Leave auto-open off when a chat panel would cover add to cart, a variant picker, or any other control the shopper came to use. Squadkin’s WhatsApp Chat Button can open its panel after a time delay, after a scroll percentage, or on exit intent, and each of those triggers can be set not to repeat in the same session. Those settings are reasons to stay quiet. The button can sit in the corner, closed, until someone taps it.
Auto-open is optional. A shop that turns every trigger on, with no delay, trains people to close the panel before they have read it. A shop that leaves the panel shut still has click-to-chat. The greeting, the number, and the path into WhatsApp do not depend on the panel jumping out by itself.
What auto-open does in this app
Proactive auto-open is a set of triggers on the popup, not a second product. A time delay waits a number of seconds. A scroll percentage waits until the shopper has moved down the page. Exit intent reacts to the kind of leave signal the setting describes. Each one has a “don’t repeat per session” option, so a person who has already been interrupted is not interrupted again in that same visit. The catalog’s memory is per session. It does not document a thirty-day cookie that remembers a close for a month.
Two quieter motions are easy to confuse with auto-open. A greeting bubble can appear after its own delay, and a dismiss on that bubble can persist. A floating label has a separate delay. The button itself can fade in after a number of seconds so it does not flash over the first screen. None of those have to open the full panel. You can fade the button in, show a short bubble, and still require a tap before the text box appears.
When the panel does open, it is the same popup as a manual tap: a header, a canned greeting bubble, and a text area pre-filled with your default message. Send builds the WhatsApp link from that text. If a consent checkbox is on, Send and the agent links stay disabled until the box is checked, including when the panel opened itself.
Pages where the panel gets in the way
Product templates are the first place to refuse auto-open. The buy button, quantity, and variant choices sit in a tight column on a phone. A panel that covers them turns a purchase into a fight with a close icon. Home pages and long guides are more forgiving, and even there a panel over a menu is a poor welcome.
- Product pages: keep the panel closed. Let the corner button wait for a tap.
- Collection grids: a panel over filters is the same problem. Prefer a closed button.
- Cart: if your theme has a cart drawer, test it. An auto-opened panel plus a drawer is two layers.
- A content article or a contact page: a delayed open is easier to justify, because the page is already a conversation.
Page rules can include or exclude by page type or URL, so a trigger you like on a help page never runs on a product template. Device rules can show or hide the whole widget on mobile or desktop. Hiding the button is a blunt tool. Often you want the button on the phone and auto-open off everywhere. If the only way to protect the phone layout is to disable the trigger, disable the trigger.
Delay, scroll, and exit intent
If you enable a trigger, pick one. A delay on a long policy page gives the shopper time to see the headline. A scroll percentage fits a guide where the question comes after they have read. Exit intent treats leaving as a moment to interrupt, so use it rarely, and turn on “don’t repeat per session” so one gesture does not reopen the panel all afternoon.
There is no documented “right” number of seconds or percent in the catalog. Choose a delay long enough that the shopper has met the page, then watch real sessions, or at least click through yourself in an ordinary rhythm. A zero-second delay is how the panel covers the buy button in the first paint. Avoid it on templates where the first paint is the product.
Outside business hours the popup text changes and the button dims. The button is not removed. Leave auto-open off after close so a dimmed panel does not jump onto the page by itself.
The close memory
The per-session option is the close memory this catalog gives you. Someone who dismisses the interruption should not meet it on every subsequent page of that visit. The greeting bubble’s dismiss persistence is the matching idea for the smaller bubble. Turn both on if you use either surface. A session memory will not save a shopper who gets the panel on the first product they view, before they have added to cart. It only stops the repeat. The first interruption still happened.
Test the memory in one browser session: trigger the panel, close it, open another product, and confirm it stays shut. Then open a new session and confirm the trigger can run again. If the panel returns on the second product, the option is off or the session was reset. Do not describe this as a permanent opt-out. The catalog does not document one.
A conservative default
Start here, then loosen one control if a real problem shows up in the click counts.
- Button visible, in a corner that clears add to cart, with a short fade-in if the first paint feels crowded.
- Auto-open off on product, collection, and cart templates.
- Greeting bubble optional, with a delay, and dismiss persistence on.
- If you later enable exit intent or scroll, enable it on one calm template and set it not to repeat in the session.
- Read clicks, popup opens, and send taps after two weeks. A flood of opens and almost no send taps is an interruption, not a success.
Those three counts are the documented analytics. They are not revenue. A panel that steals the buy button can raise opens and still hurt the shop. Watch the product page with your own thumb on a phone before you trust the chart. If your thumb cannot reach add to cart without closing the panel, auto-open is off.
Questions about auto-open
Will the panel open on every page view?
Only if you turn a trigger on and leave the per-session limit off. With “don’t repeat per session” on, a later page in the same visit should stay quiet. The first page can still open.
Can I limit the widget to desktop?
Device rules can show or hide the button on mobile and on desktop separately. That hides the whole widget, not only the auto-open. On product pages, prefer auto-open off and the button still available.
Does the button need auto-open to work?
No. A tap on the button, or a direct link, opens WhatsApp with your greeting. Auto-open is an extra interruption. Leave it off where it covers the buy button.
The trigger list is part of the WhatsApp Chat Button page. Install WhatsApp Chat Button when you want the corner button, and keep the panel closed until a shopper asks for it.