Supported Channels, Services, Apps

Default Channel

LiveTiles Chat

This is the default client for end users to interact with a bot. By using the URL available after publishing the bot to this channel, the bot can be accessed directly in a web browser, or it can be embedded in your pages to sit along side other sources of relevant information.
This channel is also the only one that allows some advanced functionality that isn't available in the other channels. These include:

• Custom branding: The color changes and the logo that you upload in the bot settings will be reflected in the client.
• Multi-chat: This will allow a user to change context between different bots from within the same client session. This feature, when enabled in your organisation, will be available in the top left of the chat client via a drop-down menu. 

Supported Browsers

Supported browsers include:

• Chrome
• Edge
• Safari
• Internet Explorer 11 (Internet Explorer 10 is not supported)

Other browsers should also work, although behavior cannot be guaranteed.

Embedding the Bot

Once a bot has been published, it will be usable through the URL provided in the designer. This URL looks something like the following:

https://webchat.livetilesbots.com/#botId=317c3df6-b844-43ef-add4-cb988474a00e

This can be embedded in a website, or anything that supports an iFrame. When using an iFrame, add the parameter string &embedded=true to the URL.
There are also some additional parameters that can be added to the URL to tweak the behavior, as outlined below.

Anonymous access

The default behavior for a bot is to require a user to authenticate.

In the scenario where no authentication is required from the user (for example a public QnA bot), the default behavior can be changed to allow for anonymous access of the bot. This is achieved by simply adding the string, &anonymous=true to the URL, example below:

https://webchat.livetilesbots.com/#botId=317c3df6-b844-43ef-add4-cb988474a00e&anonymous=true

No Landing / Splash page

When the bot loads for the first time, a landing page / splash screen is encountered. Depending on the color and logo that the bot was configured with the page will look similar to the example below:

This can be bypassed so that the user immediately sees the bot welcome message (if configured) and chat interface. To do this, simply add the string, &skipSplash=true to the URL:

https://webchat.livetilesbots.com/#botId=317c3df6-b844-43ef-add4-cb988474a00e&skipSplash=true

Optional Channels

Disclaimer: Apart from the above mentioned LiveTiles Chat, all other channels are managed by their providers.

We cannot guarantee the behavior will always be as expected in these different channels, and some limitations will be encountered.

Note: All of the channels below are currently enabled by default, and they are accessible through the URL provided. These channels have a limitation of only being able to talk to one bot per tenant.

The bot that will be communicated with, will be the most recent bot that was published and that a user has access to.

Microsoft Teams

Detailed steps for configuration available here.

Facebook Messenger

Detailed steps for configuration available here.

Future Channels

Channels that could also be supported in future are the following:

• Bing
• Cortana
• Email
• GroupMe
• Kik
• Slack
• Telegram
• Twilio

To get access to these channels, feel free to log an idea in our ideas portal.