Enabling a messaging bot for your web and mobile channels

If you’d like to expand messaging beyond the basic response configuration, and offer more complex, automated conversations, you can enable a bot to interact with customers before handing them off to an agent.

This article includes the following topics:

• About bot-enabled messaging
• Upgrading to bot-enhanced messaging
• Creating a new bot
• Publishing a bot to a channel
• Updating general bot settings
• Managing bot language settings

About bot-enabled messaging

Enabling a bot means you can use advanced automation and customization options and tools in your messaging configuration, including:

• A fully-functional, automated out-of-the-box bot flow that can be used without any modification to greet your customers. For more information, see The out-of-the-box messaging flow.
• Flow Builder, the click-to-configure tool for customizing more complex flows for your bot. For more information, see Using Flow Builder to create bot flows .

You’ll need to turn on bot-enabled messaging for each channel where you want to include the advanced functionality described above.

Messaging bots are managed through the Bots page in Admin Center.

The Bots page lists any bots you’ve added, as well as basic information about them, including a name (configured in the bot settings), status (live or draft), and the channel(s) connected to it.

From there, you can add a bot, edit an existing bot in Flow Builder, or configure the bot settings.

Upgrading to bot-enhanced messaging

When you initially turn on messaging for a Web Widget or mobile channel, the setup process includes configuring the default messaging response. You can choose to upgrade from the default messaging response to a bot during that process, or you can return to the widget’s Responses tab to enable it.

To upgrade from the default messaging response to a bot

1. In Admin Center, click the Channels icon () in the sidebar, then select Messaging and social > Messaging.
2. Click the name of the channel you want to edit. The widget’s edit page opens.
3. Click the Responses tab.
4. At the bottom of the page, click Add a bot.

Note that adding a bot as described above does not disable the default messaging response. You need to publish the bot to enable it. Until then, the default messaging response remains active.

Creating a new bot

Creating a bot means you’re adding the ability to use the bot in a channel’s messaging configuration. Until you add a bot to a specific messaging channel and publish it, the default messaging response remains active for that channel.

Note: These instructions assume you have configured messaging on your account.

To add a messaging bot

1. In Admin Center, click the Channels icon () in the sidebar, then select Bots and automations > Bots.
2. Click Add bot at the top of the page.
3. Enter a name for the bot. This name is displayed at the top of the widget where the bot is deployed.
4. If you’re using multiple brands, use the drop-down to select a brand to apply to the bot.
5. Click Finish at the bottom of the page.

A draft of the bot’s out-of-the-box flow opens in Flow Builder. This bot remains in draft mode until it is published and connected to a messaging channel.

Publishing a bot to a channel

Whether you are using the out-of-the-box bot, or configuring a new bot, you’ll need to publish that bot before it appears in any of your messaging channels.

Publishing a bot to a channel means that any other messaging response – either the default messaging response, or another bot messaging response – is removed from that channel, and replaced with the newly published bot.

Until you publish a bot:

• If you have not yet published a bot flow, the default messaging response remains active.
• If you have published a bot flow, the last published version of that flow remains active.
• Any unpublished changes remain in Flow Builder, until they’re published or altered.

Both out-of-the-box and customized flows are published through Flow Builder.

To publish a bot flow to a channel

1. In Admin Center, click the Channels icon () in the sidebar, then select Bots and automations > Bots.
2. Hover over the bot you want to work with and click Edit in Flow Builder.
   Note: If you are adding a bot, as described above, the bot automatically opens in Flow Builder.
3. Make any changes necessary to the flow, then click Publish.
   • If the bot is not currently published to a channel, the channel selection screen opens. Select one or more channels to connect to your bot and click Publish to selected channels.
   • If the bot is already live on a channel, it is updated in that channel with any changes made to the flow.

Updating general bot settings

You can update the following general settings for a bot:

• Name
• Brand (if multiple brands are enabled on your account)
• Channel connection

To update a bot’s name and brand settings

1. In Admin Center, click the Channels icon () in the sidebar, then select Bots and automations > Bots.
2. Hover over the bot you want to update and click Settings.
3. In the General tab, update the Name and Brand as needed.
4. Click Save.

The process for connecting a bot to a channel varies slightly, depending on whether the bot was is Live (already connected to a channel), or still a Draft (not connected to a channel).

A bot must be connected to one or more messaging channels before it can be published and made available to your end users, and each channel can only be connected to a single bot.

If the bot is a Draft mode, you’ll see the following:

Connecting a Draft bot to a channel is part of the publishing process. See Publishing a bot to a channel, above.

If the bot is currently Live in a channel, you’ll see the currently-connected channel(s), as well as any other channels available for connection:

To connect a Live bot to a channel

1. In Admin Center, click the Channels icon () in the sidebar, then select Bots and automations > Bots.
2. Hover over the bot you want to update and click Settings.
3. In the General tab, select the additional channels you want to connect to the bot.
   Note: If the selected channel already has a bot connected to it, that bot will be disconnected from the channel and replaced with this new bot.
4. Click Save.

Managing bot language settings

You can select a single language for a bot, or configure it to speak in multiple languages for an improved customer experience.

For more information, see Managing languages for a bot.