📕Changelog

All changes to the Captivate Hub will be added here. Guides will be updated concurrently.

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v3.5.1

📆2025-02-10

✅ Added

• Custom Channels are here! If you want to integrate Captivate Chat functionalities into your own Channel outside our offerings, you can finally do so!

• Citations are now live! You can make your AI Chatbot provide sources of its data whenever it provides responses to users.

• Token Estimation errors are now reported! The platform will now let you know if a URL you plan on ingesting isn't available for processing.

• Asynchronous messages are now saved in Transcripts. Messages that are via the Chatbot directly from agents (without using the Chat Flow) are now stored alongside traditional messages.

• Session Expiry can now be set in select Channels. This will end inactive chats after a set number of days.

🟧 Changed

• Changed a button in the Edit Data section of the Create AI Chatbot process.

⚠️ Fixed

• Smileys are back! We fixed a chat error regarding emojis, so now you can add emojis to your conversations with AI Chatbots!

• Fixed a bug where pages are forcibly refreshed after the user uploads a file of the same file name multiple times during the Web Widget Test.

• Fixed a delay between the time users choose files to ingest and the system starts ingesting it.

• Fixed a bug that delays the Add Information section of the Create AI Chatbot process after an ingestion procedure is cancelled.

• Fixed a bug that doubles the URLs ingested when using the Captivate Chat URL Crawler.

🆕 Custom Channels

Select "Custom Channel" under Chat Flows > Channel in order to show your AI Chatbot in your very own Channel of choice outside our regular options.

Custom Channels are now available as a Channel option for Captivate Chat users. Select this if you want to show our AI Chatbot and connect your users to Live Agents in a different platform outside of our offerings.

This will require some manual setup, which we will provide in our guide!

🆕 Citations

In the "Import Your Own Information" window, you can toggle "Enable Citations" so your AI Chatbot will send an extra message after each response that contains the sources of its answers.

Citations are now available in your Captivate Chat bots! This takes the form of a simple but powerful toggle in AI Chatbots > Add Information.

If you turn on this toggle, your AI Chatbot will provide an extra response that contains the sources of their answers.

🆕 Token Estimation Errors

Faulty URLs will now be flagged during the Token Estimation process of the AI Chatbot > Add Information part of the AI Chatbot Creation process.

We now have Token Estimation Errors that will appear as error messages when trying to ingest faulty URLs.

These errors will come with tooltips that explain why these URLs haven't been ingested, which range from inaccessible URLs to incompatible formats.

🆕 Session Expiry

When editing Channels, you can change the "Session Timeout (Days)" of Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp. This will dictate the number of days before an existing inactive conversation is closed.

Session Expiry can now be modified in your Channels. This dictates the number of days before an existing (but inactive) conversation with your AI Chatbot on Instagram, Facebook Messenger, or WhatsApp is closed.

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v3.5.0

📆2025-01-29

✅ Added

• We now support SCA Stripe. SCA, which stands for Strong Customer Authentication, allows us to offer more secure transactions when purchasing Captivate Chat Tokens or upgrading your subscriptions.

• Web Widgets:

  • Full Screen Embeds are now available for Web Widget Chat Flows! Simply customize a special iframe code with your Web Widget's API and put that into the HTML of the webpage where you want a full screen AI Chatbot to greet your customers.

• Metadata:

  • Will now have conversation dates added by default, helping you keep track of important information much faster.

  • Initial metadata will be stored in custom metadata, making data retrieval more efficient.

• Captivate AI & LLM API will now make it easier for AI devs to integrate with AIs with Captivate Chat.

• Custom Channels:

  • New APIs are available to make conversation deletions in the index (not the real sessions) much easier to manage if you're using our Custom Channels:

    • Use the conversation_id of that specific conversation to delete it from the index.

    • Use the user_id of the user in question to delete all their conversations from the index.

    • Asyncrhonous messaging via send_message can now handle file attachments.

🟧 Changed

• Free and Basic Accounts now get 1,000,000 Tokens! This leaves you more room to try Captivate Chat for your projects.

