Scheduled chat is a script of messages that appear in the room’s chat at exact points in the video, in every session. Use it so the room isn’t silent, to welcome people, to post a link, or to prompt a question at the right moment.
This is the same thing the replay settings call simulated chat. Each message has a time, a name, a role and text. They aren’t sent by anyone in real time: the same messages play in the same order for everyone.
Scheduled chat is separate from shared live chat and private questions, and works alongside them.
Write good messages
- Start from a real session. The best scripts come from what real attendees said. Don’t invent results, testimonials or claims about your offer, because attendees will take them as real people speaking.
- Use the host role for your own prompts, such as “Welcome in, everyone!” and “Drop your questions in the Q&A tab”.
- Time them to the video. Ask the room something in the video, then let answers follow a few seconds later.
- Keep the pace believable. Stay under about 25 messages a minute (see Limits).
If you’d like to be upfront, turn on the chat transparency note, which tells attendees some messages may be from previous sessions.
Add messages
There are three ways to add them, and they all edit the same list.
On the room timeline
Best for placing a few messages exactly against the video.
Move the playhead
Under Webinars → your webinar → Set up → Room timeline, go to the moment you want.
Add the message
Choose Add at (time) and Chat message, then fill in the fields.
Save
Choose Add chat message. It appears as a small tick on the Chat track, which you can drag to a new time.
On the Chat & questions step
Best for typing a batch of messages quickly. Open Webinars → your webinar → Set up → Chat & questions and scroll to Scheduled chat. Set At, Name and Role, type the message, and press Enter or choose Add. The message box clears and the name and role stay, ready for the next one.
From a CSV file
Best for a whole script. Use Import chat on the Room timeline, or Import CSV under Scheduled chat. See CSV formats for the columns and examples.
Importing adds to your existing messages. It doesn’t replace them, and it doesn’t skip duplicates, so importing the same file twice gives you two copies. To start again, clear the chat first.
Message fields
| Field | What it does | Limits |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Who the message appears to come from. The room shows their initials in a circle. | Required, up to 80 characters |
| Role | Host and Mod (moderator) get a badge and a brand-coloured circle. Guest (shown as attendee on the Chat & questions step) gets neither. | Required |
| Message | The text. | Required, up to 1,000 characters |
| Posts at / At | When it appears. Type h:mm:ss, m:ss, or a number of seconds. |
0 to the video’s length on the timeline |
New messages on the timeline start with the Host role, and on the Chat & questions step they start as attendee.
How scheduled chat appears
- On time. Each message appears when the video reaches its time, and the chat scrolls to show it. If someone has scrolled up to read, it stays where they are.
- Late joiners get recent history. Someone joining late sees the messages from the 15 minutes before they arrived, not the whole script.
- Mixed in with everything else. Scheduled messages and the attendee’s own messages share one list, in time order.
- In replays too. Scheduled chat plays against the viewer’s position in the video, as long as Show chat on replay is on. Skipping forward reveals what they skipped. There’s no message box in a replay.
Turn the whole script off with Include scheduled chat on the Chat & questions step. Your messages stay saved, ready to turn back on.
Without any scheduled messages or live chat, the chat shows “Chat will appear here.”
Edit and remove messages
| To | Do this |
|---|---|
| Change a message | Click its tick on the Chat track, edit it in the inspector and choose Save. |
| Change its time | Drag its tick on the track, or use ← and → when it’s focused. Dragging and nudging save at once. |
| Copy it | Select it, then choose Duplicate at playhead from the More actions menu. |
| Delete one | Select it on the timeline and choose Delete, or hover over it in the Scheduled chat list and click the bin icon. The list deletes immediately, with no confirmation. |
| Delete them all | More chat actions → Clear all chat on the timeline, or Clear all on the Chat & questions step. You’re asked to confirm. There’s no undo, so export first if you might want them back. |
| Back up or edit in bulk | More chat actions → Export chat as CSV on the timeline, or Export CSV on the Chat & questions step. |
The Scheduled chat list shows every message with its time, name and role badge, plus a total. If you shorten your video, messages after the new end stay in the list but never appear. Check for them by looking past the end time in the list.
Changes reach people already in the room as the session goes on, so a message you add further ahead in the video can appear without them reloading.
Limits
| Item | Limit |
|---|---|
| Name | 80 characters |
| Message | 1,000 characters |
| Messages per import | 2,000. Rows past that are ignored. Import a second file for more. |
| Import file | 2 MB, UTF-8 |
| Latest message time | 24 hours |
| Messages loaded at once | 500. A late joiner loads up to 20 minutes of chat in one go, and only the earliest 500 of those arrive, so busy scripts can lose messages. Staying under about 25 a minute avoids this. |
Next, set up Chat & questions.