Messages are slow or only arrive on refresh
What the live connection is, what happens when it cannot be made, and what to check.
Messages should appear the moment they are sent, on both sides. If you are pressing refresh to see new ones, the live connection is not being made and Talkfront has quietly fallen back to polling.
How it is meant to work
Both the panel and the chat window hold an open connection to our own real-time service. A new message, a typing indicator or a status change is pushed down it immediately.
If that connection cannot be made, nothing breaks: the widget falls back to asking periodically instead. You still get every message, just later. That is deliberate, because going quiet would be worse, but it is not what you want day to day.
If it is only you
Check your network. Corporate networks, hotel wifi and some VPNs block WebSocket connections. The quickest test is a phone on mobile data: if messages are instant there and slow on your laptop, it is the network rather than Talkfront.
Check for an extension. Aggressive privacy and ad-blocking extensions sometimes block the connection. Try a private window with extensions disabled.
Check the tab has been open a long time. A laptop that has been asleep reconnects when it wakes, and that takes a moment.
If it is everyone in your workspace
Then it is us rather than you, and the thing to do is tell us rather than keep checking. Email support@talkfront.app.
If it is only the widget on your site
The chat window is an iframe on its own origin, and it opens its own
connection. Your site’s Content-Security-Policy does not govern what happens
inside it (a policy applies to the document that was served with it, not to a
frame from somewhere else), so this is one symptom a CSP does not cause. If
the policy were the problem, the chat button would not appear at all.
What does cause it here is the same as anywhere: the visitor’s network. A shopper on a corporate guest network gets polling and a small delay, and there is nothing on your side to change. They still get every message.
What it is not
It is not your plan. Real-time is on every plan including the free one, and there is no tier where messages are delivered more slowly.
Last updated 22 September 2026.