What's new in the 8x8 Contact Center March 2026 release for administrators ?

This release introduces an enhanced web chat window design with expanded configuration capabilities and a real-time preview experience. These enhancements enable you to configure, validate, and optimize chat interactions more efficiently.

Enhanced web chat window design

The web chat experience has been updated to offer a modern interface and enhanced customization. You can now configure chat behavior and instantly preview the design as it will appear to end users.

Key enhancements include:

  • Real-time preview of configuration changes
  • Quick reply buttons
  • Customizable images with reset functionality
  • Chatbot branding with avatar and bio

Previously, configuration options were applied without a clear visual representation of the final user experience. With this enhancement, you can immediately see how changes affect the chat interface, improving accuracy and reducing setup time.

Benefits

  • Faster configuration: Make and validate changes instantly without saving or reloading
  • Improved accuracy: Reduce errors by previewing chat behavior before publishing
  • Enhanced branding: Customize chatbot identity with avatar and bio
  • Better user experience: Deliver a modern and consistent chat interface

Preview chat behavior in real time

You can now preview chat behavior instantly as you update configuration settings.

  • Changes appear immediately in the preview panel
  • No page reload or save is required
  • Enabled features are reflected dynamically

For example:

  • Enabling sound notifications displays notification behavior in the preview
  • Enabling attachments shows the attachment button in the chat interface
  • Updating avatar settings reflects instantly in message previews ( for both agent and chatbot)

Note: The preview shows the current configuration state before publishing.

Configure chatbot avatar and bio

You can customize chatbot identity directly in the configuration interface.

  • Set a chatbot avatar
  • Add a chatbot bio (up to 200 characters)
  • Display chatbot information in the chat header during bot interactions
  • Preview updates in real time as changes are made

The chatbot bio appears in the header area when the chat is in Bot mode.

Reset custom images

You can reset customized images to their default state.

  • Remove uploaded images
  • Restore default visuals
  • See changes reflected immediately in the preview

Improve preview and configuration experience

The configuration experience is enhanced to provide immediate visual feedback.

  • Preview reflects all enabled features dynamically
  • Configuration changes are easier to validate before publishing
  • Chat layout and behavior are visible during setup

To learn more about configuring chat design, see Design a chat window.

Chat design Edit window page showing the updated interface with options to customize the chat window, including logo upload, color settings, chatbot name, and avatar. A preview panel displays the updated chat widget appearance

What's new in the 8x8 Contact Center February 2026 for administrators ?

So far in 2026, we have introduced the following features and enhancements requiring admin configuration.

Control IVR Speech in the Say node with SSML support

The February 2026 release of 8x8 Configuration Manager introduces Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML), support in the Say node, giving administrators granular control over IVR speech delivery.

With the Speech Editor, you can control pauses, pacing, pronunciation, pitch, and emphasis to create clearer, more natural IVR messages. No SSML expertise is required, though manual SSML input is supported for advanced use cases.

Use the Speech Editor to create and preview natural IVR messages before deployment.

You can access the Speech Editor directly within the Say node configuration dialog.

What’s new

The updated Say node now includes:

  • Built-in SSML support through the Speech Editor
  • Guided UI controls for pauses, speed, pitch, and pronunciation
  • Instant inline audio preview
  • Real-time validation with actionable error guidance
  • Reduced need to dial into the IVR for testing

This enhancement shortens the test cycle and improves caller experience by making speech delivery more precise and predictable.

No SSML expertise is required, but manual SSML is supported for advanced configurations.

Side-by-side comparison of the old and new Say node editor. The new version includes SSML tag support, speech formatting controls (Pauses, Speed, Say-As, Pitch), validation status, and a Generate Audio Preview option, replacing the simpler text-only editor in the previous version

The enhanced Say node offers a Speech Editor for faster authoring, fewer errors, and a better caller experience.

Enhanced Say node editor with SSML support, playback controls, and audio preview.

Area

Old Say node

 New advanced SSML Editor
SSML support Single text field with no SSML UI Full SSML support with UI controls and manual SSML tags such as <break>, <prosody>, <say-as>, etc.
Preview and testing Requires dialing into IVR to test; slow and error-prone Inline audio preview with regenerate option
Validation No real-time feedback; changes require full test loop Real-time validation and inline feedback; highlights errors and blocks invalid saves
Playback and variables Provider behavior Authoring workflow Limited playback control Global playback controls with preview of undefined variables
Provider behavior Inconsistent, manual fixes needed Real-time validation and feedback: Sanitizes unsupported SSML tags and notifies the user
Authoring workflow Long: edit → dial → listen Short: edit → preview → validate → save

The Speech Editor is available within the Say node.

To configure a Say node using the Speech Editor:

Configure a Say node using the Speech Editor

Use the Speech Editor to control how speech is delivered. It is available within the Say node.

To configure a Say node using the Speech Editor:

  1. From the Configuration menu, open Scripts.
  2. Select the Phone tab.
  3. Click Edit to open the desired script
  4. In the Script tab, add or select a Say node.

  5. In the Say node configuration dialog, configure the following:

    • Language: Select the preferred language. This determines available voices.
    • Voice: Select the predefined voice for the message. Available voices depend on the language selected.
    • Value to play: Select Free text.
    • Playback rate: Choose Slow, Normal, or Fast.
    • Playback options: Select Uninterruptible (ignores input from the caller) or Interruptible (captures input during playback).

    • Text to play: Enter your message and use the SSML tags to adjust how your message sounds.

      Note: If you apply any speech formatting, either through editor controls or by typing SSML, your content must be wrapped between tags:
      xml
      <speak>...</speak>

      • The Speech Editor validates SSML automatically and displays guidance if formatting is incorrect.

      The Say node shows SSML validation errors. The text editor highlights incorrect <speak> tag usage, and an error message below indicates that SSML tags must be wrapped in <speak> tags and that there is a mismatched closing tag

      • Fix any formatting errors if necessary. When Speech Editor validates SSML, the Validated status appears .

      Say node: configure and preview the spoken message using the enhanced editor with SSML support

  6. Click Generate Audio Preview to listen to the message before saving or deploying.

    Say node: The enhanced version includes SSML support, speech controls (Pauses, Speed, Say-As, Pitch), validation status, remaining character count, and a Generate Audio Preview option

  7. Optionally, make the necessary changes.
  8. Click OK to save

For detailed configuration steps and SSML reference guidance, see Control IVR Speech in the Say Node with SSML Support.

To find more about supported SSML tags and troubleshooting, see SSML reference for the Say node.

Enhanced chat design invitation

The webchat invitation experience has been significantly upgraded by 8x8. Key improvements include a modern user interface, the integration of quick reply buttons, image customization and increased configuration options.

What’s new

  • New Capabilities

    • Quick reply buttons (administrators can add one or more predefined response options in the chat invitation)
    • Up to 10 buttons
    • Single button: selecting it simply triggers the configured flow; the text is not passed to the agent.
    • Multiple buttons: the selected button's text is visible to both the customer and agent, preserving context for the conversation.
    • Buttons are configured in CM and automatically adapt to the Invitation Window size

  • Image support

    • Optional image insertion
    • Auto-scaling behaviour

  • Preview & Configuration Experience

    • Real-time preview updates in Configuration Manager

Side-by-side view of the 8x8 Admin Console showing the Chat design › Edit invitation page, highlighting new enhancements such as multiple configurable buttons, image customization, and a live preview of the updated chat invitation window

To learn more about designing a chat invitation, see Design a chat invitation.