Why you need to enable app embeds
How Liva 7 connects to your theme and why this step is required
Overview
Liva 7 uses theme-side scripts to power product recommendations, Smart Content and personalised storefront experiences. Shopify requires merchants to explicitly enable these scripts through an App Embed. Until the embed is turned on, Liva 7 cannot run on your storefront, even if the app is installed.
Enabling the App Embed is a one-time step that activates Liva 7 on your theme.
Installing the app is not enough. You must enable the App Embed to activate Liva 7 on your storefront. Watch walkthrough video
What app embeds are
App Embeds are Shopify’s way of allowing apps to load scripts, styles and components into your theme. They give you full control over which apps are allowed to run on your storefront.
Why Shopify uses them
- They protect your theme from unwanted scripts
- They prevent apps from injecting code without permission
- They ensure you can turn an app on or off instantly
- They keep your theme clean and safe
If an app needs to display anything on your storefront, it must use an App Embed.
App Embeds control which apps are allowed to load scripts into your theme.
Why Liva 7 requires an app embed
Liva 7 displays personalised content on your storefront. To do this, it needs to load:
- the personalisation engine script
- the Product Recs block script
- the Widget block script
- the Smart Content delivery script
Shopify will not load any of these unless the App Embed is enabled.
This is expected and required for all storefront personalisation apps.
Liva 7 cannot display recommendations or Smart Content until the App Embed is enabled.
How to enable the app embed
Step 1: Open your theme editor
In Shopify Admin, go to:
Online Store → Themes → Edit theme
This opens the visual theme editor.
Step 2: Open the App Embeds panel
In the left-hand panel, look at the very top left.
You will see three icons stacked vertically:
- Sections icon
- Theme settings icon
- App Embeds icon (bottom icon)
Click the bottom icon to open the App Embeds panel.
Step 3: Find the Liva 7 embeds
Inside the App Embeds panel, you will see two Liva 7 entries:
- Liva 7 Bundle Modal
- Liva 7 (this is the main embed)
Each has its own toggle.
Step 4: Turn on the main Liva 7 toggle
Switch the toggle next to Liva 7 to the 'on' position.
This enables all core Liva 7 storefront features.
The Liva 7 Bundle Modal toggle is optional and only controls the bundle pop up.
Step 5: Save your theme
Click Save in the top right corner.
Your changes will not apply until you save.
Once saved, Liva 7 will immediately begin running on your storefront.
The App Embeds icon is the bottom icon in the left-hand panel. Toggle the main Liva 7 embed on and save.
How to confirm the embed is working
Check your storefront
Visit your store and confirm that:
- product recommendations appear
- Smart Content appears (if configured)
- no errors show in the console
- the app script loads correctly
Turn the embed off to test
If you toggle the embed off:
- recommendations will disappear
- Smart Content will stop showing
- the app script will no longer load
This confirms the embed is functioning correctly.
If Liva 7 content disappears when the embed is off, the embed is working as expected.
If you are testing on a live store
If your store has real customers, you can safely test Liva 7 by:
- duplicating your theme
- enabling the embed on the duplicate
- adding blocks only to hidden sections
- previewing the theme without publishing it
This allows full testing without affecting your live storefront.
Use a duplicate theme to test Liva 7 without showing anything to customers.
Summary
Liva 7 requires an App Embed because Shopify only allows storefront apps to run scripts when the merchant explicitly enables them.
Turning the embed on activates Liva 7 on your theme and allows product recommendations and Smart Content to appear. This step is required for all personalisation apps and only needs to be done once per theme.
