The chat widget — A messenger, not a live chat

This is the distinction the whole widget is built around. It is not a live-chat queue where someone sits waiting and an answer is expected in seconds. A visitor leaves a message, it becomes a record in your table, somebody works it, and the reply arrives — here if they are still around, by email if they are not. That is a perfectly good experience, but only if it is the one they were led to expect. So the widget never pretends otherwise. There is no typing indicator and no presence dot, because either would claim someone is at the other end when nobody may be. Instead you get two honest signals: • An expected reply time, set in the Widget view and shown in the header before the visitor types a word — Typically replies in a few hours. Say it, then keep it. • Progress, so they can watch the ticket move instead of watching an empty box.