Support Chat at Coinbase

2022

My colleagues and I built the chat people see on Coinbase support today. You talk to a bot first, and if the bot cannot help, a person joins the same conversation.

We called it CB Chat inside the company.

The problem

Coinbase used another company's chat on the website and in the app. That limited us in a couple of ways. We could not change how it looked, and we could not fix it when it broke. We wanted full control over the chat, so we decided to build it ourselves.

What I built

A React package any page on Coinbase can drop in. Each page passes its own configuration.

Then the same chat on iOS and Android, in React Native.

Later we built a bot maker, the internal tool where the support team writes the bot's questions and answers. After that I added more flows to it, and an interface for building them.

Where it shipped

The web chat went live on the Coinbase support and help center pages in 2022. The app chat went live on iOS and Android the same year.

The Coinbase support screen, with Chat with us above a list of common issues — The support screen, the bot with its list of topics, and the point where a person takes over.

The Virtual Assistant opening the chat, with topic buttons for 2-step verification, ID verification and more — The support screen, the bot with its list of topics, and the point where a person takes over.

Outcome

People on Coinbase talk to our own chat now, not the old vendor's window. The bot can finish more conversations on its own. Another team can add the same chat without building it again.

I do not own the version that is live today.