app.