When you migrate from live chat to messaging for Web Widget and mobile SDKs, new triggers are created and a number of updates are made to existing triggers to accommodate the functionality changes. If you do not update an existing trigger, these changes do not impact its functionality for live chat.
For most accounts, messaging triggers are managed in Admin Center, while chat triggers are still managed in the Chat dashboard.
This article includes the following topics:
For more information, see the following articles:
Changes to your Chat triggers 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 chat triggers from the main chat triggers page, accessed from the Chat dashboard at Settings > Triggers.
- The Channel drop-down field
- Updated Run trigger options
- Updated condition options
- Updated action options
The Channel field
When messaging is turned on for your account, a channel field is added to the chat and messaging triggers. It's used to specify whether the trigger runs on conversations originating from Chat, messaging, or both.
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When you turn on messaging, the channel value is set to chat for all existing chat triggers. This means the chat trigger options don't change, and the trigger performs as described in our standard Chat triggers documentation. However, if you edit an existing chat trigger or create a new trigger and select either Messaging or Chat and messaging, subsequent trigger customization options are modified to support messaging functionality changes.
Updated Run trigger options
When a chat trigger is configured to run for messaging or chat and messaging, you can no longer choose to run the trigger when a visitor has loaded the Chat widget because the Chat widget is not used in messaging.
Instead, you can choose from the following run events:
- When a visitor requests a chat
- When a visitor sends a chat message
Updated condition options
When a chat trigger is configured to run for messaging or chat and messaging, the conditions available to you change 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 requests a chat)
- Sender (Only available when Run trigger = When a chat message is sent)
- Sender type (Only available when Run trigger = When a chat message is sent)
- Message (Only available when Run trigger = When a chat message is sent)
- 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
- Send message to visitor
- Set triggered (shown on dashboard)
- Wait
- Set name of visitor
- Block visitor
For a complete list of chat and messaging trigger actions, including those that aren't available for messaging, see Building chat and messaging trigger action statements.
Updating chat triggers to apply to messaging
There are three standard chat and messaging triggers that exist after messaging is turned on for your account: First Reply, Request Contact Details, and All Agents Offline. By default, these apply only to live chats, but can be updated to apply to messaging or live chats and messaging.
If you would like them to work with your messaging channel, you must edit the trigger to modify which channels it applies to and ensure that the trigger is enabled.
- From the Chat dashboard, select Settings > Triggers.
- From the list, click the row of the trigger you want to edit.
- Change the Channel to either Messaging or Chat and messaging.
- Next to Trigger status, select Enable trigger.
- Make any other changes to the content of the trigger as needed to work with
your messaging channel.Note: If a condition or action that is only available for the Chat channel is selected while the channel is set to messaging or Chat and messaging, you can't save your changes until you resolve the discrepancy.
- Click Save changes.
First Reply trigger
This trigger sends an automated reply to customers that request a chat, so they know their request is being attended to.
When messaging is turned on for your account, the trigger is configured as follows:
- Run trigger: When a visitor requests a chat
-
Check conditions: Check all of the following conditions
- Visitor requesting chat | Is true
-
Perform the following actions
- Wait | 5 (in seconds)
- Send message to visitor | Customer Service | Thanks for your message, please wait a moment while our agents attend to you.
Request Contact Details trigger
When your account is set to away, this trigger asks customers requesting a chat to leave their email address.
When messaging is turned on for your account, the trigger is configured as follows:
- Run trigger: When a visitor requests a chat
-
Check conditions: Check all of the following conditions
- Account status | Equals | Away
-
Perform the following actions
- Send message to visitor | Customer Service | Hi, sorry we are away at the moment. Please leave your email address and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
All Agents Offline trigger
When all agents are offline, this trigger send an automated reply to warn the end user to expect a delayed response.
When messaging is turned on for your account, the trigger is configured as follows:
- Run trigger: When a chat message is sent
-
Check conditions: Check all of the following conditions
- Account status | Equals | Offline
-
Perform the following actions
- Send message to visitor | Automated Response | Hi there! Thanks for reaching out to us. We're offline right now, but we'll respond to your message when we're back online in a few hours.
19 comments
Yu-Hsuan Chao
Hi Jon,
Could you explain in detail what the configurations are for the problematic triggers? Some screenshots of your trigger settings will help greatly too.
Please submit a ticket with the above information to support@zendesk.com and our team will have a check for you, thanks!
0
Clik Rogan
Hi There, is it possible for a breakdown of what a messaging trigger would look like if we were wanting to route an end user to a specific group based on the "needs selector/options selector"?
2
Michael Froeming
Hi Clik,
You may refer to this article: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360057909933#topic_wrf_5km_jnb, particularly the 'Assigning Groups to messaging conversations' part. It shows how you can collect an information from an end-user and to use it to setup routing rules in a trigger.
