You may notice that these site such as AOL, Yahoo, and MSN have quietly discontinued their public chat services. But with the modern world of online communication constantly growing, there are plenty of reasons to add public chat on your site.
It can be difficult to do a lot of things on your own. Chat rooms are a great way to drive engagement, provide an instant sense of community, and position yourself as a serviceable partner for your audience. By connecting with them in a one-on-one or group setting, you can encourage followers or customers to share their feedback, ask questions and make friends.
Want to offer your client’s a way to go beyond the typical social media platforms? Try offering them a site that extends their online community with public chat rooms. Many people are still looking for traditional online chat rooms in order to get more personal interaction, especially interested students and millennials.
If you’re considering starting your own chat room, Google offers a number of resources you can use to find communities or topics for your room. Search the communities yourself, or simply let our research engine help you to find the perfect fit for what you’re looking for.
WordPress is a perfect platform for creating chatrooms with multiple features. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to set up chatrooms in minutes – and without code!
What we’ll be building
If you’re new to WordPress or aren’t confident in your skills, this tutorial will help you build multiple chat rooms using an easy-to-use platform like CometChat Go.
The last time you had a discussion at work, you probably wished you could just have that conversation in an instant. Now you can! This tutorial shows you how to create a chat room, no matter what topic your audience might be interested in, or if it’s for a massive group of visitors to your website who want to congregate together.
When you’ve created your chat rooms, you’ll want to add some extra features to help your website shine. Towards the end of this tutorial, I’ll share several free WordPress plugins that are the ideal fit for any chat website.
Most chat plugins only allow visitors to join the chat from one place. We’re here to add functionality so members of your site can sign up, upload an avatar, and create a unique username before joining in on the conversation. Also, this plugin includes a random chat feature for visitors that drops them into a room with random strangers.
Installing our live chat plugin
Adding the CometChat Go plugin to your website will allow you to use this software to create and run public chat rooms. The first step is adding the CometChat Go plugin.
To get started with CometChat Go, just purchase your own license or sign up for a free 7-day trial.
Once you’ve purchased the CometChat Go plugin, you’ll need to upload it to your WordPress account:
- If you don’t have access to a copy of the CometChat Go plugin, then you can download CometChat Go now (note that this is a direct download link.)
- In your web browser, sign into the CometChat Client Area.
- Select “Manage.”
- In the upper-right corner, select “API keys.” This screen contains your Auth Key, API Key, and License Key. Leave this tab open, as you’ll be needing this information shortly.
- In a new tab, log into your WordPress account and navigate to “Plugins > Add new.”
- Select “Upload Plugin.”
- Click “Add New > Choose file.”
- Select the cometchat.zip file you downloaded earlier, and click “Open > Install Now.” CometChat Go will now be added to your WordPress account.
- When prompted, click “Activate plugin.”
- In WordPress’s left-hand menu, select the new “CometChat” item.
- When prompted, enter your CometChat Go license key and then click “Install.”
- Enter your Auth Key and API Key, and click “Update.”
How to create a WordPress chat room
You can use CometChat Go to embed a chat window in any post or page, making the webpage appear live.
To create each chat room, you’ll need to:
- Create a post where you’ll host that chat room.
- Log into the CometChat Client Area and create a group that represents this chat room. CometChat Go will generate an embed code automatically.
- Copy the group’s embed code.
- Switch back to WordPress, and paste this embed code into the post you just created.
Fishing, dating, ski-ing or mountain climbing: Create a group for any interest
CometChat Go has a variety of extension settings to suit your specific needs. These settings include options for password-protected and secret groups, and many more features come standard!
With this tutorial, I’ll show how to create public chat rooms that anyone can access. You can also make your chat rooms private, hidden or password-protected if they’re more appropriate for your website.
- Log into the CometChat Client Area.
- In the left-hand menu, select “Groups.”
- In the “Add New Group” panel, give your group a unique ID (GUID). This GUID will not be visible to anyone who visits your website, but it’ll appear in the CometChat Go Client Area.
- Give your chat room a unique name; I’m using the same value as my GUID.
You can now open the “Type” dropdown and specify whether this group should be public or private:
- Public Group. This chat room will be visible to everyone who visits your website, and anyone will be able to join the conversation.
- Password Protected Group. This chat room will be visible to everyone who visits your website, but only users who have the password will be able to log in.
- Embed Only Group. Your chat room will only be visible to users who access it directly via a private link.
We’ve created a custom chat room creator that makes it easy to assign different “Types” to your group, so you can manage how the different people in your group interact with one another. Simply click “Add Group” and repeat for every group that you want to create.