• AI Chatbots:

  • Clicking any AI Chatbot will immediately reveal the list of modifications you can do to them.

⚠️ Fixed

• Fixed some UI inconsistencies to provide a more seamless experience.

• Fixed deep crawler issues, so it now:

  • Shows results in the estimator (instead of no results).

  • Is not case sensitive (it was previously)

  • It doesn't need "www." (it previously did)

• Fixed issues involving the ingestion of at least 100 URLs.

• Fixed issues involving the creation of an AI Chatbot directly from the Chat Flow process.

🆕 Captivate AI & LLM API

This is a Python Package Index (PyPI) screenshot of the Captivate AI & LLM API, an API developed by Captivate Chat to handle its API formats.

We have released the Captivate AI & LLM API. Access it here.

We developed the Captivate AI & LLM API to handle Captivate Chat's API formats. This flexible messaging and metadata management system is built using Pydantic models and designed to handle complex communication scenarios with robust checking and validation.

Its main features include dynamic metadata handling, immutable session and chat properties, flexible message type support, custom metadata manipulation, and conversation title management.

🆕 Full Screen Embed Code

A Web Widget adjusted to fit a full screen resolution thanks to the Full Screen Embed Code. If you fill up a special iframe code with your Web Widget API and paste that code into the HTML of your assigned webpage, that particular webpage becomes a full-screen AI Chatbot.

We have made a Full Screen Embed Code for you to use with your Web Widget Chat Flows!

Unlike our traditional embeds that provide you with an interactive AI Chatbot within a webpage, our Full Screen Embed Code will "fill" the webpage with your AI Chatbot. In order to do this, simply put your Web Widget API into a special iframe code you can access in Channel: Web Chat

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v3.4.1

📆2025-01-10

✅ Added

• AI Chatbots:

  • Select Type now has a toggle for Full Chat History, letting you decide if you want your AI Chatbot to respond based on previous conversations with the user or to treat every conversation as a completely new one.

  • You can now set session expiration timers within an AI Chatbot so they can automatically end an inactive session after your specified period of time.

🆕 Full Chat History

The "Use Full Chat History For AI Context" toggle in "Select Type" of the AI Chatbot creation process. This will determine if the specific AI Chatbot in question will use all prior conversations with the user as the contextual basis of the current session. Toggling yes will do so, and toggling no on Full Chat History will treat each session as a completely new one.

We've added a Full Chat History toggle in the "Select Type" page of the AI Chatbot creation process.

Taking the form of the "Use Full Chat History for AI Context" button, this will toggle whether the AI Chatbot in question will use all prior sessions with the user as context for its current responses. Doing so will cost more tokens, but will provide maximum accuracy.

v3.4.0

📆2025-01-03

✅ Added

• Tutorials are live! Learn the ropes in creating your AI Chatbots, Chat Flows, and Live Agent integrations within the Tutorial page of the Captivate Chat platform!

• Meet our Guidebot! We've deployed our Guidebot within the Captivate Chat platform! Once you log in to your account, you can ask our Guidebot for any advice as well as tips and tricks on how to best use Captivate Chat for your needs!

• Mobile Optimization notice appears when users to try to access Captivate Chat on mobile platforms.

• AI Chatbots:

  • URL Crawler is now added under "Import Your Own Information" that auto-searches all URLs under a single URL. This will make importing groups of URLs under a "mother" URL much easier.

🟧 Changed

• Our Token Estimator now uses Server-Sent Events (SSEs). Thanks to SSEs, we should be experiencing faster and more efficient resource management. With SSEs, AI Chatbots should be able to ingest new information much faster.

• Cost-Saving toggle for Chat Histories are available globally. We will now provide a global toggle for users to choose if they want to view the full or AI-analyzed chat histories of their AI Chatbots.

  • This is unlike in previous versions, where this toggle is placed inside each AI Chatbot.

  • As per the previous version, the AI-analyzed chat histories will cost fewer tokens to produce.

