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Visibility & targeting controls

ShopGuide's visibility controls are intentionally simple: device-level show/hide, a store-wide pause switch, and per-page-type launch content. This guide covers what's actually configurable — there is no time-of-day, geographic, behavioral-segment, or scroll/exit-intent targeting.

Device Visibility​

In the ShopGuide admin app's Settings page:

  • Hide on desktop — removes the chat widget for desktop viewport widths
  • Hide on mobile — removes the chat widget for mobile viewport widths

These are simple booleans, not a breakpoint picker — the desktop/mobile split is fixed. See Mobile & desktop chat settings for the exact breakpoint and related controls.

Store-Wide Pause​

A single pause chat storefront-wide toggle in the admin app disables the widget across every page without removing the theme block — useful during maintenance or if you need to temporarily stop chat without touching the theme editor.

Per-Page-Type Content​

The widget itself is always visible (subject to the device toggles above) wherever the "ShopGuide Chat" block is placed. What does vary by page type is the opening message: you can configure a different launch message and buttons for the global default, collection pages, and product pages, plus a further override per individual page block. See Custom launch messages.

A/B Testing Visibility​

If an A/B test is active for your store, visitors assigned to the control group have the chat widget (including the floating bubble, comparison panel, and any notification bar) removed from the page entirely for the duration of the test; the treatment group sees it as configured. This is controlled from the ShopGuide app's A/B testing feature — see A/B testing.

What's Not Supported​

To avoid overselling, note that the following are not available in ShopGuide today:

  • Business-hours or time-of-day scheduling
  • Geographic or customer-segment targeting
  • Exit-intent, scroll-depth, or cart-abandonment triggers for showing/hiding the widget (the idle-time Auto-Scroll behavior described in Custom launch messages is a launch-content trigger, not a visibility control)
  • Per-URL allow/deny lists beyond the product/collection/global launch-message split above

Next Steps​

Strategic visibility control is about being helpful without being intrusive. Keep it simple: device visibility, a pause switch, and a launch message tuned to each page type covers most stores' needs.