Chameleon

Overview

Chameleon is a product adoption platform that lets product teams build and deploy in-app guided tours, tooltips, modals, launchers, and microsurveys — without requiring engineering resources for each update. It is deployed on SaaS web applications to drive feature adoption, onboard new users, and collect in-context feedback. Chameleon integrates with Segment, Mixpanel, Amplitude, Salesforce, and HubSpot to trigger experiences based on user properties and behavioral events.

What This Script Does

The Chameleon script (fast.chameleon.io/mushi-loader.js or loaded via Segment as a destination) initializes the Chameleon SDK within the host application. Once initialized, it:

Experience rendering:

• Renders guided tour overlays that highlight specific UI elements and walk users through feature flows step-by-step
• Displays tooltip coach marks anchored to specific DOM elements, triggered when users hover or focus on them
• Shows modal dialogs and slideout panels for announcements, release notes, or feature introductions
• Renders launcher widgets (e.g., a persistent help icon) that users can click to access a menu of available tours and resources
• Delivers microsurveys — typically NPS, CSAT, or custom rating questions — within the application UI

Targeting and segmentation:

• Reads user identity and property data (passed via chmln.identify()) to determine which experiences to show
• Evaluates segment rules (e.g., "show to users who have not visited the Settings page") using event history and user properties
• Targets experiences to specific URL patterns, user roles, plan types, or company attributes

Data collection:

• Sends tour interaction events (step viewed, step completed, tour dismissed, survey response submitted) to Chameleon's servers at api.chameleon.io
• Sets a first-party cookie or uses localStorage to track which tours and surveys a user has seen, preventing repeat displays
• Does not set third-party tracking cookies or perform cross-site behavioral profiling

Consent & Compliance

• Category: Functional
• GDPR: Chameleon processes authenticated user data (user ID, properties, in-app behavior) to deliver product experiences. This is core product functionality, not marketing tracking. Under legitimate interest, delivering onboarding and adoption experiences to users who signed up for the product is well-justified. No consent popup is typically required within an authenticated SaaS application. A data processing agreement with Chameleon is appropriate.
• ePrivacy: The storage used (cookies or localStorage) maintains tour state for the authenticated user's session and subsequent visits — this is strictly necessary for delivering the requested guidance experience.
• CCPA: Tour interaction data and user property data constitute personal information. Disclose Chameleon's use in your privacy policy. Chameleon is US-based (San Francisco); EU-US data transfers rely on Standard Contractual Clauses or the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.
• Anonymous visitors: If Chameleon is deployed on public-facing (pre-login) pages for anonymous visitors rather than authenticated users, the calculus changes — anonymous visitor tracking without a clear functional purpose would require consent.

Should You Block This Without Consent?

Conditional. Within an authenticated SaaS application where Chameleon delivers onboarding tours and product guidance to signed-in users, blocking is generally not required — this is functional product infrastructure. If deployed on public-facing pages for anonymous visitor tracking or lead generation purposes, block until functional consent is granted.