🆕 Tutorials

The "Tutorial" page in the Captivate Chat platform contain videos that explain essential processes in using Captivate Chat. They are arranged in tiles, with a thumbnail and the name of the lesson.

Learning about Captivate Chat has never been easier!

Get in-depth tutorials on how to use the Captivate Chat platform using our Tutorials page! We have Tutorials for most of our processes in the platform, and we'll constantly update these Tutorials whenever we have major releases.

To access our Tutorials, simply click the button on the left side of the Captivate Chat dashboard.

🆕 URL Crawler

The "Import Your Own Information" page of the AI Chatbot creation process now features a URL Crawler. This is accessed via pressing the "Import Button." With this, users can now enter one URL and it will take the first layer of URLs sharing its section.

We've added a URL Crawler to the "Import Your Own Information" page of the AI Chatbot creation process. Users can now choose to enter a URL and Captivate Chat will gather all relevant URLs of its similar section.

If you want to retrieve relevant URLs within a particular website layer, the URL Crawler can also be used with a wildcard character or an asterisk (*).

🆕 Mobile Optimization Notice

The Captivate Chat platform can be opened in mobile browsers but it's not yet optimized for mobile devices. We've added a Mobile Optimization Notice to warn users that while they can proceed to the Captivate Chat platform, its functions might not work properly in their device.

We added a Mobile Optimization Notice for users trying to access our platform using their mobile devices.

As have yet to fully optimize the Captivate Chat platform for mobile users, this means many functions of the Captivate Chat platform might not work properly in mobile browsers. You can continue to use the platform normally via mobile by clicking "Continue to Site" when you see the Mobile Optimization Notice.

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v3.2.0

📆 2024-10-02

✅ Added

• Token Metrics are now revealed for major AI Chatbot uses such as ingesting information, training, and various conversations to aid payment tracking.

• AI Chatbots now have a limiter and organizer to maximize Token usage without overwhelming their systems. This should lessen situations of AI Chatbots randomly slowing down.

🟧 Changed

• Web Widget Preview: The Web Widget Preview now has a more noticeable Page Settings button to access its features.

• Import Your Own Information (AI Chatbots): Pagination should now reveal ingested PDFs and URLs in sets of 10 for more efficient compilation and access to users.

⚠️ Fixed

• Made minor adjustments to the UI to improve accessibility and encourage a more engaging experience.

• Streamlined Token tracking so users are immediately notified if they have run out of Tokens.

• Ensured that delete information (URLs, PDFs, accounts) are permanently deleted as intended.

• Microsoft Teams: Transcripts of the AI Chatbot's conversation with a user are now retained when their concern is escalated to a Live Chat agent in MS Teams.

🆕 Token Metrics

Tokens are now tracked throughout Captivate Chat features. The main Token count is revealed on the left side of the dashboard at all times, giving users an idea how many Tokens they have consumed, when their next Monthly Usage Reset would be, and any Extra Tokens they possess.

The Captivate Chat platform will now show token metrics to keep track of your Tokens whenever you use them across various parts of the platform. These include:

• Ingesting data that are uploaded into the system.

• Conversations between users and the AI Chatbots they create.

• Testing and deploying AI Chatbots in various platforms.

These token metrics can aid in managing your Captivate Chat plan, as major AI functionalities of the platform rely heavily in Token usage.

In line with this new change, we are also going to actively track Token usage across the platform and notify users whenever they have to purchase more Tokens.

🆕We revamped the Web Widget Preview

The Web Widget Preview of Setup > Chat Flow > Channels > Web Widget is revamped with a more streamlined look.

We've upgraded the look of our Web Widget Preview!

You can now preview your Web Widget Chat Flow with a completely revamped background.

The Web Widget Preview of Setup > Chat Flow > Channels > Web Widget now has a more visible "Page Settings" button to edit the live preview.

The button is now more visible and accessible, making it much easier for users to modify their live preview setup.

