TalkDock — Floating Chat Button

TalkDock is a lightweight WordPress plugin that displays a floating chat button on your site. When a visitor clicks the button, it opens a WhatsApp conversation using a standard wa.me link that you configure.

The plugin is built around a single settings panel, has no third-party tracking, and ships with a .pot translation template.

What this plugin does

• Outputs a floating circular chat button in your site footer.
• Links the button to a WhatsApp number using a wa.me URL that you provide.
• Lets you set gradient colors using the native WordPress color picker.
• Positions the button on the left or right, with adjustable pixel distance from the edges.
• Optionally prefills a starting message so visitors don’t have to type one.
• Offers four animation styles: bounce, pulse, shake, or none.
• Includes visibility rules: show to all visitors, only to logged-in users, or only to logged-out visitors.
• Includes a “hide on mobile” toggle for screens narrower than 782px.
• Lets you set a custom accessibility label that screen readers announce.
• Provides the shortcode [talkdock_button] for placing inline buttons inside content.
• Shows a live preview inside the settings panel.
• Deletes its options on uninstall, unless you opt to preserve data.

Note on WhatsApp

This plugin is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to WhatsApp LLC, Meta Platforms, Inc., or any of their subsidiaries. “WhatsApp” is a trademark of WhatsApp LLC and is used here only to describe the type of link the button opens (the public wa.me click-to-chat URL format published by WhatsApp).

How it connects to WhatsApp

TalkDock does not communicate with WhatsApp servers from your site. It simply renders an <a> link pointing to a wa.me URL that you enter in the settings. The conversation opens in the WhatsApp app or WhatsApp Web on the visitor’s device, exactly as it would if you placed a regular wa.me link in your content. No data is sent to WhatsApp by the plugin itself, and no external API is called.

Pro version

A paid TalkDock Pro add-on is sold separately from this free plugin and is not hosted on WordPress.org. The free plugin is fully functional on its own — nothing in the feature list above requires Pro. The “Pro Features” tab inside the plugin describes what the paid add-on offers and links to it. You can ignore the Pro tab entirely; the free plugin will continue to work without it.

Developers

Hooks available for extensions:

• talkdock_loaded — fires after all components boot.
• talkdock_default_settings — filter to register additional default keys.
• talkdock_sanitize_settings — filter to sanitize additional keys.
• talkdock_should_render_widget — gate the frontend render.
• talkdock_widget_href — final-stage URL filter.
• talkdock_widget_css — modify the generated widget stylesheet. The legacy talkdock_inline_css filter is still called for backward compatibility, but CSS is written through the generated stylesheet path.
• talkdock_register_admin_submenu — register additional submenus under the parent slug.
• talkdock_admin_tab_content — inject content into additional tabs.

Privacy

Data the plugin sends from your site

In normal operation, TalkDock does not send any data from your WordPress site to any external service. The floating button is rendered as a plain <a href="https://wa.me/…"> link; when a visitor clicks it, their browser opens WhatsApp, exactly as it would for any hand-coded link.

Report a Bug feature (admin-only)

The plugin includes an optional “Report a Bug” button on its settings page in the WordPress admin. This button is the only way the plugin transmits anything from your site, and it only fires when an administrator clicks Send inside the feedback modal.

When you submit a report, the following data is transmitted to a server operated by Markas Studio:

• The subject and message you typed.
• An optional reply-to email address, only if you typed one.
• Up to three image attachments, only if you attached any. Images are validated server-side and not stored in your WordPress media library.
• If you leave the “Include diagnostic info” checkbox ticked (it is opt-out, shown to you before sending), the following non-identifying environment data: plugin version, WordPress version, PHP version, MySQL version, active theme name and version, site locale, multisite flag, and PHP memory limit.

The plugin never auto-collects or transmits: your site URL, your admin email, license keys, the list of users on your site, the list of other active plugins, or any visitor data.

A copy of each submission is also retained locally on your site in the tlkd_feedback_log option (most recent 50 entries, FIFO-rotated). This log is removed when you uninstall the plugin (unless you opt to preserve plugin data on uninstall).

Privacy policy

The Markas Studio privacy policy describes how submitted reports are handled and is available at https://studio.markashosting.com/plugins/talkdock/privacy-policy/

External services

This plugin connects to the Markas Studio Bug Report Receiver only when a site administrator explicitly submits the Report-a-Bug form from the plugin settings page. It does not send background telemetry, usage tracking, visitor data, or scheduled reports.

Service: Markas Studio Bug Report Receiver
Endpoint: https://projects.markas.cloud/wp-json/markas/v1/plugin-bug
Purpose: Forwards bug reports submitted by administrators from the Report-a-Bug modal so Markas Studio can investigate support requests.
Data sent: report subject, report message, optional reply-to email when provided, optional screenshot image attachments, and optional diagnostic information shown in the modal before submission (plugin version, WordPress version, PHP version, MySQL version, active theme name and version, locale, multisite flag, and PHP memory limit). Data is sent only after the administrator clicks Send.
Terms of Use: https://studio.markashosting.com/plugins/talkdock/terms/
Privacy Policy: https://studio.markashosting.com/plugins/talkdock/privacy-policy/

WhatsApp links are visitor-facing browser links only. TalkDock renders the saved wa.me URL as an anchor tag on the page; the plugin does not make server-side HTTP requests to WhatsApp or Meta.