Before we move on with the WordPress process, keep the Client Area open on a separate tab where you can copy and paste the group embed codes.
How do I add chat rooms to my website?
Next, we need to:
- Create a page for each of our groups.
- Copy the group’s HTML embed code from the CometChat Client Area.
- Paste this code into the associated post, and then hit “Publish.”
Turn back the clock: Restoring WordPress’ Classic Editor
We can copy/paste HTML into a post, using WordPress’s classic editor. To make this process easier, I’m going to install the free Classic Editor plugin:
- In WordPress’s left-hand menu, select “Plugins > Add New.”
- Search for “Classic Editor” and when the plugin appears, select “Install Now.”
- Once the Classic Editor plugin is installed, select “Plugins > Installed Plugins” from WordPress’ left-hand menu.
- Find “Classic Editor” and click its accompanying “Settings” link.
- Find “Default editor for all users” and then select “Classic Editor.”
- Click “Save Changes.”
Embedding your chat rooms
Next, we need to create posts for all of our chat rooms, and link each post to a specific CometChat Go group:
- In the left-hand menu, select “Posts > Add New.”
- Select the “Text” tab. This is where you’ll be pasting your embed code.
- Switch back to the CometChat Client Area, and find the group that you want to link to this particular post.
- Select the group’s “Embed code for group icon” (circled in the following screenshot).
- In the popup that appears, copy all of the HTML code.
- Switch back to your WordPress account, and paste this code into the post’s “Text” tab.
- Click “Publish.”
Better navigation: Creating a menu
Once chat rooms are up and running, we need to give visitors a way to navigate between them.
After spending weeks designing this WordPress site, it’s now time to add the link I need:
- In WordPress’s left-hand menu, select “Appearance > Menus.”
- Give your menu a name, and then click “Create new menu.”
- Click to expand the “Posts” section and then select the “View all tab.”
- Select all the pages you just created.
- If required, you can change the order these posts appear in your menu, using drag and drop.
- When you’re happy with how your menu is set up, click “Save Menu.”
- To place this menu on your website, click the “Manage Locations” tab.
- Assuming that you want this menu to appear across your website, open the “Top/Primary Menu” dropdown and select the menu you just created.
- Click “Save Changes.”
Now, navigate to your website and you’ll see a new menu in your left sidebar with all of your chat rooms!
As long as the chat rooms you’ve selected are considered public, they’ll load automatically. This should allow you to participate in online chat with friends and colleagues in real time.
Don’t stop now: Taking your chat rooms to the next level
Now, once you add the chat extension to your website, visitors can select a chat room option from your menu and be taken to an active conversation with multiple people.
With the steps in this tutorial, you can create countless customized chat rooms that are perfect for your specific target audience. Just don’t stop there.
Have you ever looked at your chat room visitors and wondered how you can get them to spend more time in your room? With a few free WordPress plugins, it’s not too hard. Here are two plugins that I recommend for helping with this on a free basis.
Ultimate Member: Adding user registration
Your website is a busy place and sometimes visitors may not have time to register your site. But have no fear! Give them an opportunity to do it with our simple registration form. If a visitor takes the time to create a username, upload an avatar, and craft that best bio, they’ll be much more invested in your site; and you’ll see more repeat visits on your page.
Similar to other chat rooms, people can also register with your own overchat. When they do, those who registered will know exactly who they’re talking to and can potentially build meaningful relationships. The introduction of a registration feature is a great way to turn one-time visitors into loyal regulars!
With Ultimate Member, you can add membership functionality into your WordPress site. There are plenty of membership plugins available, but I’m using Ultimate Member as it automatically generates all the pages required to deliver the functionality.
With the click of a button, Ultimate Member can create all of the following pages:
- Registration. This page provides a ready-made registration form.
- Login. This is where registered users will log into their account. If a visitor doesn’t have an account, then this page also features a link to your site’s “Registration” page.
- Members Directory. This displays the name, profile picture and cover photo of everyone who’s registered with your website. The Members Directory can help users learn more about the people they’ve been chatting to, but it can also serve as a great advertisement for your site, by providing a public directory of all the people who’ve already registered.
- User Profiles. This is where the user can view and edit their profile.
- Account. This page allows users to make several important changes to their account, including updating their email address, creating a new password, and making their profile private.
- Logout. This is how users will log out of their account.
- Password Reset. This page provides a form where users can reset their password.
Installing the free Ultimate Member plugin
Let’s install this free plugin, and use it to generate all of our membership pages:
- In WordPress’s left-hand menu, select “Plugins > Add New.”