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v3.1.1

📆 2024-09-19

✅ Added

• Makeover! We've updated the Captivate Chat website to feature our new logos!

• Edit AI Chatbots while making Chat Flows! You can now directly modify your AI Chatbots while creating your Chat Flows.

🟧 Changed

• Transcripts now feature a separate Date Range filter instead of the previous By Date sorting filter.

⚠️ Fixed

• Fixed a bug that doesn't load the complete list of ingested content for some Chat Flows.

• Chat Flow > Channel > Web Widget: Fixed a typo. There is now an "Embed Web Widget" option instead of the previous "Embed Live Chat" option.

🆕 Website Makeover!

The new Captivate Chat website featuring its updated logo with a blue color palette.

We're giving the Captivate Chat website a major makeover!

This new update features new logos we've prepared for Captivate Chat, now featuring a sleek blue color palette designed to evoke a more professional and relaxing atmosphere.

🆕 Edit your AI Chatbots while making Chat Flows

Users can now click the three dots above their AI Chatbot choice in Setup > Chat Flow > My AI Chatbots to directly modify their AI Chatbots during the Chat Flow creation process.

We know that creating an AI Chatbot from scratch is wildly different when compared to connecting them to the rest of your Channels and Live Chats via a Chat Flow, as there are things you would only notice about your AI Chatbot after bringing everything together.

It's for this reason that we added a new feature that lets you edit your AI Chatbots during the Chat Flow creation process. After clicking Setup > Chat Flow, the list of AI Chatbots present in My AI Chatbots menu now feature a three dots that enable you to edit them straight in the Chat Flow-creation process.

This means you no longer have to go all the way back to Setup > AI Chatbot just to modify an AI Chatbot you'd use for your current Chat Flow - you can do everything in one convenient location.

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v3.0.0

📆 2024-09-18

✅ Added

• Incident Tracker now informs users whenever Captivate Chat services are down.

• Overwrite Warning will inform users that changing the Channel of an existing Chat Flow will remove their current setup.

🟧 Changed

• Transcripts now feature various options to simplify their use, such as sorting and deletion options.

⚠️ Fixed

• AI Chatbots now properly recognizes postal codes of locations.

• AI Chatbots no longer declares in a separate chat message that they are checking for available Live Chat agents upon request, as we already have a preset message prepared when users ask to be escalated to a Live Chat agent.

• AI Chatbots > Select Type: Removed a bug that triggers the "Submit & Test" function whenever users select a tooltip.

🆕 Overwrite Warning (Chat Flow)

Trying to change the Channel of an existing Chat Flow will now provide a warning to users that doing so will overwrite their existing data.

We have included an override warning in Chat Flows that will activate whenever users try to change the Channel of an existing Chat Flow. Undergoing this process will overwrite their data, and any overwritten data can no longer be retrieved.

It's advisable for users to duplicate their existing Chat Flow before switching Channels, as doing so will force them to start creating their Chat Flow from scratch.

Transcript Options

The Transcript page offers various features such as a Search function, as well as sorting through Filters such as Email, Channel, or Chat Flow. There are options to pick a Date to sort lists of conversations, as well as the option to check multiple conversations for deletion.

The Transcript page now offers different options for users to sort conversations detected by the Captivate Chat platform. These include the following:

• Checkbox selection of conversations. You can also mass-delete these conversations by pressing the Delete button, although this is irreversible.

• Sort by various filters, such as Date the conversation occurred, the Email used, Channel where the conversation took place, and the Chat Flow that managed the conversation.

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v2.2.0-2

📆2022-02-02

It's now much easier to use the Captivate Hub for your Livechat needs!

We're introducing new ways to modify your Livechat to automate certain tasks. Thanks to Manual Assignment, you can now set pre-determined messages that trigger after specific conditions - such as assigning chats based on an agent's MS Teams status.

Agents can also use the new "Reassign" command to transfer the chat to another available agent.

