BuddyPress Instant Chat vs TalkJS

This plugin allows users to chat in real time using AJAX. Users can connect with any other users. Use the [bp-instant-chat] shortcode to embed the front end chat on any page.

The TalkJS plugin allows you to add user-to-user chat to your marketplace, on-demand app, or social platform. You’ll have it up and running in 5 minutes. It integrates fully with WooCommerce and marketplace/multi-vendor plugins like WCVendors. This plugin offers you shortcodes and template tags for our three basic views: The inbox, the chatbox and the chat pop-up. It also adds a chatbox widget and an inbox-page. TalkJS is the messaging tool for platforms. Add buyer seller chat to your marketplace, on-demand app, or peer-to-peer chat to your social platform. Similar to what Airbnb, Upwork, or LinkedIn are offering in messaging. By providing direct contact between your users, you’re saving on customer support time, increase user interaction and retention. With this plugin, you can add TalkJS to your WordPress installation in just a few clicks and allow your users to chat with each other inside of your website or app right away! NOTE: This plugin is free, but you’ll need a TalkJS subscription to be able to use it in a production environment. TalkJS offers unlimited testing and a 14 day free trial when you go live. For developers If you’re looking to integrate the TalkJS messaging platform to your WordPress site, this is the easiest way to do it. You can use three methods of implementation: Shortcodes Widgets Template tags Shortcodes You can use shortcodes on a post-by-post basis. The following three shortcodes allows you to easily use any TalkJS UI: [talkjs_chat] [talkjs_inbox] [talkjs_popup] You can pass along the default conversation user for the chat and the popup. You do this by adding a user ID to the shortcode: [talkjs_chat user=”2″] If you wish to get the author of the post as your conversation user you can use the following: [talkjs_chat userType=”author”]. You shouldn’t fill in the user ID in this case since it overwrites the userType. With all three you can pass along a custom welcome message like this: [talkjs_chat welcomeMessage=”Hi there!”] For Inbox and Chatbox, you can also customize the width and height of the shortcodes by passing width and height properties like this: [talkjs_chat height=”500px” width=”250px”] There are some predefined styles to make integration easier, if you want full control over the style of the TalkJS UI container, you can pass style property to overwrite the default styles. width and height properties are ignored when style is used. The popup also has an option to keep it open between pages by using the shortcode with the keepOpen property e.g. [talkjs_popup keepOpen=”true”] Widgets There’s currently only one widget available: The TalkJS Chatbox widget. In it you can set a title, a welcome message and the conversation user (the current post author if blank) Template tags You can use template tags if you want to display the chatbox, inbox or popup on certain templates. You use them in your code like so: You can pass along the same attributes as in the shortcode-version. You add them in an array, like this: “Hi there, let\’s chat!”, ‘userType’ => ‘author’ ]); ?> Welcome Message customization You can add custom variables to your welcome message. These variables are available: {{first_name}} -> logged in users’ first name. {{last_name}} -> logged in users’ last name. {{name}} -> logged in users’ full name. Available filters We currently have one filter available for developers. Feel free to contact us if you need any other filters. talkjs_hidden_post_types_for_chat_popup Hide your custom post-type as a viable chat option.