Configuring Participant Lifecycle
Manage when participants join and leave conversations
Participant lifecycle controls when each person joins and leaves the conversation, creating realistic group chat behavior.
What is Participant Lifecycle?
In real group chats, people don't all arrive and leave at exactly the same time. FOMOchat simulates this natural behavior:
- Join times: When each participant enters the conversation
- Leave times: When each participant exits
- Session duration: How long they stay active
This creates an authentic feeling of an ongoing conversation with people coming and going.
Join Time Behavior
Landing Page Mode
Participants arrive in staggered waves:
- Most arrive within the first 0-120 seconds
- Creates the feeling of joining an active conversation in progress
- Mimics natural website traffic patterns
Webinar/Video Mode
Join times are distributed to match real webinar attendance:
| Timing | Percentage | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Early | 60% | Join before video or within first 1-2 minutes |
| On-time | 25% | Join within first 40% of video (~7 min mark) |
| Late | 15% | Join after the first quarter of video |
💡 Key Insight: This distribution matches real webinar data—most people join early, some trickle in late.
Leave Time Behavior
Landing Page Mode
Customers & Prospects:
- Stay for 20-30 minutes
- Leave naturally as the conversation winds down
- Creates realistic turnover
Staff (AI Rep):
- Stays for ~8 hours (essentially always present)
- Available to answer questions throughout the day
- Never leaves during visitor sessions
Webinar/Video Mode
Customers & Prospects:
- Leave 2-5 minutes before the video ends
- Creates realistic viewer drop-off pattern
- Some may leave earlier (mimics real behavior)
Staff (AI Rep):
- Stays after the video ends
- Answers post-video questions
- Captures leads from engaged viewers
💡 Pro Tip: The staff staying after video end is crucial—many viewers have follow-up questions immediately after watching.
Editing Join/Leave Times
Accessing the Editor
- Open your FOMOchat in edit mode
- Go to the Participants step
- Click on any participant card
- Edit their lifecycle settings
Editable Fields
Joins at:
- Landing page: Relative time (e.g., "30 seconds")
- Video mode: Timestamp (e.g., "02:30")
Session Duration:
- How long the participant stays
- Leave time = Join time + Session duration
Leaves at:
- Calculated automatically from join time + session
- Can be adjusted indirectly via session duration
Lifecycle by Role
Different participant roles have different default behaviors:
| Role | Default Join | Default Session | Leave Behavior |
|---|---|---|---|
| Staff | Immediate (0:00) | 8 hours | Stays throughout |
| Customer | Staggered (0-2 min) | 20-30 minutes | Natural departure |
| Prospect | Staggered (0-2 min) | 20-30 minutes | Natural departure |
Why Lifecycle Matters
Authenticity
Real group chats have people joining and leaving. Static participants feel artificial.
Engagement Pacing
Early arrivals set the tone, late arrivals add energy, departures create urgency.
Video Sync
In webinar mode, lifecycle ensures the chat matches video pacing—participants leave as the video winds down.
Best Practices
- Don't over-engineer — Let AI defaults handle most cases
- Staff should stay — Always keep your AI Rep present
- Match video length — In video mode, ensure leave times align with video end
- Test the flow — Preview to see how arrivals/departures feel
- Consider urgency — Participants leaving can create FOMO
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