---
title: "Bar"
description: "A message box on your pages that opens into a chat."
source: https://hiy.ai/docs/bar
---

# Bar

The Bar is a message box on your website. A visitor types, and a card opens above it with your agent's greeting, starting questions and the conversation. It works on every plan.

## Put it on your site

Open **Web chat › Bar › Install**. **Who can open it** and the allowed websites are the agent's, the same as on the Bubble. **Your snippets** has two:

- **Floating bar** floats over every page it is on. Paste it just before `</body>`.
- **In the page** sits where you paste it, as a block in your page.

If your visitors sign in, **Signed-in users** shows the token steps: tokens work on the Bar too.

### Your button

Set **Bar behaviour** to **Your button**, and the bar shows nothing until a visitor presses an element on your page with `data-hiy-open`, or your script calls `window.hiy.open()`.

```html
<button data-hiy-open>Ask us</button>
```

## Bar behaviour and position

Under **Style › Layout**:

- **Bar behaviour**: **Always visible** keeps the message box on every page, **hiy's pill** rests as a small pill and opens when tapped, and **Your button** waits for your own button.
- **Bar position**: **Left**, **Centre** or **Right**.
- **Bar at rest**: **Compact** rests as a small pill and widens when a visitor starts typing; **Full width** rests across the column.
- **Width**: how wide the bar is on a computer.

Under **Look**, the Bar can also wear **Dark glass**.

![The Bar's Layout section: Bar behaviour, Bar position, Bar at rest and Width, each a row of choices](https://hiy.ai/docs-shots/bar/layout.webp)

*Channels › Web chat › Bar › Style › Layout*

## Typed starters

Under **Welcome**, **Type starters** has the resting bar type your starting questions one at a time, at most twice and 30 seconds in all, then rest on your placeholder. It stops as soon as a visitor focuses or types, and never runs for visitors who ask for reduced motion. Tick which starters it types.

## What a visitor sees

At rest the bar is a message box. Focusing it shows up to three starting questions, and the first question or keystroke opens the card. **Esc** or **✕** folds the card away; the conversation is still there. On a phone, the open bar fills the screen.

**Good to know:**

- The Bar is part of the new Channels layout, rolling out to workspaces in turn.
- **Bar at rest** and **Type starters** come with the new widget look.
- Your agent's own greeting and starting questions show unless you change them in **Style › Welcome**.

## Related

- [Web chat](/docs/web-chat) — Put your agent on your website as a Bubble, a Bar or a Support page.

- [Style](/docs/style) — One editor for how each form looks and what it says first.

- [Embedding](/docs/embed) — The snippet, sizing, allowed websites, and tokens from your own server.