Open Genie Chat from a link, button or menu

Make any text link, Elementor button or menu item open Genie Chat — straight to the contact form if you like.

The short answer

Give the link this address:

  • #genie-chat-form — opens Genie Chat with the contact form ready.
  • #genie-chat — opens Genie Chat ready for a question.

Type it exactly like that, including the #, wherever the link's address goes.

A word in a Text Editor element (Elementor)

  • Select the words, for example "reach out anytime".
  • Press the link button in the Text Editor's toolbar.
  • Type #genie-chat-form as the address and press Enter.
  • Press Update.

An Elementor Button

In the Button element's Content tab, set Link to #genie-chat-form.

A menu item

In Appearance › Menus, add a Custom Link with the URL #genie-chat-form and your own link text, then save the menu. Because a menu is on every page, Genie Chat then loads on every page, whatever Show Widget On says.

A link from another page, an email, a text or a QR code

  • Add #genie-chat-form to the end of the page's address, for example https://yoursite.com/contact/#genie-chat-form. The chat opens with the form when the page loads.
  • Or add ?genie_chat_auto=1, for example https://yoursite.com/listing/123-main-st/?genie_chat_auto=1. The chat opens with the form after a few seconds, unless the visitor already had it open this session. GenieText QR codes use this.

In your own HTML

<a href="#" data-genie-chat="form">Contact us</a> opens the form; data-genie-chat="chat" opens the chat. From your own scripts, MLSGenieChat.openForm() and MLSGenieChat.open() do the same.

Testing the link

Signed-in staff get Ask Genie instead of Genie Chat, so the link cannot open the chat for you while you are signed in; it shows a note saying so. Open the page in a private window or another browser to try it as a visitor.

A page with one of these links loads Genie Chat even when Show Widget On leaves that page out. The link does nothing when Genie Chat is switched off.

Putting the chat inside a page

The [mlsg_genie_chat] shortcode makes the chat load on that page whatever Show Widget On says.

Secret Link