Messenger#

Connect a Facebook Page to your agent. When someone messages your Page on Facebook Messenger, your agent answers as the Page, with the same knowledge, guardrails, history and message limits as on your website.

For example, a bakery has a Facebook Page. A customer taps Message on the Page and asks "Can I order a birthday cake for Saturday?". The agent answers in Messenger with the bakery's order rules, even late at night.

Setup has two parts:

1. Once per install: the person who runs your Chatvia server sets up one Meta app in the admin panel. Every workspace on the install connects through it. See Channels settings.
2. Per agent: someone in the workspace clicks Connect with Facebook and picks a Page. Nobody pastes keys or codes.

Until the first part is done, the Messenger card is greyed out and says "Not set up on this server". Ask your admin.

Before you start#

You need a Facebook Page that you manage, and a Facebook account that has full control of it. A personal Facebook profile can't be connected, only a Page.

Step 1: Connect with Facebook#

1. Open your agent and click Channels in the left menu.
2. Click Setup on the Messenger card.
3. Click Connect with Facebook.

Your browser goes to Facebook. Sign in if asked. Facebook then asks which Pages Chatvia may use and lists the permissions. Pick your Page and keep every permission ticked. Chatvia needs them to read and answer the Page's messages.

Step 2: Pick the Page#

Facebook sends you back to the Channels page, with the Messenger panel open.

1. Under Choose a Facebook Page, pick the Page this agent should answer for.
2. Click Connect this Page.

The card now shows Connected and the Page's name. Chatvia also tells Facebook to send the Page's new messages to Chatvia. You don't need to change anything on the Page.

Step 3: Test it#

From another Facebook account, open your Page and click Message. Ask a question. You see "typing…" while the agent thinks, then the answer.

The conversation appears in your agent's Chatlog with a Messenger badge. Its title is "Messenger · " followed by the person's first name, when Facebook shares it.

How replies behave#

• The agent shows "typing…" while it works, then sends the full answer at once.
• Messenger shows no text formatting, so the answer is sent as clean plain text. Lists keep their bullets and numbers. Links are sent as their text with the address after it, and Messenger makes the address tappable.
• One Messenger message holds up to 2,000 characters. A longer answer is split into several messages.
• Each person has one ongoing conversation with the agent, so it remembers earlier messages.
• Only text messages are answered. Photos, stickers, voice messages and likes are ignored.
• Chatvia only answers messages people send. It never starts a conversation, so its replies always fall inside Messenger's 24-hour window for answering.

Good to know#

• One Page, one agent. A Page can power one agent at a time. To move it to another agent, disconnect it here first.
• Testing before going live. While your admin's Meta app is in Development mode, the bot only answers people who have a role on that Meta app (or are added as testers). Everyone else gets no reply. The admin switches it to Live mode after Meta's app review. See the tip in Channels settings.
• Disconnect stops the agent from answering. Your Page and its messages in Facebook are not changed.

Troubleshooting#