✅ Added

• reCaptcha support on registration

  • Added new environmental variable on frontend REACT_APP_GOOGLE_RECAPTCHA_KEY

• Implementation of Manual Assignment

  • Added manualAssign (bool) manualMessageUsersExist(string) manualMessageUsersNotExist (string) idleTimeoutBeforeAssign(int) (in minute) idleTimeoutAfterAssign(int) (in minute) idleMessageBeforeTimeout (string) idleMessageAfterTimeout (string) to Hub properties.

• Implementation of Agent Status

  • Added agentStatus (Array) [Available,Busy,Away,Offline] to Hub properties.

• Implementation of Reassign Agents

• New React frontend

  • Added GOOGLE_SECRET_KEY to enviromental variable on chatbot

• Livechat configuration editor on frontend

• New Teams app permissions

  • Site.Read.All (for accessing files to teams and send it to channels)

  • Group.ReadWrite.All (for modifying teams channel permissions)

🟧 Changed

• All messages on channels to MS Teams is now tagged to selected agent

🟥 Removed

• Removed support for the legacy frontend. preferred the new React frontend

⚠️ Fixed

• Emojis and attachment message filter on agents' message

• Messages on direct mode is now properly sent to Teams Desktop and Teams Mobile

🆕 Agent Status (Livechat)

You can now modify agent assignments based on their presence status in MS Teams.

Using the Livechat configuration, you can set chat assignments based on an agent's status or availability in MS Teams. Commands can affect agents who set themselves as "Available", "Busy", "Away" and "Offline."

This example video demonstrates a Livechat configured to only assign chats to someone set as "Busy". Check it out:

Agent status demonstration

🆕 Manual Assignment (Livechats)

You can now activate Manual Assignments when configuring a Livechat.

This allows pre-made messages to be sent after meeting certain conditions. Here are the properties you can modify:

• manualMessageUsersExist(string)

  Displays a message if there is an available agent to respond to the client.

• manualMessageUsersNotExist (string)

  Displays a message if there are no agents available to respond to the client.

• idleTimeoutBeforeAssign(int) (in minute)

  A value (in minutes) before a timeout is declared, should a conversation not be escalated to an agent.

• idleTimeoutAfterAssign(int) (in minute)

  A value (in minutes) before a timeout is declared, if there's an agent assigned but neither agent nor client is responding to each other.

• idleMessageBeforeTimeout (string)

  Displays a message when idleTimeoutBeforeAssign(int) elapses.

• idleMessageAfterTimeout (string)

  Display a message when ``idleTimeoutAfterAssign(int)` elapses.

➦ Default Values

Here are the default Manual Assignment values:

• manualAssign (bool): false

• manualMessageUsersExist(string): “Our agents know you’re waiting and will chat here as soon as they’re free.”

• manualMessageUsersNotExist (string): “Our agents is currently busy at the moment.”

• idleTimeoutBeforeAssign(int) (in minute): 5

• idleTimeoutAfterAssign(int) (in minute): 10

• idleMessageBeforeTimeout (string): “Our agents is currently busy at the moment.”

• idleMessageAfterTimeout (string): “Livechat Ended”

➦ Example Scenarios

You might find this manual assignment feature useful if you encounter the following scenarios:

• There are available users. Displays: manualMessageUsersExist(string)

  Suppose Teams Group A is connected to the Captivate Hub web widget, and the channel is asking if there are any agents available. Agent A (Busy) and Agent B (Available) are currently online. If Manual Assignment exists that assigns a chat to anyone set as "Available" (Agent B), then the channel has to declare that there's at least one agent (Agent B) that might be available to assist them.

• There are no available users. Displays: manualMessageUsersNotExist(string) Suppose Teams Group A has an active channel asking if there are agents available. However, both Agent A (Busy) and Agent B (Busy) are both occupied. If only "Available" agents are programmed to receive chat assignments, then the channel declares there are no available agents to assist them.

