Four consoles, one account
MyLiveChat gives agents four different ways to answer the same chats: a console that runs in the browser, a modern Windows desktop app, a macOS desktop app, and a classic Windows build kept around for teams that still depend on the old interface. All four sign in to the same account and work the same queue. None of them is a separate product or a separate licence.
That matters more than it sounds, because it means this decision is reversible. An agent who installs the desktop app and dislikes it can close it and open the browser console instead, mid-shift, without anybody changing a setting. Nothing about the account is pinned to a client choice, so the cost of picking wrong is an afternoon, not a migration.
What follows is what each build is actually for. The short version: start everybody in the browser, and install a desktop console only when somebody can name the thing the browser is not doing for them.
Start in the browser, because it removes a variable
The web console runs in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari with nothing to install. For a new team that is the right default, and not only because it is the least effort. A browser console removes the entire class of problems where one agent is on a different build from everyone else, so the answer to any question about behaviour is the same for all of them.
It is also the only console that works on a machine you do not administer. If your team includes contractors, weekend cover, or anybody on a locked-down laptop where they cannot install software, the browser console is not a compromise for them, it is the only option that exists. Planning around it from the start avoids discovering that on a Saturday.
The honest limitation is that a browser tab is a browser tab. It competes for attention with thirty other tabs, it can be closed by accident, and notifications reach the agent through the browser rather than the operating system. Those are real, and they are the reasons the desktop builds exist.
When the Windows console earns its install
The modern Windows console is the one to install when chat is somebody’s main job rather than one of six things they do. It runs on Windows 10 and Windows 11, and ships both as an installer and as a portable ZIP for machines where installers are not allowed. It carries the full operator workflow: visitor monitoring, the chat queue, invitations, sounds, notifications, canned messages and the AI-assisted parts.
The reason to install it is attention. A desktop application is its own window in the task bar, with its own notifications, and it does not disappear because somebody tidied their tabs. For an agent who is measured on response time, that difference is the whole point. If your waiting-visitor alerts are being missed, the console choice is worth checking before you rebuild the alerting, and the notifications guide covers the rest of that chain.
The portable ZIP is worth knowing about separately. It unzips and runs without an installer, which makes it the practical answer for a shared machine, a training room, or an agent whose IT policy forbids installs but permits running an executable from their own folder.
The macOS console, and who it is for
The macOS console covers macOS 10.13 and later and is designed to sit in the menu bar. Functionally it belongs in the same category as the Windows desktop app: it is for the agent who wants chat to be a permanent presence on the machine rather than a tab they have to remember.
On a mixed-platform team this is the build that prevents an awkward conversation. It is common to standardise on a Windows desktop console and then discover that the two designers who cover Friday afternoons are both on Macs. Because every console works the same queue, you do not have to choose between standardising and including them.
The classic console, and why it still exists
The classic Windows build is a legacy console for teams that still need the old interface. It ships only as a portable ZIP that you unzip and run. It is the one console on the list that nobody should be choosing fresh.
It is worth being blunt about that, because “classic” reads as “stable” to a certain kind of buyer. What it actually means here is that some teams built habits, training material or muscle memory around the old interface and moving them costs more than leaving them alone. If you have no such history, you have nothing to preserve, and the modern Windows console is the one to install.
If you are already on it, the useful question is not whether to move but when. The moment to do it is when you next onboard someone, because that is the one time you are writing the training material anyway.
Mixing consoles across one team is fine
Because all four consoles work the same queue on the same account, a team can run several at once without anybody coordinating it. One agent in the browser, two on the Windows app and a manager checking the queue from a Mac is a completely ordinary configuration, not a mess to be tidied up.
The one thing worth standardising is documentation, not software. If your internal notes say “click the button in the top right”, they are describing one console and quietly confusing everybody on another. Write process notes in terms of what the agent is trying to do, and keep client-specific instructions in a clearly labelled section. The onboarding guide goes further into what belongs in a new agent’s first week.
Where a mixed team does show up is in troubleshooting. When one agent reports something odd, the first question is which console they are on, because a problem that only appears in one build is a very different investigation from one that appears in all four.
How MyLiveChat fits
Every build of the MyLiveChat agent console is free with every plan, including the free one, so the choice is never about cost. Our own recommendation on the downloads page is the modern Windows console as the default desktop app, with the classic build reserved for teams that specifically require the legacy interface.
One case the list above does not cover is an agent who needs to cover chat away from a desk. That is the browser console on a phone rather than a separate application, and answering chat from a mobile browser is worth reading before you rely on it, because it is genuinely better for cover than for a full shift.
A practical sequence: put everyone in the browser console on day one so the team is working and nothing is blocked on installs. Give it a fortnight. Then install a desktop console for the people who are answering chat all day, and leave everybody else in the browser. That way each install is a response to a named problem instead of a guess made before you had any traffic.
One thing to settle at the same time is what happens on the machine itself, particularly if agents handle payment or account questions. Securing the agent workstation covers the shared-computer and screen-visibility questions that a console choice does not answer, and what happens when an agent goes idle explains the behaviour that surprises people most after a desktop install.