What's new in ZChat

Every package refresh is rebuilt from source, run through the automated test suite, and smoke-tested end to end before it reaches the download page.

Current package

Version 2.0.3 · August 10, 2026 · 34 MB · 747 automated tests passing

August 2026 agent tooling release

Custom pre-chat fields: ask for the details your team actually needs — order numbers, account IDs, a severity dropdown — before a conversation starts. Add them in Settings, mark any of them required, and the answers travel with the conversation and appear to the agent who takes it. A snapshot of the field definitions is kept with each conversation, so renaming a field later never relabels past ones.

The Windows agent console now ships as a download: a self-contained desktop app for agents — unzip and run, with nothing else to install. Previously the package only contained instructions for building it yourself in Visual Studio.

Version 2.0.2 · August 9, 2026 · 34 MB

August 2026 visitor engagement release

Visitor monitoring: see who is on your site before anyone asks for a chat — current page and title, referrer, device, locale, and return-visit count, updating as they move between pages. Off by default; enable it in Settings, choose how often the widget reports, and exclude any page with data-track-visitors="false".

Proactive invitations from the agent console: pick a visitor out of the browsing list and offer them a chat in your own words. They see it in the widget with accept and decline buttons; accepting carries your opening message straight into the conversation. Requires visitor monitoring, and respects department routing.

Queue position for waiting visitors: the widget now tells people where they stand — "You're next in line" or "You are #3 in line" — instead of an open-ended spinner, in all four bundled languages.

Clickable links in chat: a URL an agent types is now a link the visitor can click, so you can send someone straight to the checkout step, form, or article they need. The link always displays the address it goes to.

Dark mode fixed: the widget's dark theme styled its text but not its panels, leaving light grey text on a near-white background for visitors whose device is set to dark. Every surface now flips with the theme, and the contrast is checked automatically on each build.

Version 2.0.1 · August 8, 2026 · 33.98 MB

August 2026 feature release

AI assistant in the widget: when no agent is available, the widget can now offer the AI chatbot directly to visitors — opt-in via a separate setting, per-visitor answer budget, per-IP rate limiting, and every failure path routes to a human instead of a dead chat box. "Talk to a human" now works on the very first message.

First-response SLA tracking: set a response target and the dashboard reports met / at-risk / breached conversations with an attainment rate — business-hours aware, so a chat that arrives after closing is due when the team opens, not overnight.

Agent two-factor authentication: optional TOTP sign-in that works with any standard authenticator app; enabling it requires proving a working code first.

Inbound email channel: a gateway endpoint accepts inbound mail, threads replies onto the right conversation, drops auto-responders, and fires a webhook — so emailed follow-ups land in the same queue as chats.

Smarter proactive triggers: target by referrer, browser language, and returning-visitor count alongside the existing URL and dwell-time rules.

Licensing that explains itself: domain checks now tolerate every reasonable spelling of a licensed domain (www, pasted URLs, ports), multi-domain licenses validate correctly, and a mismatch error names the licensed domain so it can be fixed in one look.

Operations: startup schema migrations now run independently and report per-step results on /health/ready; assemblies are version-stamped 2.0.0; upload filenames are stripped of invisible spoofing characters in both editions.

Version 2.0 · July 14, 2026 · 33.88 MB

July 2026 refresh

Fresh-install fixes: the dashboard home view no longer returns an error after first sign-in on a clean database, and the seeded evaluation accounts (admin / agent1) work immediately after running the install SQL.

Licensing refresh: current license files are issued in the new format, compatible signed legacy licenses are still accepted, the localhost trial license ships in the package, and license host checks validate against the real request host.

Reliability: session creation is serialized to prevent duplicate rows during fast visitor and agent reconnects, webhook delivery is bounded so slow receivers cannot stall the outbox, and abrupt agent disconnects are treated as real offline events for presence and notifications.

Security and privacy: live-message HTML is sanitized so only same-server attachment links render, secret-bearing webhook URLs are redacted in admin and audit responses, visitor page URLs and referrers are sanitized before storage, and privileged admin actions are covered by the audit log.

Performance: reduced tracking overhead on read-heavy dashboard queries, bounded background queues during end-session bursts, and long transcripts stay focused on the most recent messages in chronological order.

Version 2.0 · June 2026

June 2026 package refresh

Widget: improved retry recovery on flaky connections, preserved visitor pre-chat drafts during network failures, mobile layout polish, and inline read receipts.

Uploads and exports: uploaded image bytes are validated, attachment downloads are forced, and CSV and privacy exports are hardened against injection.

Operations: health and readiness endpoints for containers and load balancers, durable webhook outbox with automatic retries, and rate limits on public widget endpoints.

Packaging: fresh SQL install scripts, runtime logs and uploads no longer ship in the installer, and generated runtime configuration is safe out of the box.

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Deploy live chat on your own terms, not on someone else's pricing model.

ZChat gives you the installable server, web dashboard, website widget, and desktop agent tools in one self-hosted product you buy once and keep. Run it on infrastructure you trust and connect AI only if and how you want it.

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Deployment

Install on Windows or Linux, behind IIS or Nginx, in a VM, or in Docker if that fits your stack.

Commercial model

One-time purchase, perpetual license, and no monthly per-agent bill attached to growth.

AI Flexibility

Use Ollama locally or connect OpenAI and Anthropic with your own provider accounts.