The Tool Desk
Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →The current first-party way to add a chatbot to a new Wix website is Wix Smart Chat, installed from the Wix App Market. After adding it, choose whether visitors should receive replies from you or your team (Manual Chat) or from an AI that uses your site content (AI Chat). Configure the widget in your Wix dashboard, train and test the AI if you use it, and publish the site to make the widget visible to visitors.
This guide covers the exact setup sequence, the difference between manual and AI chat, testing and lead capture, the status of the older Wix Chat product, third-party app choices, and fixes for common launch problems.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
What you need before adding a Wix chatbot
You need access to the Wix site as an owner or a role that can install apps and change dashboard settings. Have the information a visitor is likely to ask for ready: product or service descriptions, pricing or quotation rules, opening hours, delivery or appointment policies, returns, contact details, and escalation instructions. AI Chat can only give dependable answers when those details are present in the content and rules you provide.
Quick wins for a faster PC:
Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Decide who should handle conversations that need a person. In Manual Chat, the site owner or team replies from Wix Inbox when someone is available. In AI Chat, the system answers from your site content and can capture leads automatically; you still need a process for reviewing those conversations and following up.
Finally, check whether you want a first-party Wix app or a third-party chatbot. Wix-made apps are free to install, although some features may require a Premium Plan. Third-party developers set their own fees and show them on each App Market listing.
Manual Chat or AI Chat? Choose the response mode first
Smart Chat supports two fundamentally different ways to respond. Selecting the right one prevents a common launch mistake: adding the widget without deciding whether a human or an AI is responsible for the first reply.
| Mode | Who answers | What it uses | Availability requirement | Useful for | Main responsibility |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manual Chat | You or your team in Wix Inbox | The visitor’s message and your team’s knowledge | A person needs to monitor and answer conversations when available | Questions that need judgment, quotes, account help, or a personal tone | Set availability and respond promptly; define what happens when nobody is online |
| AI Chat | Wix Smart Chat’s AI | Your published site content plus the training rules you provide | The AI can answer outside staff hours, but its information must be checked | Routine product, service, policy, and lead-capture questions | Train, test, restrict topics where necessary, and review conversations |
If you do not select a mode during setup, Wix says Smart Chat stays in Manual Chat by default while it indexes your site in the background. That default prevents an unreviewed AI from answering visitors, but it also means no automated answers will appear until you deliberately enable and configure AI Chat.
Recommended Free Tools
How to add Wix Smart Chat step by step
1. Open Smart Chat in the Wix App Market
Sign in to Wix and open the Wix App Market. Search for Wix Smart Chat, open its listing, and choose the option to add it to your site. Wix redirects you to the editor and adds the chat widget to the site.
Confirm that you are working on the correct site if your account manages more than one. Installing the app on one site does not add it to your other Wix projects. At this point the widget exists in the editor, but visitors will not see it until the site is published.
2. Select Manual Chat or AI Chat
During the Smart Chat setup, choose the response mode that matches your support process. Select Manual Chat when a site owner or team member should answer from Inbox. Select AI Chat when you want Smart Chat to answer using your site information and handle routine questions automatically.
You can also leave the mode at its default while you prepare your content. Wix keeps Smart Chat in Manual Chat if no mode is selected and indexes the site in the background. Do not treat indexing as approval of the AI’s answers; if you later enable AI Chat, train and test it before publishing.
Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3. Open Smart Chat settings in the site dashboard
After installation, go to your site’s dashboard and open the Smart Chat configuration. The available controls cover how the widget behaves and what visitors see:
- Availability: define when your team is available for manual conversations.
- Offline behavior: decide what visitors see or can do when nobody is available.
- Contact-form options: collect contact details when a live reply is not possible or when a visitor wants a follow-up.
- Avatars: choose the identity or image shown beside chat responses.
- Pages excluded from AI answers: prevent AI Chat from answering with content from selected pages.
- AI identity and response style: set how the AI introduces itself and how it should communicate.
Save each setting after reviewing it in the preview. Dashboard configuration changes take effect without republishing the site, although the widget itself and design changes still require a publish.
4. Prepare the site content the AI will use
AI Chat answers from the information available on your site, so make that information explicit before training. Use clear headings and current wording for products, services, eligibility, pricing explanations, delivery or appointment details, policies, and contact routes. If a policy has exceptions, state them rather than assuming the AI will infer them.
