How to add an AI chatbot to an Adalo app
Adalo has no native chatbot component, so an AI chatbot lives on a hosted page that you embed with the WebView component. Build the bot, give it your own content as knowledge, set how it should behave when it does not know something, test it, then paste its URL into a WebView with enough height for the conversation.
This is the whole sequence: build, teach, behave, test, embed. The two steps people skip, behaviour and testing, are the ones that decide whether users trust the bot.
Step 1: Create the chatbot
Create a bot and name it after its job.
- Name it clearly: "Support", "Onboarding", "Catalogue Q&A".
- One bot per job answers better than one bot covering everything.
- A focused bot keeps its knowledge relevant to the question asked.
Step 2: Add its knowledge
A chatbot with no knowledge answers generically, so give it your content directly.
- Paste help content, FAQs, policies or product details, or upload documents.
- Prefer short, factual passages over marketing copy.
- Include answers to the questions your users actually ask.
- Include facts that change rarely: pricing rules, delivery windows, policies.
- Use the terminology your app uses, so replies match your interface.
Step 3: Set behaviour
Decide tone, answer length, and what the bot must refuse.
- Tell it explicitly to say "I don't know, contact support" when knowledge is missing.
- This prevents confident wrong answers, the main way chatbots damage trust.
Step 4: Test a real conversation
Ask the awkward questions before real users do.
- Try refunds, edge cases, and anything the bot should refuse to answer.
- Fix the knowledge or behaviour, then test again.
- Ten minutes here prevents a lot of support tickets later.
Step 5: Embed it in Adalo
Add a WebView component to a screen and paste in the chatbot URL.
- Add a screen (or a section of one) for the chat.
- Drop in the WebView component and paste the chatbot URL.
- Set a generous height so the thread and input are both comfortable.
- Append the logged-in user's details as URL parameters using Magic Text.
- Preview on a real device, not only in the browser.
Common mistakes and how to diagnose them
The chat area is cramped or the input is cut off.
- Likely cause:
- The WebView component is too short.
- Fix:
- Increase the height until the thread and input are comfortable on the smallest device you support.
The WebView is blank.
- Likely cause:
- A mistyped URL, or the page failing to load on mobile.
- Fix:
- Open the chatbot URL directly in a phone browser first, if it fails there, it will fail in the app.
The bot invents answers.
- Likely cause:
- Thin knowledge and no instruction about what to do when it does not know.
- Fix:
- Add the missing facts and tell it explicitly to decline and point to support.
The keyboard covers the input on iOS.
- Likely cause:
- A fixed-height WebView near the bottom of the screen.
- Fix:
- Give the chat its own screen with room above the keyboard, and test on hardware.
Real example: cutting repeat support questions in a booking app
A booking app received the same four questions daily: cancellation window, rescheduling, refunds and parking. Those four answers, pasted in verbatim, plus an instruction to hand off anything else to email, covered most incoming messages.
The bot lived on its own screen with the user's first name passed in via a URL parameter, so it greeted people by name. Total build time was under an hour, the knowledge is what did the work, not the model.
When you need an Adalo expert
Plenty of Adalo issues are straightforward to fix yourself with the steps above. It usually pays to bring in an experienced Adalo developer when the problem sits deeper in the build:
- The bot needs live data, order status, account balance, inventory, rather than static knowledge.
- Conversations must be written back into your Adalo collections.
- You need handoff to a human agent, or logging for compliance.
- The chat has to behave differently per user role or plan.
Related guides
How to use a WebView component in Adalo
What the Adalo WebView component does, how to pass data in with URL parameters, sizing it correctly, and the limits to design around.
How to connect an API to Adalo
Connect a REST API to Adalo with custom actions or external collections, including the response shape, authentication headers and pagination Adalo expects.
Adalo app launch checklist
What to verify before you submit an Adalo app: data, accounts, permissions, empty states, uploads and external collections.
Frequently asked questions
Can I add a chatbot to an Adalo app?
Yes. Host the chat interface and embed it with the WebView component, Adalo has no native chatbot component.
Can the chatbot answer from my own content?
Yes. Whatever text or documents you add as knowledge is what it answers from.
Why does the chat look cramped in my app?
The WebView component is almost always too short. Increase its height until the thread and input are both comfortable.
Can the chatbot know who is logged in?
Yes, pass the user's name or ID as a URL parameter using magic text, and treat those values as untrusted on the receiving side.
Can it read live data from my app?
Only if it is connected to a live data source; static knowledge alone cannot see current records.
Will the chatbot work in the published mobile app?
Yes, the WebView renders in native builds, always verify on a real device.
Webnux Tools is an independent product by Webnux Ltd. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Adalo, Inc. Adalo is a trademark of Adalo, Inc.