- Search for “Ultimate Member,” and when the plugin appears, select it.
- Click “Install Now > Activate.”
- When prompted, select “Create Pages > Save Changes.”
Change your WordPress homepage
Ultimate Member’s “Login” page is different than your standard login page. To use it for your blog, you can set the default sidebar option to display it instead, or if you need any help, that’s where our qualified tech team comes in to help.
Making “Login” your homepage is a convenient way to link all the pages that require user login. For people who haven’t created an account with your website, the ‘Register’ button will directly navigate them to your registration form.
To set “Login” as your homepage:
- In WordPress’s left-hand menu, navigate to “Appearance > Customize.”
- Select “Homepage Settings.”
- Select “A static page.”
- Open the “Homepage” dropdown, and choose “Login.”
- Make your changes live, by clicking “Publish.”
Create a membership menu
To make your site easier to navigate, you can add all the pages in Ultimate Members to their own menu.
I’m creating and adding to my website’s unified menu interface. One place you’ll find them is in the right sidebar.
I’ll display different menu items based on whether or not the visitor is logged in. After all, a “Logout” link is of little use if the visitor isn’t logged into their account!
- In WordPress’s left-hand menu, select “Appearance > Menus.”
- Select “Create a new menu.”
- Give your menu a name (I’m using “Ultimate Member”) and then click “Create new menu.”
- Click to expand the “Pages” section, and then select the “View all tab.”
- Select all the following pages: Login, Account, Logout, Members, Password Reset, Register and User, and then click “Add to menu.”
- If required, use drag and drop to change the order these pages appear in your menu.
- Click to expand the “Login” section, open the “Who can see this menu link?” dropdown and then select “Loggedout users.”
- Expand the “Register” section, open the “Who can see this menu link?” dropdown and select “Logged Out Users.”
- Expand the “Members” section, open the dropdown and select “Everyone.”
- Expand the “Account” section, open the dropdown and select “Logged In Users.” Find the “Select the member roles that can see this link” section, and select all of its checkboxes.
- Expand the “User” section, open the dropdown and select “Logged In Users.” Once again, select all of the checkboxes.
- Expand the “Password Reset” section and set its dropdown to “Logged Out Users.”
- Finally, expand the “Logout” section, open the dropdown and select “Logged In Users.” Select all of its checkboxes.
- When you’re happy with how your menu is set up, click “Save Menu.”
We can now position this menu on our website:
- In WordPress’s left-hand menu, navigate to “Appearance > Customize.”
- Select “Widgets > Sidebar > Add a Widget.”
- Select “Navigation menu.”
- Open “Select Menu” and choose the menu that you just created.
- Save your changes, by clicking “Apply > Publish.”
With the new menu widget in your sidebar, you’ll have customizable options based on whether the viewer is logged into their account. Our platform makes it simpler than ever to create great-looking widgets that enhance your site’s overall look and usability.
Be more spontaneous: Creating a chatroulette feature
Many chat websites add an extra level of fun with the option to spin the wheel. You can join a chat completely randomly, and you have the chance of finding your perfect match.
I’ll be using the free Post Redirect plugin to randomly redirect visitors to a random post. Since we embedded each chat room in a separate post, I can use this plugin to drop the user into a random chat.
I’ll be embedding this link in a “Join a random chat” button, which I’ll then add to my main menu.
To create this feature:
- In WordPress’s left-hand menu, select “Plugins > Add New.”
- Search for “Redirect URL to Post” and when the plugin appears, select “Install Now > Activate.”
- This plugin will now display several URLs that you can use to redirect visitors to a random post. Copy the “Go to random post…” URL.
Next, we need to add this URL to our main menu:
- In WordPress’s left-hand menu, select “Appearance > Menus.”
- Open the dropdown, and select your main menu.
- Click to expand the “Custom Links” section.
- Paste your URL into the “URL” field.
- In “Link text,” type the text that should appear in your menu; I’m using “Join a random chat.”
- Select “Add to Menu > Save Menu.”
You can easily set up a random chat feature in all of your websites. Simply load the CometChat Go integration and you’ll be able to watch for people on a timeline basis.
Last Words
If you’re looking for a way to add more interactivity and conversation to your website, then chat rooms are a great option. In this tutorial, we showed you how to add multiple chat rooms to your site without having to write any code. If you’ve followed along, then your visitors can now communicate in real time. Plus, if you choose to set up the additional plugins, then your visitors will also be able to create an account and drop into chat rooms at random. Chat rooms provide a great opportunity for building community around your content, so don’t hesitate to give them a try on your next website project!