Mark pages that should not be used for answers in the Smart Chat settings. For example, you may want to exclude a draft page, an internal-looking page, or a page whose information changes frequently until it has been reviewed. Excluding a page keeps its content out of AI answers; it does not remove the page from your website.
Windows Errors? Fix Them Before They Spread
Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallOutdated Drivers Are Slowing You Down
One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware match5. Train AI Chat with business rules
Wix provides training rules for teaching Smart Chat about your products, policies, and services or for restricting topics. Write rules in operational language. State what the AI should answer, what it must not promise, when it should request contact details, and when it should direct the visitor to a person.
Useful rules include:
- Use the current product or service names exactly as they appear on the site.
- Explain a policy only when the visitor’s situation matches the published conditions.
- Do not invent prices, delivery dates, availability, discounts, or guarantees.
- Ask for the visitor’s preferred contact method when a staff follow-up is required.
- Direct account-specific, payment, complaint, or unusual requests to your team.
These examples describe the type of rule to write; the actual policy must come from your business. Keep the rules consistent with the content visitors can read, because conflicting instructions make answers harder to trust.
6. Test with real visitor questions before launch
Use Smart Chat’s testing tools to ask the questions a visitor would actually type, not only questions copied from your page headings. Test short questions, misspellings, follow-up questions, and requests that require a policy exception. Check whether the answer is accurate, whether it identifies itself appropriately, and whether it sends a lead to the right next step.
Give feedback on weak answers and retest after changing a page or training rule. Wix specifically recommends testing and providing feedback, then testing again when business information changes. Keep a small test list for your most important products, policies, and contact paths so updates do not silently reduce answer quality.
Free tools Windows power users keep installed
One-click scans. No signup required.
7. Publish the Wix site
Click Publish in the Wix editor when the widget’s placement and design are ready. Publishing activates the chat widget on the public site and makes design changes live. A visitor using the published URL can then open the chat and follow the availability, offline, contact-form, and response-mode settings you configured.
Remember the distinction between editor and dashboard changes: the widget and its design need publishing, while dashboard settings take effect without another publish. If you change the widget’s location, appearance, or other editor-level design after launch, publish again.
8. Review conversations in Wix Inbox
Open Inbox regularly to review manual conversations and the questions visitors ask. Conversation history shows which topics cause confusion and which pages or training rules need improvement. For AI Chat, use recurring questions to update the site content or rules rather than adding a one-off answer that will quickly become outdated.
Set an internal owner for follow-up. AI can capture leads automatically, but a captured lead still needs a timely human response. Make sure the team knows where those leads appear and what information to verify before contacting someone.
What’s actually slowing this PC down?
Pick the symptom - the matching free tool is one click away.
Configuring Manual Chat for a human support team
Manual Chat is the safer starting point when answers depend on a person’s judgment or when your business information is not yet organized. In Smart Chat settings, set the hours when the team is available and define the offline experience. During available hours, visitors can send messages that your owner or team answers from Wix Inbox.
Use the contact-form options to collect a name and contact route when the team is offline or when a visitor requests a follow-up. Make the form request only information your team needs to respond. Review the avatar and identity settings so visitors understand whether they are speaking with a person or waiting for one.
Manual Chat does not remove the need for publishing. The widget must still be published to appear on the public site, even though replies are written by your team rather than generated by AI.
Configuring AI Chat without overpromising
AI Chat is useful for repeatable questions, but its quality depends on the source information and the rules you give it. Start with a narrow, well-documented scope instead of asking it to handle every possible support issue. Product descriptions, service explanations, basic policies, and lead qualification are easier to validate than account-specific or exception-heavy requests.
Give the AI a clear identity and response style in Smart Chat. A concise style can help visitors scan answers, while a warmer style may suit a service business. Whichever style you choose, it should not imply that a human has reviewed an answer when it has not.
Use page exclusions when a page should not influence answers. Revisit exclusions whenever you reorganize the site. A page that was safe to exclude during setup may contain important information after a redesign, while a page that was once authoritative may become outdated.
Schedule a review whenever prices, services, policies, hours, or contact processes change. Wix’s training and feedback workflow is not a substitute for updating the underlying page; keep both the source content and the AI rules aligned.
