Remember Visitors: Continue Conversations Across Pages

With Remember visitors on, a chatbot conversation follows the visitor from page to page, and even when they come back days later. With it off, every page load starts a fresh chat: a visitor who sends a message, clicks to another page, and opens the chat again sees only the greeting.

Websites added to Boei since September 2025 have it on from the start. Websites added before then have it off, because the setting did not exist yet.

How to get there: Go to Setup → Business in the top menu → click your website → Profile tab → Preferences in the sidebar → section Visitor Experience → switch Remember visitors (uses a cookie).

What it does

With the switch on:

  • The chatbot conversation continues on every page of your website. The visitor can browse, come back to the chat, and pick up where they left off.
  • If the chat window was open when the visitor clicked to the next page, it opens again by itself on that page.
  • A visitor who returns within 4 days of their last message lands in the same conversation. After 4 days without messages, the next message starts a new conversation.
  • Returning visitors are counted once in your widget analytics, not once per page.

With the switch off:

  • Every page load starts a new conversation. Nothing carries over between pages.
  • No cookie is stored on your website.
  • Widget analytics count every page load as a new visitor.

Visitors can start over at any time using Start new conversation in the chat menu.

How to turn it on or off

  1. Go to Setup → Business in the top menu
  2. Click your website
  3. Open the Profile tab and click Preferences in the sidebar
  4. Under Visitor Experience, use the switch Remember visitors (uses a cookie)

The change is live right away. Visitors who already have your site open get it within about 5 minutes, or immediately after a page refresh.

How it works

When the switch is on, Boei stores one small cookie on your website (not on boei.help):
Name widget_load_key
Content A random ID, for example f47ac10b-58cc-4372-a567-0e02b2c3d479
Lifetime 30 days
Type First-party, functional

The random ID links the visitor's browser to their conversation. It holds no name, email, or other personal information, and it cannot be used to identify anyone. Each time the chat opens, Boei uses the ID to load the conversation for that visitor.

Because the cookie is stored on your own website, it works in all browsers, including Safari and Firefox with strict privacy settings.

The cookie is functional: it makes the chat work across pages. Most consent tools list this kind of cookie under "Functional" or "Necessary". Check with your legal advisor for your situation.

If your consent tool blocks all cookies until the visitor accepts, the conversation only continues after they accept. Boei cannot store the cookie before that.

Suggested wording for your privacy policy:

Chat widget

We use Boei to offer chat on our website. To continue your chat when
you move between pages, we store a random identifier in your browser
for 30 days. It contains no personal information.

Cookie name: widget_load_key
Purpose: Continue the chat conversation across pages
Duration: 30 days
Type: First-party, functional

You can delete this cookie at any time through your browser settings.

Troubleshooting

The chat starts fresh on every page

  1. Check that Remember visitors (uses a cookie) is on for the right website. The switch is per website, so check each website you use Boei on.
  2. Refresh the page once after switching it on.
  3. Test in a private browser window: open the chat on one page, send a message, click to another page, open the chat again. Your message should be there.
  4. If it still starts fresh, check whether your website has a cookie consent plugin that deletes cookies until the visitor accepts.

The conversation is gone after a few days

Conversations continue for 4 days after the last message. This is on purpose, so a visitor who shares a computer does not see someone else's chat. The visitor's name and email, if they gave them, carry over into the new conversation.

Visitors on a second domain do not see their chat

The cookie belongs to one domain. A visitor who moves from www.example.com to shop.example.com starts a new conversation on the second domain.

Checking the cookie yourself

Open your website, open the browser developer tools, go to the Application (Chrome) or Storage (Firefox) tab, and look under Cookies for widget_load_key. The value should stay the same when you move to another page.