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Basin Chat Gets Even Better: Preview, Auto-Open, and More!

January 20, 2026New

We're excited to announce major improvements to Basin Chat that make it easier than ever to create engaging chat experiences for your visitors!

What's New

Preview & Test Before You Deploy

No more crossing your fingers when you make changes! The new Preview & Test tab lets you interact with your chat widget using real AI responses before deploying to your live site. Test your welcome messages, try out preset questions, and verify your CTA flow - all in a safe sandbox environment.

Preset Questions for Guided Conversations

Help visitors get started with up to 3 quick-reply questions that appear as clickable buttons in your chat widget. Perfect for highlighting your most important information:

  • "How does pricing work?"
  • "Can I see a demo?"
  • "What features are included?"

Visitors can click any question to instantly send it, making it easier for them to engage and get the answers they need.

Auto-Open for Proactive Engagement

Configure your chat to automatically open after a customizable delay (default: 20 seconds). Great for proactively engaging visitors and increasing interaction rates - especially effective for support-focused sites. You can easily enable/disable and adjust the timing to find what works best for your audience.

Enhanced Call-to-Action Options

We've expanded how your CTA button behaves with three flexible options:

  • Form in Widget (default) - Opens Basin forms in an overlay, keeping visitors in the chat
  • Form in New Tab - Opens Basin forms in a new tab for a full-page experience
  • Custom URL in New Tab - Link to any URL - custom forms, pricing pages, booking systems, external services, you name it.

Improved Security & Deployment

The new Deploy tab gives you a clean, organized view of your embed code with improved security token regeneration:

  • Standard Regeneration - Gracefully handles token rotation without disrupting active conversations
  • Nuclear Option - Immediately terminates all sessions when you need to stop abuse right now

Plus, your embed code never changes - token updates happen automatically via CDN.

Why These Updates Matter

Faster Iteration: Test changes in Preview mode before they go live

Better Engagement: Guide visitors with preset questions and auto-open

More Flexibility: Send visitors anywhere with enhanced CTA options

Simpler Decisions: Choose model tiers without technical knowledge

Improved Security: Better tools to protect your chat from abuse

Getting Started with the New Features

  1. Open any existing chat in your Basin dashboard
  2. Check out the new Preview & Test tab to see how it works
  3. Visit the Appearance tab to add preset questions
  4. Configure auto-open in the General tab
  5. Head to the Deploy tab to see your embed code and security options

All existing chats automatically have access to these features - no migration needed!

Check out our updated documentation for detailed guides on using each new feature.

What You Can Do Next

  • Add preset questions to guide your visitors to common topics
  • Experiment with auto-open timing to increase engagement
  • Test different CTA behaviors to maximize conversions
  • Use Preview mode to iterate on your chat experience faster

These improvements are live now for all Basin Chat users. We hope they make it even easier to create compelling chat experiences for your visitors!

As always, we'd love to hear your feedback on these updates.