What happened to the older Wix Chat products?
For a new installation, use Smart Chat rather than searching for the older Wix Chat app. Wix states that “Wix Chat is no longer available to install on new sites.” Wix’s AI Site Chat overview says the older product stopped being available for installation on new sites from March 2026, while existing installations continue to work.
This means instructions written for adding Wix Chat to a brand-new site can lead you to a product you cannot install. Existing site owners who already have the older product may continue using it, but the current setup route for a new Wix site is Smart Chat in the App Market.
Adding a third-party chatbot from the Wix App Market
If Smart Chat does not meet a specific requirement, Wix also permits Wix-made and third-party apps to be added from the App Market, the editor, or the site dashboard. The installation flow depends on the app, so read the listing’s feature, compatibility, pricing, and support information before adding it.
Wix-made apps are free to install, although some capabilities may require a Premium Plan. A third-party app may have its own subscription, usage limits, or paid features; the developer determines those fees and displays them on the listing. Wix Customer Care supports Wix-made apps. For a third-party app, use the developer contact information shown on that app’s listing for technical support.
When comparing an external chatbot with Smart Chat, compare the actual response mode, the pages or data it can use, lead-capture behavior, availability controls, and how conversations reach your team. Do not assume that an app listed in the App Market has the same billing or support terms as a Wix-made app.
Troubleshooting a Wix chatbot that is not working
| Symptom | Likely cause | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| The widget is missing from the live site | The site or the widget design has not been published | Publish the site from the Wix editor, then open the public URL in a new browser window. |
| The widget appears, but no AI answers are given | Smart Chat is still in its default Manual Chat mode | Open Smart Chat settings and deliberately select AI Chat, then train and test it. |
| Visitors cannot reach anyone after sending a message | Availability or offline behavior is not configured for the team’s actual hours | Review availability, offline behavior, and contact-form options in the dashboard. |
| AI answers contain outdated information | A page or training rule no longer matches the business | Update the source page, revise the rule, test the affected questions, and review feedback. |
| The AI answers from a page it should not use | The page has not been excluded from AI answers | Add that page to the exclusion settings and test a question that previously used it. |
| A third-party app has a billing or technical issue | The app is governed by its developer’s terms | Check the App Market listing and contact the developer using the support details there. |
Launch checklist
- Smart Chat is installed on the intended Wix site.
- Manual Chat or AI Chat is selected intentionally.
- Availability and offline behavior match the hours your team can support.
- Contact-form fields collect the details needed for a follow-up.
- Widget identity, avatar, and placement are understandable to visitors.
- AI identity and response style match your brand without implying human review.
- Pages that should not inform AI answers are excluded.
- Training rules cover products, services, policies, and escalation boundaries.
- Visitor-like questions have been tested, corrected, and tested again.
- The site has been published and checked at its public URL.
- Someone owns Inbox review and lead follow-up.
Frequently Asked Questions
These answers address setup details that are easy to miss when moving from an editor preview to a live Wix site.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the current Wix chatbot app for a new website?
Wix Smart Chat is the current first-party route. Add it from the Wix App Market, then choose Manual Chat or AI Chat.
Can I keep using Wix Chat if it is already installed?
Existing installations of the older Wix Chat product continue to work, but Wix no longer makes it available for installation on new sites.
Does changing a Smart Chat dashboard setting require another publish?
No. Dashboard setting changes take effect without publishing. Changes to the widget or its design in the editor require publishing.
Can Smart Chat stop AI from using a specific page?
Yes. Smart Chat includes settings for excluding pages from AI answers. Exclude a page, then test a question that could otherwise draw information from it.
Can AI Chat collect leads?
Wix says AI Chat can capture leads automatically. Your team still needs to review the resulting conversation and follow up.
Who supports a third-party chatbot installed through Wix?
The app developer provides support for a third-party app. Use the contact information on that app’s Wix App Market listing. Wix Customer Care supports Wix-made apps.
Why does my new Smart Chat installation answer manually instead of with AI?
Smart Chat remains in Manual Chat by default when no response mode is selected. Open its configuration, choose AI Chat, and complete training and testing before relying on automated replies.
What should I do when an AI answer is wrong?
Check the page content and training rules that govern the topic, correct the source information, give feedback through Smart Chat’s testing workflow, and retest the same visitor question.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
