Slack Notifications — Pingu Docs

Slack Notifications posts a message to one Slack channel when a new chat starts, when a new lead comes in, or when a visitor has been waiting for a reply. Your team sees it straight away and can open the chat from Slack with one click.

What you need

A Slack workspace where you can add apps.
A Slack channel for the notifications, for example #website-chats.

Get a webhook URL from Slack

In Slack, create an app for your workspace.
In the app's settings, turn on Incoming Webhooks.
Add a new webhook and choose the channel you want.
Copy the webhook URL. It starts with https://hooks.slack.com/services/.

Slack's own guide explains each step. You'll find a link to it on the Slack Notifications page in the dashboard.

Connect Slack to Pingu

In the dashboard, open Plugin Directory and enable Slack Notifications.
Open Slack Notifications in the menu.
Paste the URL into Webhook URL and select Save.
Select Send test message. A message appears in your Slack channel.
Choose your notifications, turn on Send Slack notifications and select Save.

The webhook URL is stored encrypted and is never shown again in full. To change it, select Replace. To disconnect Slack, select Remove and then Save.

Choose what gets posted

Notification	When it's posted
New chat	A visitor starts a chat. Shows the widget, the visitor's page and country, and their first message.
New lead	A visitor fills in the lead form. Needs Lead Capture. Shows the details they entered.
Waiting for a reply	A visitor's last message has had no reply from the AI or your team for the Waiting time you choose: 2, 5, 10, 15 or 30 minutes.

Each message has an Open chat button that opens the conversation in the dashboard.

You can also choose:

Widgets: All widgets, or only the widgets you pick.
Message language: the language of the Slack messages, English or Swedish.

Waiting for a reply is posted once per visitor message. If the visitor writes again and still gets no reply, you'll get a new notification.

Recent notifications

Recent notifications lists the last 20 messages and what happened to each: Sent, Pending, Sending or Failed. Select Refresh to update it. If Slack is briefly unavailable, Pingu tries again a few times before marking a message Failed.

Who can do what

Setting up Slack Notifications needs access to the Plugin Directory. See Manage your team to change permissions.

Common issues

"The URL must start with https://hooks.slack.com/services/" Only Slack incoming webhook URLs work. Copy the URL again from your Slack app's Incoming Webhooks page.

"Slack stopped accepting messages." The webhook was removed, the channel was archived or deleted, or the app was uninstalled. Pingu stops sending. Create a new webhook in Slack, select Replace, paste the new URL and select Save.

I can't turn on Send Slack notifications. Add a webhook URL first.

New lead says "Needs Lead Capture". New lead messages are only posted when Lead Capture is enabled in the Plugin Directory.

I can't select Send test message. Save the webhook URL first. The button also waits until you've saved any other changes.

The test message doesn't arrive. Check that you're looking at the channel you chose when you created the webhook. You can send one test every 30 seconds.

I can't see Slack Notifications in the menu. Your account needs access to the Plugin Directory. Ask an administrator in your company.