How can I disable the virtual help centre assistant?

[jake_mitchell]

Is there a way to turn off the virtual help centre assistant that anyone knows of? 

On a small screen it is really unhelpful, distracting and confusing to have 1/3 of the screen taken up by this new virtual assistant. 

I get that AI is all the rage, but this is such an oppressive use of it that actually makes it much harder to find information within help articles. 

Did this go through any rounds of user testing? 

Of all the recent UI changes this is the one that really stings. Just terrible design. 

[Blair]

Hi @jake_mitchell,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community. 

I definitely understand where you're coming from regarding the most recent addition to the Shopify Help Center and would be happy to share some insight on how we can help.

The all new Help Center Assistant chatbox has been created to seamlessly assist with any questions that you may have. Due to this, it is not possible to minimize and/or disable the feature. While I can completely understand how that may not be ideal, I'm more than happy to share this feedback with our developers. We're always looking for ways to improve the platform and appreciate those notes.

Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns. 

[jake_mitchell]

The thing is though, it doesn't help. 

When I'm on the article I need I can get information from that. The chat assistant is just getting in the way at that point, making the actual content - which I've already found - harder to read. 

Chat assistants are good when the user doesn't know what help they need. Once they've found it the chat window just gets in the way. 

Whilst it might be acceptable on a bigger screen it makes the small screen experience more cramped than it should be. 

[nometalgear]

I hate this user experience. Whoever designed this should not be in the product design team, let alone leading it!!!! 

[jnorth-tmw]

I'd like to also request the ability to hide this side bar.

Working in an agency, it can sometimes be useful to walk through documentation with a client, but this opens the possibility for a query or even support discussion related to another client being visible.

Current workaround is to open a new private/incognito window, but that requires a bit of screenshare juggling and still results in a third of the window being taken up but an empty chat.

[LAL]

This is horrible , just horrible why is it so hard to give us the ability to close the eyesore that is is, how do you expect me to read the help pages or any articles. ugh! 

[nathonplumlee]

It does not help, it takes up valuable horizontal screen space. It is doing the opposite of helping, help us by letting us turn it off or at least minimize the chat please.

[RockPebbleMetal]

Hello. I was a senior technical writer for 25 years and all of the comments below are well conceived. It is poor functionality to leave the user without a choice to minimize a dominant screen (hog) that is not useful a vast majority of the time. To leave it up is lazy usability/programming when it is not used a  majority of the time. For example, it's like leaving up a login or register frame all the time on a page. People use pages when needed so kindly offer a toggle (minimize) element (arrow) when needed. Usability 101 here.

[Kent11]

I couldn't agree more!  It's a huge window that can't be moved.  When I try to print the B2B setup checklist the print window only shows the Help Centre Assistant.  If I type in the Help Center Assistant "Close", it's super nice and says, "Of course! If you have any more questions in the future, don't hesitate to ask. Have a great day!"... but it never goes away.  Just horrible.  Give us the option to close or at least minimize the assistant.

[DavidWard1]

Agree, I hate the assistant, takes half the page, does not work, gives useless answers, worst "Help" EVER!

[petgrocer]

This lazy man's ai help assistant is anything but helpful. It is yet another move by Shopify away from customer service and end user happiness. It is extremely frustrating and I would like to minimize it in order to minimize the anger I feel each time I see it. Honestly. Hiding our searches behind clicks, then you can't even find a way to reach customer service. I feel like Shopify is going backwards and is acting like a start up tech instead of a long standing service with thousands of clients.

[jake_mitchell]

Every day it gets harder to access support. We're paying for Plus and were told we'd have access to support but every week shopify make a new changes that is just funnelling everything through a dumb as rocks AI chatbot. 

How can we just access the support chat without having to answer riddles from R2-D2? 

[DaniilPonomarov]

Hi I've been reached by a virtual assistant via email who whants me to add him into a company so he can improve my store. Is it a real shopify virtual assistant or is it just a scummer?

[benhu]

this is one of the most useless and irritating bot i have on the entire internet. I tried to use Chrome ext to target the div and set to display:none and it still finds its way out. Can you offer to disable this per account please. really appreciate.

[Kinyj88]

Let me know if you find a solution.

It’s so frustrating when you want to chat to agent and you get chatbot replying all the time.

[dappernotes]

+1

Literally impossible to focus on ACTUAL help center content with the giant looming box. A box that mind you is 100% of the time useless.

Just add an option to hide the thing. All it's doing is increasing animosity towards this brand any time I'm seeking help.

[DavidWard1]

I simply type "Human please" and bypass the AI Bot answers.

Sometimes I know the answer is in the help somewhere but the chatbot is in the way, so I bypass the chatbot and ask a person.

[petgrocer]

Problem with the chat agents is that they sit and deal with more than one chat at a time and routinely make errors in their very very very delayed responses to you. Shopify might be saving money, but they have terribly unhappy customers, who routinely jump ship. High churn must be part of the business model.

[nathonplumlee]

I just want it gone so I can focus on reading the actual documentation, this chat takes up 1/3 of the screen and is just a time wasting distraction for me.

[petgrocer]

A thousand times this. Animosity at a time of high stress when you need help the most...