ww.wp.xz.cn
Get WordPress
ww.wp.xz.cn

Plugin Directory

LobbyChat

LobbyChat

By Asad Khalil
Download

Description

LobbyChat is a lightweight live-chat shoutbox you can drop into any WordPress page or sidebar with a single shortcode. Built for communities — fan sites, forums, fandoms, classrooms, internal teams — where you want a casual, always-on group chat without bolting on Slack or Discord.

What you get

  • Live chat feed with auto-refresh (configurable polling interval — no WebSocket server required)
  • Guest posting — visitors can chat with just a display name, no signup wall
  • Emoji reactions on every message — 👍 ❤️ 😂 🔥 🎉
  • Link previews for YouTube and any URL with Open Graph tags
  • @mention highlighting — @username gets visually picked out
  • Pinned messages — moderators can pin one important message above the feed
  • Online presence — live count of members, guests, and search-engine bots in the room
  • Moderator role — add a “LobbyChat Moderator” role to any user for pin/delete powers
  • Reporting + auto-hide — 5 reports on a message and it’s hidden automatically
  • Word blocklist for basic profanity filtering
  • Rate limiting built in — separate cooldowns for guests vs members
  • Fullscreen mode + collapse toggle
  • Sound notification for new messages (toggleable per-visitor)
  • Mobile responsive

Optional: AI Chat Companion

LobbyChat ships with an optional AI bot you can drop into your chat. The bot uses your own API keys — you bring your own Google Gemini key (the free tier works) or OpenAI key. The plugin does not route requests through any third-party server.

  • Bring-your-own-key — Gemini (free tier) or OpenAI (paid)
  • Configurable persona — name, system prompt, custom personality
  • Smart triggers — replies to @mentions always; questions usually; random messages occasionally (all configurable)
  • Hard rate limits — daily and hourly caps protect against runaway API costs
  • Active-hours window — bot only chats during the hours you specify
  • One-click test in the admin to verify the bot can post

Privacy & data

LobbyChat does not call any third-party server by default. The only network calls are:

  • Fetching link previews when a user shares a URL (request goes from your server to that URL)
  • Calling Google Gemini or OpenAI only if you explicitly enable the AI bot and provide an API key

No telemetry, no analytics, no “phone home.” All data lives in your own wp_lobbychat* tables.

Try it live

See LobbyChat running in production at bejaunty.com/plugins/lobbychat.

Roadmap

LobbyChat is the free, standalone version. Premium add-ons with gaming-community features — looking-for-group buttons, platform tags, profile-card integration, and richer moderation tools — are in development. Updates and announcements at bejaunty.com.

Support development

LobbyChat is free and developed in spare time. If it helps your community, you can support development at wise.com/pay/me/asadk372. Every bit is appreciated. ♥

Usage

After activating, drop this shortcode into any page, post, or text widget:

[lobbychat]

Then visit Settings LobbyChat to configure rate limits, blocklist, and other options. For the AI bot, see Settings LobbyChat AI Bot.

Developer hooks

LobbyChat exposes several filters and actions for theme/plugin developers:

  • lobbychat_after_send — action, fires after a message is saved. do_action('lobbychat_after_send', $user_id, $message_id, $row) — the third arg is the database row object.
  • lobbychat_profile_url — filter, override the URL linked from a username (default: WP author archive)
  • lobbychat_allowed_reactions — filter, override the array of allowed reaction emoji
  • lobbychat_report_threshold — filter, change the auto-hide report threshold (default: 5)

External services

This plugin does not connect to any external service by default. Two optional features may, only when explicitly enabled by the site administrator, contact third-party services:

1. Link previews

When the link-sharing feature is enabled (Settings LobbyChat “Allow link sharing”, which is on by default), and a logged-in user shares a URL in chat, the plugin’s server fetches that URL once to extract Open Graph / Twitter / <title> metadata for a preview card.

  • What is sent: The HTTP request from your server to the URL the user pasted. The request user-agent identifies as LobbyChatBot/1.0 and includes a link back to your site.
  • When: Only at the moment a user posts a message containing a URL.
  • What is received and stored: Title, description, and image URL extracted from the page’s metadata. Stored in the chat message row in your database.
  • Special handling for YouTube URLs: YouTube URLs are first sent to YouTube’s public oEmbed endpoint (https://www.youtube.com/oembed) to retrieve title and author info. YouTube’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy apply.

This feature can be fully disabled by un-checking “Allow link sharing” in plugin settings.

2. Optional AI chat companion

When the AI bot is explicitly enabled by the administrator (Settings LobbyChat AI Bot “Enable bot”, which is off by default) and the administrator has provided their own API key for one or both of the providers below, chat messages are sent to that provider for the bot to generate replies.

Google Gemini API (https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/)
* What it is: Google’s generative AI service, used here to produce conversational chat replies.
* What is sent: Up to 6 most recent chat messages (sender display name + message text), the bot’s system prompt, and the administrator’s Gemini API key.
* When: Only when the administrator has enabled the bot AND a chat message satisfies the bot’s reply-trigger rules (mention, question, or random chance — all configurable).
* Terms and privacy: Google APIs Terms of Service, Gemini API Additional Terms, Google Privacy Policy.

OpenAI API (https://api.openai.com/)
* What it is: OpenAI’s chat completions API, used here as a fallback when Gemini fails or as the primary if only an OpenAI key is configured.
* What is sent: Same as Gemini above (recent messages + system prompt + administrator’s OpenAI API key).
* When: Same conditions as Gemini above.
* Terms and privacy: OpenAI Terms of Use, OpenAI API Data Usage Policies, OpenAI Privacy Policy.

The AI bot is disabled by default and will not contact any external service unless the administrator explicitly enables it and provides an API key.

