Chat triggers in Zendesk messaging

When you enable Zendesk messaging, a number of updates are made to existing and new Chat triggers to accommodate the functionality changes. If you do not update an existing trigger, these changes do not impact its functionality for live chat.

Note: If you joined the Zendesk messaging beta release before February 1, 2021, you may need to disable messaging and re-enable it to see the changes described in this article.

This article includes the following topics:

• Trigger changes when migrating from Chat to messaging
• Working with messaging triggers

Trigger changes when migrating from Chat to messaging

The basic way you work with Chat triggers remains unchanged when you move from Chat to messaging. You can view, edit, and add triggers from the main Chat triggers page, accessed from the Chat dashboard at Settings > Triggers. See Working with Chat triggers for general information, and Working with messaging triggers, below, for information on messaging-specific triggers.

You’ll see the changes in the Customize trigger section of the Add trigger and Edit trigger pages, when you are viewing an existing trigger, or creating a new trigger.

These changes include:

• A new Channel dropdown menu
• Updated Run trigger options
• Updated condition options
• Updated action options

The Channel menu

The new Channel menu appears at the top of the Customize trigger section. It allows you to run a trigger based on which channel a chat request is received through:

Options include:

• Chat, which runs the trigger only if the visitor is using Live Chat.
• Messaging, which runs the trigger only if the visitor is using the messaging channel.
• Chat and messaging, which runs the trigger if the visitor is using either Live Chat or messaging.

If Chat is selected, the trigger options do not change, and the trigger performs as described in our core Chat triggers documentation. However, if Messaging or Chat and messaging is selected, subsequent trigger options are impacted, as described in the sections below, because of messaging functionality changes.

Note: When you enable Zendesk messaging, all existing Chat triggers are updated with the Chat option selected, and will perform as expected when a visitor uses Live Chat.

Updated Run trigger options

If you select Messaging or Chat and messaging from the Channel dropdown menu, you can no longer choose to run the trigger when a visitor has loaded the Chat widget, as there is no Chat widget used in Zendesk messaging.

You can select the following options:

• A visitor requests a chat
• A visitor sends a chat message

Updated condition options

If you select Messaging or Chat and messaging from the Channel dropdown menu, the number of conditions available to you is limited to the following:

• Hour of day
• Day of week
• Visitor previous chats
• Visitor name
• Visitor email
• Visitor triggered
• Account status
• Department status
• Visitor is chatting
• Visitor requesting chat
• Visitor served
• Department (Only available when Run trigger = A visitor sends a chat message)
• Sender (Only available when Run trigger = A visitor requests a chat)
• Sender type (Only available when Run trigger = A visitor requests a chat)
• Message (Only available when Run trigger = A visitor requests a chat)
• Queue size (account)

For a complete list of trigger conditions and descriptions, including those that are not available for messaging, see Zendesk Chat triggers conditions and actions reference: Trigger conditions.

Updated action options

If you select Messaging or Chat and messaging from the Channel dropdown menu, the number of actions available to you is limited to the following:

• Send message to visitor
• Set triggered (shown on dashboard)
• Wait
• Set name of visitor
• Block visitor

For a complete list of trigger actions and descriptions, including those that are not available for messaging, see Zendesk Chat triggers conditions and actions reference: Trigger actions.

Working with messaging triggers

When Zendesk messaging is enabled, you have three default triggers in your Chat triggers list:

• First Reply, which sends an automated reply to customers that start a chat.
• Request Contact Details, which asks customers to leave an email address when your account is set to Away.
• All Agents Offline, which sends an automated reply to end users when all Chat agents are offline.

These triggers, by default, have the Chat channel selected. You can edit them as needed to work with your messaging channel.

The processes for creating, editing, and deleting messaging triggers are identical to standard triggers, with one small exception. If you select a condition or action field that is only available in the Chat channel, then select Messaging or Chat and messaging from the Channel menu, you will not be able to save the trigger settings until you have updated the fields.