You may have noticed a new button in the shape of a speech bubble pop up all of a sudden on your dashboard yesterday. Maybe you were curious enough to click on it and even say hello.
For the next few weeks, we are testing a new chat support feature for WaniKani users! We’ll see how things go and then decide if this will be sticking around or not.
What is this chat feature for and what can I ask on it?
Our main goal is to help new users right on the spot when they’re stuck with something on WaniKani as we know it can be confusing at first. We figured chatting would be more ideal for these users instead of sending and waiting around for an email, so we’re trying this out in hopes of getting these new users well on their way to their next lesson or review.
The feature’s of course not just for new users though, so if you have any questions, comments or issues, let’s chat
The button’s so big! Can you do something about this?!
We are working on it
Is this chat going to be on my dashboard all the time?
We are starting with a few hours per weekday and we’ll see how it goes, but nothing is set for now. The widget should disappear at times.
We’ve been working on some changes the past week and have recently added Chat to the Knowledge Guide. Later today, you’ll also see an option to Chat with us during your Reviews. The button will be on the bottom right of the screen.
We’re also working on updating this sometime in the next few weeks as well, so thanks for putting up with it for the past few months
Could that be turned off maybe in WK Settings? Especially for those that don’t use a mobile app to do reviews on mobile, it might be easy to accidentally push it when you don’t want to. In addition, you’ll probably get lots of messages from new users complaining that their answer was incorrectly marked wrong - but they typed じゆう instead of じゅう. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me that feels like this will happen.
We are testing the design for the chat button during reviews to make sure they won’t be easily activated accidentally (I will say the button in reviews won’t be as big as the current one we have)
New users are definitely welcome to send us questions about common early mistakes like small hiragana (being another tool to help out people just starting out with WaniKani is one of the primary focuses of chat after all)
You can now chat across various locations - on Lessons and Reviews, on the dashboard, throughout subject pages, and account pages.
On Lessons & Reviews, you’ll see an indicator if you have unread messages.
On all other pages, including the homepage, the chat will pop-up if you have any unread replies.
Issues around the chat icon getting in the way or being hidden on Mobile should be resolved. Email us with screenshots if you’re having any other issues!
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Thanks for your hard work 