Screenshots

  • Live chat feed with reactions and link previews.
  • Online member breakdown showing members, guests, and bots.
  • Settings page with rate-limit controls and moderation options.
  • AI bot configuration with built-in setup guide.

Installation

  1. Upload the lobbychat folder to /wp-content/plugins/, or install the zip via Plugins Add New Upload.
  2. Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu.
  3. Place the shortcode [lobbychat] on the page or in the widget area where you want the chat to appear.
  4. (Optional) Visit Settings LobbyChat to tweak rate limits and moderation settings.
  5. (Optional) Visit Settings LobbyChat AI Bot if you want to add an AI chat companion.

FAQ

Does this require a WebSocket server, Pusher, or any external service?

No. LobbyChat uses simple HTTP polling at a configurable interval (default 30 seconds). It runs entirely on your own WordPress install with no external dependencies.

Can guests post without registering?

Yes — guest posting is on by default. They just enter a display name. You can require login in Settings if you prefer.

How do I make someone a moderator?

Edit the user in Users All Users, change their role (or add the role) to LobbyChat Moderator. Administrators are automatically moderators.

How does the AI bot work? Does it cost me anything?

The bot is off by default. To turn it on, you provide your own Gemini API key (Google offers a free tier — see aistudio.google.com/apikey) and/or OpenAI key. The bot calls those APIs directly from your server using your key. We never see your messages or your key.

Will old messages be deleted automatically?

Yes if you want. Set Auto-delete old messages in Settings to a number of days (default 30, set to 0 to keep forever). Pinned messages are never auto-deleted.

Is the chat history searchable?

Not in the current version. Messages are stored in a standard MySQL table (wp_lobbychat) so any standard WP backup or export tool will include them.

Can I style it to match my theme?

Yes — every color is set via CSS custom properties (--lobbychat-accent, --lobbychat-bg, etc.) on the wrapper. Override them in your theme’s stylesheet.

Does it work on mobile?

Yes, the layout is fully responsive and supports fullscreen mode.

Reviews

There are no reviews for this plugin.

Contributors & Developers

“LobbyChat” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

Translate “LobbyChat” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

1.0.7

  • Updated: “Tested up to” bumped to WordPress 7.0.

1.0.6

  • Updated: Plugin URI now points to the GitHub source repository (github.com/JauntyMYT/lobbychat) for a more stable canonical URL.

1.0.5

  • Compliance: Moved inline admin JavaScript to a properly enqueued file (assets/js/admin.js) loaded only on the bot settings page via admin_enqueue_scripts, per ww.wp.xz.cn coding standards.
  • Compliance: Renamed all plugin-defined constants from the 3-character LBC_* prefix to LOBBYCHAT_* to meet the 4+ character prefix requirement.

1.0.4

  • Compliance: “Powered by LobbyChat” frontend attribution is now opt-in (off by default) per ww.wp.xz.cn guidelines on plugin attribution.
  • Compliance: Added detailed “External services” section to readme documenting all third-party API calls (Gemini, OpenAI, YouTube oEmbed, link preview fetches) with terms-of-service and privacy-policy links.

1.0.3

  • Fixed: Link sharing now works for any URL — previously only worked when the linked page had perfectly-formatted Open Graph tags. Now handles Twitter cards, plain <title> tags, and falls back to a bare link card if no metadata is available.
  • Improved: Open Graph parser now handles meta tags with content before property, mixed quote styles, and follows redirects.
  • Improved: Bumped link-fetch timeout from 5s to 8s for slower-responding sites.
  • Updated: Plugin URI and demo link now point to bejaunty.com.

1.0.2

  • Plugin Check compliance: addressed all errors and warnings from the official WordPress Plugin Check tool.
  • Replaced parse_url() with wp_parse_url(), mt_rand() with wp_rand(), date() with gmdate().
  • Added wp_unslash() to all $_POST and $_SERVER reads before sanitization.
  • Refactored get_messages() to avoid dynamic SQL fragments — now uses two clean prepared queries.
  • Added documented phpcs suppressions for legitimate direct-DB access (custom plugin tables) and bot logging.
  • Removed redundant load_plugin_textdomain() (WP.org auto-loads translations since WP 4.6).
  • Removed Domain Path header (no /languages/ folder needed for WP.org-hosted plugins).
  • Bumped Tested up to: 6.9 to match current WordPress release.
  • Renamed template-scope variables to use full lobbychat_ prefix.

1.0.1

  • Fixed: Send button not working in some themes — moved script localization earlier so the LobbyChat global is always defined when the JS loads.
  • Fixed: Click handler now uses event delegation, so it survives DOM changes from page builders and caching plugins.
  • Fixed: Uninstall now correctly drops the messages table (was using the wrong table name).
  • Fixed: Removed unused tag column from the messages table schema (auto-migrates from 1.0.0).
  • Added: “Show ‘Powered by’ link” toggle in Settings (on by default — admins can turn it off).
  • Added: Donate link on the Plugins page, in plugin header, and on the settings page footer.
  • Added: Console diagnostic when the LobbyChat global is missing (helps debug script-loading conflicts).

1.0.0

  • Initial release.
  • Live chat feed with HTTP polling.
  • Guest and member posting with separate rate limits.
  • Emoji reactions, link previews (YouTube + Open Graph), pinned messages.
  • Reporting with auto-hide threshold.
  • Word blocklist + 60-second self-delete window.
  • Custom LobbyChat Moderator role.
  • Online presence with bot detection.
  • Optional AI chat companion (Gemini + OpenAI fallback).
  • Fullscreen mode, collapse toggle, sound notifications.

Meta

Ratings

No reviews have been submitted yet.

Your review

See all reviews

Contributors

Support

Got something to say? Need help?

View support forum