# Open chat by default or remember if it was open
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/open-chat-by-default-or-remember-if-it-was-open/249146
**Category:** Feature
**Tags:** chat
**Created:** [December 16, 2022, 3:32pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/open-chat-by-default-or-remember-if-it-was-open/249146 "2022-12-16T15:32:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mcwumbly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mcwumbly)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2022, 3:32pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/open-chat-by-default-or-remember-if-it-was-open/249146/1 "2022-12-16T15:32:59Z")
Let’s consider whether it makes sense to have chat open by default in some way.
_via @DiscourseMetrics in #chat-feedback :_
> Would it be possible to have an option to open the chat to the last viewed channel/PM and have it open automatically if it was open the last time the user visited?
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> I would prefer if the last state the user was in (channel and open/minimised) was stored and that it would just restore that by default when loading the page.
> **full transcript**
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> Originally sent in [chat feedback](https://meta.discourse.org/chat/c/-/129)
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> DiscourseMetrics
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> My users _live_ in the chat. But if I use this as is they will all have to open the chat and select a channel to view new messages. Would it be possible to have an option to open the chat to the last viewed channel/PM and have it open automatically if it was open the last time the user visited? Doing this makes most sense on larger screens, of course.
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> mcwumbly
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> note: I understand this may not be completely what you're looking for, but clicking the chat icon in the header does open to the last viewed channel now (if they are living in the same browser session too)
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> what chat app are your users currently living in?
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> DiscourseMetrics
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> A custom RocketChat on top of Discourse :)
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> It looks like this, quite similar to the new chat here:
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> mcwumbly
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> > Would it be possible to have an option to open the chat to the last viewed channel/PM and have it open automatically if it was open the last time the user visited?
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> @DiscourseMetrics I'm interested in what the current behavior is for your chat integration and whether that's exactly what you'd like (or if you'd ideally prefer something a bit different).
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> Does that chat window open up by default in the bottom right? Is it expanded like that or minimized (or does that depend on the state the user last had it in?)
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> DiscourseMetrics
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> At the moment it opens to a default channel as shown in the screenshot. I've given users an option (that they enable by joining a group - hacky but it works) that will not open the chat by default, so it is just shown minimised/as a bar. I would prefer if the last state the user was in (channel and open/minimised) was stored and that it would just restore that by default when loading the page.
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> mcwumbly
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> Cool, thank you. I'm going to capture this in a topic. I think it's something worth considering, but I'd like to solicit some more input about the idea first.
I can see something like this being helpful, but it could be distracting to do this unconditionally, so we need to consider what the logic is here.
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### Author:  [@Jagster](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jagster)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2022, 10:04am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/open-chat-by-default-or-remember-if-it-was-open/249146/2 "2022-12-17T10:04:58Z")
Most of my ”chat active” users normally read forum posts first and after that they open chat. So if chat would open automatically if lefted open it would act differently every second time. And that is not nice.
This is more or less another loose-loose situation, I reckon.