Description
Turn your website’s knowledge into helpful conversations. AnswerBits by Artbits Solutions brings AI-first chat to WordPress, with answers grounded in the website pages, documents and text you choose.
AnswerBits handles knowledge indexing, search and AI inference. Your chat widget, conversation history, leads and optional human support remain in WordPress. You do not need to operate a vector database or supply a separate AI provider key.
AI answers first, a person when requested
- Connect approved website pages, PDF, TXT or Markdown documents, and pasted text.
- Keep AI chat as the primary visitor action; offer human support when you choose to enable it.
- Distinguish AI Assistant replies from Human Agent messages.
- Let visitors return to recent conversations, export their transcript, or erase their visitor data.
- Review local conversations, leads and optional end-of-chat ratings in WordPress admin.
- Invite a human agent through a private, expiring support link. Closing the conversation revokes that link.
- Configure your business name, greeting, quick questions and optional contact channels.
- Use a mobile-friendly widget with keyboard-accessible controls and optional ratings.
Start with AnswerBits Free
The recurring AnswerBits Free service plan requires no card and includes:
- 125 AI answers per monthly allowance period.
- One website with up to 20 crawled pages.
- Five uploaded files and pasted-text entries combined.
- Two manual website refreshes per monthly allowance period.
Upload PDF, TXT or MD files up to 1 MB (1,000,000 bytes) each. Pasted text is limited to 100 KB (102,400 bytes). Focused, up-to-date text often gives better results than a noisy website crawl.
These allowances apply to the hosted service, not to local conversation history or human replies. Local chat, history and human support require neither an AnswerBits account nor a paid plan. Optional paid service upgrades are managed on AnswerBits; Plan & Usage shows your connected site’s actual allowances and reset date.
Beta and support
This is an early beta. AI can make mistakes: test representative questions, review missing-answer behavior, and keep your sources current. Confirm your site’s email delivery before relying on human-support notifications. Report problems from Help & Feedback or email info@artbits.solutions.
External Services
The optional integration uses https://answers.artbits.solutions. No AnswerBits request is made before an administrator explicitly consents and starts the connection. A verified hosted owner approves the site; WordPress keeps its private API credential server-side.
When AI is used, the question, bounded recent user/AI context, business guidance and locale are processed by AnswerBits. Selected documents and website URLs are sent for hosted indexing. AnswerBits does not copy WordPress conversation history into a hosted inbox. Local conversation retention does not mean questions never leave the site.
Optional agent notifications use Meta WhatsApp Cloud API (https://developers.facebook.com/docs/whatsapp/cloud-api/) only when an administrator enables and configures them. Meta receives the configured recipient and phone-number ID, an access token, and a message containing the business/site name, visitor name and email, the first 100 characters of the question, and the private agent link. The Test button sends those configured credentials and recipient details plus a fixed AnswerBits test message.
If a visitor chooses an enabled public WhatsApp contact button, their browser opens https://wa.me/ with the published business number and a prefilled support greeting. Meta/WhatsApp then processes that number and message. Email notifications use wp_mail(); the site’s host or mail plugin controls delivery. Depending on the event, those emails contain visitor contact/message/page details, a private agent link, or a completed transcript for the business. Sending a transcript to the visitor-provided address is a separate administrator opt-in and is disabled by default. AnswerBits stores no SMTP credentials and selects no email provider. Private support links expire when a conversation closes.
AnswerBits terms: https://answers.artbits.solutions/terms
AnswerBits privacy: https://answers.artbits.solutions/privacy
Meta terms: https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/business-terms
Meta privacy: https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/privacy-policy
Screenshots
Installation
- Install the answerbits-ai-chat folder and activate the plugin.
- Open AnswerBits Settings Hosted AI, consent, approve the site in AnswerBits, and complete the connection in WordPress. AnswerBits Free requires no card.
- Add your website or documents in Knowledge and wait for indexing to finish.
- Enable AI in Settings General. Optionally configure human support and confirm notification delivery to your inbox.
- Use Plan & Usage to review service allowances or open hosted billing.
No migration from another SmartChat edition is performed. Deactivation and uninstall retain local conversations and settings; use WordPress privacy tools for visitor erasure. Hosted sources require explicit deletion while connected. Disconnect revokes access but does not delete hosted knowledge or a hosted account.
Beta testers: deactivate artbits-smart-chat or answerbits-wp before activating answerbits-ai-chat. Do not run two copies. Local chat/settings remain; retired SMTP options are removed while WordPress mail continues to work.
FAQ
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Do I need an AnswerBits account?
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Yes for hosted knowledge indexing and AI answers. An administrator explicitly consents, signs in to AnswerBits and approves the site connection. The AnswerBits Free plan does not require checkout. Visitors do not need an AnswerBits account. Local human support can run without the hosted AI connection.
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Does my conversation data leave WordPress?
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WordPress stores the conversation history and leads. To generate an AI answer, AnswerBits processes the question and bounded recent user/AI context; selected knowledge is stored and indexed by AnswerBits. This is not an entirely offline or local AI system. See External Services and the AnswerBits privacy policy before connecting.
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How do I report a beta bug?
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Open AnswerBits Help & Feedback, or select Report a bug on an AnswerBits admin page. Prepare and review your report, then open an email draft or copy it into webmail addressed to info@artbits.solutions. Nothing is sent automatically. Version details are opt-in; credentials and conversations are not collected. Remove personal data and private links from reports and screenshots.
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Is SMTP required?
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No. Notifications use wp_mail(), through your host or a site-wide mail plugin. AnswerBits stores no SMTP credentials. Confirm inbox receipt before relying on notifications. Bug-report drafts use your own email app.
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Connect AnswerBits, wait for knowledge indexing, and enable AI. The widget refreshes current public settings when opened, so cached HTML does not decide whether AI is available. If current settings cannot be loaded, it shows a retry action. An unavailable AI connection never automatically transfers a visitor to a human.
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What should I test during the beta?
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Check grounded answers, document uploads, website indexing, returning history, mobile and keyboard use, and optional human handoff on your own site. Use synthetic data first. This beta requires WordPress 6.8 or newer, PHP 8.2 or newer, HTTPS and first-party cookies.
Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
Contributors & Developers
“AnswerBits AI Chat & Human Support” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Translate “AnswerBits AI Chat & Human Support” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
0.3.5
- Fix: opening an earlier conversation no longer replaces the visitor’s current open chat; it adds a Back button.
- Fix: links in replies, such as a PDF with %20 in its address, stay intact after a reload and in transcripts.
- Fix: your chat colour applies to the launcher on page load and to gradients and shadows.
- Chat checks for new messages without overlapping requests, backs off when the server struggles and slows down in background tabs.
- A short “yes” hands the chat to a person only after an actual offer.
- Fix: typing in Japanese, Chinese or Korean no longer sends a message when confirming a character; iPhone no longer zooms into the message box.
0.3.4
- Sanitize visitor, agent and admin input as it is read. Visitor transcript email is now an opt-in, off by default.
- Fix: a skipped rating is no longer saved as one star; the agent page shows when a visitor ends the chat.
- Fix: agent links, rate limits, quick questions and pasted knowledge text.