Improved Mobile Widget

Today we pushed out a mobile-specific version of our widget. Our default widget has worked with iPhone/iPod touch since the beginning, but the new one has been designed specifically for mobile devices. We've tested it heavily in the default browser on our Android phone.

The new, mobile-specific widget is prefaced with m., like this:

http://m.libraryh3lp.com/chat/queue@chat.libraryh3lp.com

As with regular LibraryH3lp widgets, you can deck out the appearance of your mobile widget nearly any way you'd like. The easiest thing will be to use the Widget Designer in the admin site to create a custom skin using your preferred colors, title, etc... Then, after you generate the code, look for the raw widget URL (as above) and place the m. at the beginning. Of course, you can also customize your widget by hand if you prefer, as described in the Widget Customization section in the docs (the default mobile CSS is here).

Mobile technologies offer more flexibility for people on the go. Busy people like your patrons probably already IM you or text you from their phones; our IM and SMS gateways make answering those questions easier. Now, they can chat you more easily from your mobile website. And if you're so inclined, you can even staff your service from your phone now that librarians can use any XMPP client at all. (Please don't LibraryH3lp and drive.) Have fun!