• Time has elapsed and no users managed to assist them. Runs: idleTimeoutBeforeAssign Displays: idleMessageBeforeTimeout Suppose Teams Group A has an active channel asking for agents, and Agent B (Available) is not busy. This will have the channel declare that an agent will assist the client soon. Until such a time that Agent B responds to the client, the chatbot will run the Idle Timeout counter. If the assigned time elapses and Agent B hasn't responded, a message explains that chat will be put on time out due to the lack of agent response.

• Time has elapsed that the agent and client didn't speak to each other. Runs: idleTimeoutAfterAssign Displays: idleMessageAfterTimeout Suppose Teams Group A has an active channel asking for agents, and Agent B (Available) managed to respond to the client's questions. After some time, someone in the conversation hasn't responded. This triggers a background Idle Timeout counter. If the assigned time elapses, a message appears that states one of the parties have yet to respond and the chat will be put on time out.

Manual Assignment Demo

🆕 Reassign Agent

You can now use the "Reassign" command to reassign agents within the same Teams group.

Normally, a Support Chatbot is assigned to an available Live Support Agent so they can answer client queries on their behalf. However, not all Live Support Agents can answer a client's questions. This is where Reassign comes in.

Should the need arise to transfer control of the Support Chatbot to another Live Support Agent, do this in the MS Teams chat:

1. Type "@TheCaptivateHub" to tag the Captivate Hub

2. Type "Reassign" and press Enter.

3. An automated message will appear alongside a drop down of available team members.

4. Select the desired team member to transfer the Support Chatbot.

Check out the video below:

Reassign agent demo

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v2.2.0-1

📆2021-08-26

Instagram support is now live!

You can now use Captivate Hub to create chatbots for Instagram via the Watson Assistant. Before you create your Instagram chatbots, make sure your Instagram account is a Business Account and that it is connected to your Facebook Page.

We made updates to the documentation to reflect these new changes.

✅ Added

• Instagram support

• Add bot templates support on Watson Assistant

• New enviromental variable for app-ecb-frontend (frontend / legacy)

  • REACT_APP_FACEBOOK_APPID - Facebook Application ID

• New enviromental variable for app-chatbot (chatbot)

  • FACEBOOK_APPID - Facebook Application ID

  • FACEBOOK_SECRET - Facebook Application Secret Key

• New permissions added to Facebook Application

  • instagram_manage_messages

  • instagram_basic

  • pages_manage_metadata

  • pages_show_list

🟧 Changed

• Using Facebook OAuth to add Facebook / Instagram as channels (same as Twitter now)

• Enabled public registration

• Update Microsoft Teams permissions for AppSource (https://appsource.microsoft.com/en-us/product/office/WA200003575?tab=DetailsAndSupport)

🆕 Instagram Integrations

Before attempting integrations, please ensure that you're using an Instagram Business Account. This account has to be connected to your Facebook page. For more information, please click here.

➦ Facebook Developers Advance Access

• public_profile

• pages_messaging

• Business Asset User Profile Access

• instagram_manage_messages

• instagram_basic

• pages_manage_metadata

• pages_show_list

➦ Facebook Developers Valid OAuth Redirect URLs

• Your app-channel-gateway Public URL (ex: https://hub.captivat.io/gateways/channel)

➦ Facebook Developers Allowed Domains for the JavaScript SDK

• Your frontend Public URL (ex: https://hub.captivat.io/)

To add Instagram to the Hub, you click the link below:

⚠️ Teams Application Permission

• Channel.Create

• Channel.Delete.All

• Channel.ReadBasic.All

• ChannelMessage.Read.All

• Chat.ReadWrite

• Group.Read.All

• Presence.Read.All

• Team.Create

• Team.ReadBasic.All

• TeamMember.ReadWrite.All

• TeamActivity.Send

• TeamAppInstallation.TeadWrite

• User.ReadBasic.All

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v2.2.0

📆2021-08-06

This is the Initial release of the Captivate Hub to the public.

✅ Added

• Bot Template setup

• Registration

🟧 Changed

• Changed frontend (https://hub.captivat.io) to the new design

• Old frontend will be hosted on legacy.

• Moved https://manual.captivat.io to Gitbook