Enabling Zendesk messaging

In this article, we'll walk you through the steps to enable messaging and activate it throughout your account. The tasks described in this article must be performed by an account administrator.

This article includes the following sections:

• Enabling Zendesk messaging in your account
• How enabling messaging changes your account
• Updating Chat settings
• Enabling messaging in a new brand

Enabling Zendesk messaging in your account

Once you confirm that you meet the requirements for Zendesk messaging, you can enable it in your account.

Zendesk messaging is enabled through the Admin Center.

Note: Enabling Zendesk messaging at the account level updates your account in a number of significant ways. See How enabling messaging changes your account for more information.

To enable Zendesk messaging on your account

1. In Admin Center, click the Channels icon (), then click Messaging setup.
2. On the Set up messaging page, select the checkbox to Enable messaging for your account.

   

3. Under Turn on messaging for Web SDK, use the dropdown menu to select the brands on which you want to activate messaging.
4. Click Save.

   Once messaging is enabled at the account level, it appears in your Channels list with Web listed as an active channels.

   

   You can now customize messaging for the web channel as needed, and create new Android and iOS SDKs for your account.

   Note: When you create a brand after messaging is enabled, the onboarding experience differs. See Enabling messaging in a new brand.

How enabling messaging changes your account

Zendesk messaging is enabled at the account level as described above. When enabled, a number of changes occur throughout your account that impact related functionality. In this section, we’ll go over the changes to the following account areas:

• Web Widget
• Android, iOS, and Unity SDKs
• Answer Bot
• Social messaging channels
• Agent Workspace
• Chat

Web Widget

Zendesk messaging uses the web channel, rather than the Web Widget, for real-time customer interaction. If you have previously configured one or more Web Widgets on your account, enabling messaging gives you the option to convert them to the web channel on a per-brand basis, or create a new web channel for a brand that did not previously use the Web Widget.

Further changes occur when you activate the web channel, which we’ll discuss in Working with messaging in your web channel.

Android, iOS, and Unity SDKs

Enabling messaging does not change any previously-configured or deployed SDKs you might be using for Android, iOS, or Unity. After messaging is enabled, you can create new Android and iOS SDKs with messaging. These are separate SDKs from the Classic Zendesk SDKs you've been using so far, and need to be configured and deployed separately.

Answer Bot

Enabling messaging also activates Flow Builder, a tool that lets you to click-to-configure Answer Bot. With Flow Builder, Answer Bot continues to be the first responder to customers, but gains a lot of new abilities as well.

Importantly, Flow Builder includes a default conversational flow, which is published and visible in the Flow Builder page. The default flow begins functioning immediately through the Web SDK when it’s enabled.

If you have multiple brands in your account, Flow Builder is activated on every one of those brands. Each brand has a separate default flow that can be configured independently.

See About Answer Bot for Zendesk messaging for more information.

Agent Workspace

Agent Workspace gains some additional functionality as well, including enhanced conversation history and responding to messaging conversations at any time. See Receiving and sending Zendesk Messages in the Agent Workspace for more information.

Chat

When you enable messaging, there are a number Chat-related changes that apply to both agents and administrators.

For more information, see How enabling Zendesk messaging impacts Chat settings.

Updating Chat settings

A Chat administrator needs to perform the following tasks:

1. Organize your agents into groups. For example, you can create a group of agents who handle specific channels, such as messaging, See Adding agents to groups.
2. Set up Support Triggers to route messaging conversations to these groups.
3. Configure Chat limits on the Chat dashboard to control how many active messaging conversations your agents receive.
4. Educate agents on the Agent Experience.

Enabling messaging in a new brand

When you create a brand after enabling messaging on your account, you’ll need to add a web or mobile messaging channel to use messaging functionality with that brand.

Once messaging is added to a channel, Answer Bot is activated with a basic conversational flow that collects information and initiates an agent transfer, but does not include any self-service functionality by default. The screenshot below shows an example of the basic flow.

You can also activate Flow Builder to create a customized, automated flow for the brand. When Flow Builder is initially activated for the brand, you’ll see the following screen:

Click Start building flow to get started.

If you wish to avoid the basic conversational flow, then we recommend activating Flow Builder prior to enabling and embedding messaging web or mobile channels for this brand.