Best,
0
Kelly
There are so many more triggers available for chat over messaging. Is there a plan to offer the same triggers for messaging? Any work arounds in the meantime?
2
Destiny
Hi Jordan,
Thank you for reaching out to Zendesk Community! Could you tell us more about your use case and what specific trigger conditions are you looking for/wanting to add to Zendesk Messaging?
1
Kelly
Hey Destiny,
The main reason we liked the conditions for chat was that it allowed us to personalize messages based on the IP, page URL etc. A big feature that’s missing at the moment because of the conditions is the proactive greeting as well.
These are the top 3 conditions we would love to have access to on the messaging channel that are currently available on chat:
Many clients have moved over to Intercom chat in the meantime until some of these conditions are available. If these changes are in the roadmap, or you know of any work arounds, please let me know.
Happy to discuss in further detail if needed. Thanks!
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Destiny
Hi Jordan,
The proactive greeting is still not present on our supported features for the Agent workspace therefore I don't have any workaround to share at this time. But, I have forwarded your comment to the PM team as an FYI. For trackable feature requests, I would suggest posting them on our Community site.
Thank you for your understanding.
0
Avery Tritch
Hello on our current plan with Zendesk we are allowed to have two concurrent triggers enabled. When attempting to enable more it advises that our plan might need to be adjusted. However, I can't find any documentation on which plans afford what number of triggers. Does anyone have insight on this?
1
RelayPay
Hi,
Is there a way that we could change the avatar that is used for the chat/messaging trigger messages and replace it with another image (for example, our logo instead)?
Attached are images of what it looks like on the user and agent side which is just a blank standard image.
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1
Blanca
Hi Issa,
Thank you for your inquiry. Please know that in changing the avatar in Messaging, you can see the available customization in this documentation.
I hope this answers your question. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Cheers,
Blanca
-1
Rina
I can't seem to find a way for my chat trigger, after updating to messages, to recognise that an agent hasn't sent a first response OR no agent has opened the chat yet - to then wait 60 seconds from when the customer first requested the chat and trigger an apology message for the waiting time. Is this possible?
I noticed one of the settings that was in the chat trigger was not available when I changed it to use for messages. This was the 'still on site' option. I've tried changing other features of the trigger but none work the same way as that did.
Thanks
0
Rina
0
Clifford James Lacson
Unfortunately, this condition is not available in Messaging. 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.
You may create a new post in the Feedback - Chat, and Messaging (Chat) in our community to engage with other users who have similar needs and discuss possible workarounds. Conversations with a high level of engagement ultimately get flagged for product managers to review when they go through roadmap planning.
Let me know for further questions!
0
Anthony Brantley
Hello,
I enabled classic chat but don't have the ability to create a live chat trigger. The only option available is "messaging". Please help, when I originally switched from messaging to chat I had the ability to make a live chat trigger but after I reverted back to messaging and later decided to switch to live chat again the functionality seems to work differently.
1
Dane
Anthony Brantley,
I have created a ticket for you to investigate further. Please wait for my update via email and let's continue our conversation there.
0
Pete
What is the logic behind including "customer details" in the chat widget if all our users are supposed to be authenticated? What is the case scenario for this?
We're also getting chat requests simply when someone logs in - they have not started a chat with us - often we send a response but the users is not intending to chat with us - is there a way to stop Zendesk from triggering a chat message to support?
0
Arianne Batiles
Hi Pete,
Once an end-user has been authenticated and their identity has been verified with Zendesk, the end user will not be prompted to provide their name or email address by the messaging bot as part of the default messaging response as mentioned here.
However, please take note of the current limitation we have for end-user authentication in messaging.
Regarding chat requests, I have created a ticket for you via email to investigate further. Let us continue our conversation from there.
0
Allie
Hi there!
I am having trouble with getting the "Visitor served" condition to be acknowledged with my Messaging Triggers in the Chat dashboard. If the message is assigned to an agent and they have replied, the chat trigger will still send the automated message. Not sure if I am missing anything with my conditions here:
Any help you can provide is much appreciated!
0
Destiny
Thanks for reaching out.
It seems you're encountering issues with creating a Chat trigger based on the "visitor served" condition.
Unfortunately, in the context of messaging triggers, the "visitor served" condition is operational, but the design does not permit the "wait" segment of the trigger to precede the "visitor served" check. This means that as soon as an end user requests a conversation, the trigger is evaluated to see if "visitor served" applies. Since there is usually a delay before an agent responds, the condition is often met and the trigger proceeds through the rest of the conditions.
Additionally, when you incorporate a Wait action in a trigger, it is enacted only after all the conditions have been verified and fulfilled. Given that the conditions are not reassessed following the expiration of the Wait period, any subsequent actions will be carried out regardless.
Our product team recognizes this shortcoming and is actively exploring enhancements, including potential features to better manage end users' wait-time expectations. I regret that I don't have an immediate workaround for you, but please keep an eye on our announcement page for updates on new feature releases.
3