Description

Easily add the Smallchat client to a WordPress site, allowing visitors to talk to teams via Slack.

The official installation instructions from Smallchat are to install a plugin which allows you to add arbitrary JS to your site. This plugin loads only the Smallchat embed JS code, instead, which is useful for environments where there may be restrictions on the plugins allowed to be installed.

External services

This plugin loads the Smallchat chat widget from Smallchat’s servers, a third-party service operated by Nicer LLC.

What it is used for: displaying the Smallchat live chat widget so that visitors can talk to your team via Slack.
What is sent, and when: once a client ID has been saved, every front-end page view by a visitor causes the visitor’s browser to request https://embed.small.chat/<your client ID>.js. That request necessarily discloses the visitor’s IP address and browser details to Smallchat. If a visitor chooses to use the widget, whatever they type, and any details they provide, are sent to Smallchat and relayed to your Slack workspace.
Who sees it: the script is not loaded for logged-in administrators, editors and authors (see the smchat4wp_hidden_roles filter), nor at all until a client ID is saved.
Consent: the widget loads without waiting for visitor consent. If your site requires consent before loading third-party scripts, make sure you obtain it, or only enable this plugin for visitors who have given it.
Privacy policy: the plugin adds suggested text about Smallchat to the Privacy Policy Guide (Settings > Privacy), which you can copy into your site’s privacy policy.
Service links: Smallchat Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, GDPR information.

Installation

Prequisites

Before using this plugin you need to add Smallchat to Slack. After you\’ve added Smallchat to Slack, you can get your client ID from the embed code.

Configuration

Activate the plugin
Navigate to WP Admin > Settings > Smallchat.
Add your client ID

After that the Smallchat client will appear on the front end for visitors and other users, but not for logged-in administrators, editors and authors, and it will appear in the WP Customizer preview.

To change which roles do not see the widget, use the smchat4wp_hidden_roles filter, which receives an array of role slugs (default: editor, administrator, author):

add_filter( 'smchat4wp_hidden_roles', function ( $roles ) { return array( 'administrator' ); } );

Reviews

Zak Knudsen Alunsun 25, 2023

As the developer of this plugin, I think I did a good job. Not a great or amazing job; but not a bad or dismal job either. Just a good job. The thing does what I intended it to do (inject Smallchat in a configurable way) and nothing I didn't intend it to do. I think the developer could be a bit more responsive in the support forum, but frankly I don't think he checks his email often. Glad to see the original author is still supporting this project after 5 years of development! Wow!

Read all 1 review

Contributors & Developers

“Load Smallchat” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Zak Knudsen

Translate “Load Smallchat” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

This plugin is not under active development. Smallchat have not significantly changed their embed code since I originally wrote this, so it is unlikely that this plugin will need to be updated in the future.

Version bumps will be made to ensure that the plugin is compatible with the latest version of WordPress.

1.2.0

Release date: 2026-10-20

Suggest text about Smallchat for the site’s privacy policy, in the Privacy Policy Guide (Settings > Privacy)
Show a warning when characters that are not allowed in a client ID are removed on save, and trim surrounding whitespace
Label the Client ID field for screen readers, and match core’s field styling
Remove the function_exists() guards, which could silently disable the plugin’s hooks, and register all hooks in one place
Move the plugin’s code to includes/functions.php, so that a second active copy of the plugin is skipped instead of causing a fatal error
Use the standard ABSPATH direct-access check
Translate the new strings into every bundled locale
Now requires WordPress 6.8, the first version that loads the plugin’s bundled translations automatically. On WordPress 6.3 to 6.7, versions 1.1.1 to 1.1.9 showed English instead of the bundled translations

1.1.9

Release date: 2026-10-20

Add the Dutch translation, informal and formal (nl_NL, nl_NL_formal), plus Belgium (nl_BE)

1.1.8

Release date: 2026-10-20

Add the Russian (ru_RU) translation

1.1.7

Release date: 2026-10-20

Add the Italian (it_IT) translation

1.1.6

Release date: 2026-10-20

Add the Portuguese translation for Brazil (pt_BR), Portugal (pt_PT, pt_PT_ao90) and Angola (pt_AO)

1.1.5

Release date: 2026-10-20

Add the French translation for Canada (fr_CA) and Belgium (fr_BE)

1.1.4

Release date: 2026-10-20

Add the German translation, informal and formal (de_DE, de_DE_formal), plus Austria (de_AT) and Switzerland (de_CH, de_CH_informal)

1.1.3

Release date: 2026-10-20

Add the Japanese (ja) translation

1.1.2

Release date: 2026-10-20

Add the Spanish translation for Spain (es_ES) and the Latin American WordPress locales (es_MX, es_AR, es_CO, es_CL, es_PE, es_VE, es_EC, es_DO, es_UY, es_PR, es_GT, es_CR)

1.1.1

Release date: 2026-10-20

Set the text domain to the plugin slug (load-smallchat), as WordPress.org requires, and stop calling load_plugin_textdomain()
Rename the plugin to “Load Smallchat” so that its name no longer contains a restricted term
Correct and complete the French (fr_FR) translation
Reduce the readme tags to the five WordPress.org allows

1.1.0

Release date: 2026-10-20

Tested up to WordPress 7.1. Now requires WordPress 6.3 and PHP 7.4.
Load the embed script with WordPress’ native async strategy, and stop appending a WordPress version to the embed URL
Sanitize the client ID on save and on read
Add the smchat4wp_hidden_roles filter
Add a Settings link on the Plugins screen, tidy the settings page markup, and make the settings image alt text translatable
Remove the saved settings when the plugin is deleted
Document the external Smallchat service in the readme
Avoid PHP warnings on PHP 8+ when no client ID has been saved yet

1.0.2

Release date: 2026-10-20

This release is a version bump after testing to ensure that the plugin is compatible with WordPress 7.1.

Bump WordPress tested up to version to 7.1
Avoid PHP warnings on PHP 8+ when no client ID has been saved yet

1.0.1

Release date: 2023-01-25

This release is just a version bump after testing to ensure that the plugin is compatible with WordPress 6.1.1.

Bump WordPress tested up to version to 6.1.1
Changed license from GPLv2 to GPLv3

Description

External services

Installation

Prequisites

Configuration

Reviews

Contributors & Developers

Interested in development?

Changelog

1.2.0

1.1.9

1.1.8

1.1.7

1.1.6

1.1.5

1.1.4

1.1.3

1.1.2

1.1.1

1.1.0

1.0.2

1.0.1

Meta

Ratings

Contributors

Support