Adding Facebook Messenger channels to the Zendesk Agent Workspace

Fastpath: Admin Center > Channels > Messaging and social > Messaging

Tip: You must have the Zendesk Agent Workspace enabled to use this feature. If you're using social messaging with a Support standard agent interface, see Social messaging resources for Support.

This article describes how you can add Facebook Messenger channels to the Zendesk Agent Workspace.

Because Facebook Messenger is used for private messaging with your customers, its implementation is a separate, different process than that used to add Facebook, which can be used for public messaging with your customers. To set up Facebook, see Setting up your public Facebook channel.

This article includes these sections:

• Overview of steps to add Facebook Messenger to the Agent Workspace
• Adding a Facebook Messenger channel to the agent workspace
• Next steps
• Limitations
• No other data shared with Meta/Facebook

Related articles:

• Social messaging resources

Overview of steps to add Facebook Messenger to the Agent Workspace

If you have the Zendesk Agent Workspace enabled, you can add Facebook Messenger channels. You must be an administrator to add Facebook Messenger channels.

Note: If you have an existing Facebook integration that was set up in Support (instead of Admin Center) and private messaging with Facebook Messenger is enabled, follow the steps in Migrating social messaging channels to the Zendesk Agent Workspace (Facebook Messenger, Twitter DM) instead.

You need to do the following, in this order:

1. Add your Facebook Messenger channels to the Zendesk Agent Workspace.
2. Set up auto-responders for your Facebook channels.
3. Set up triggers, automations, and views for your Facebook Messenger channels.
4. Make sure that your agents are set up to use the channels (Getting started for administrators in the Zendesk Agent Workspace).

After you complete these steps, you can then configure public messaging with Facebook, if needed. This is a separate, additional task (see Setting up your Facebook channel).

For information about the number of Facebook Messenger channels you are allowed to add, see Facebook limits with Support. For information about using Facebook Messenger channels, see Receiving and sending messages in the Zendesk Agent Workspace.

Adding a Facebook Messenger channel

You must have the Zendesk Agent Workspace enabled to add Facebook Messenger channels. You must be an admin to add Facebook Messenger.

Note: If you have an existing Facebook integration that was set up in Support (instead of Admin Center) and private messaging with Facebook Messenger is enabled, follow the steps in Migrating social messaging channels to the Zendesk Agent Workspace (Facebook Messenger, Twitter DM) instead.

The following video gives you an overview of how to add a Facebook Messenger channel:

Automating a Facebook Messenger channel [1:40]

To add a Facebook Messenger channel to the Zendesk Agent Workspace

1. In Admin Center, click Channels in the sidebar, then select Messaging and social > Messaging.
2. Click Add channel and select Facebook Messenger.
3. From the Add Facebook Messenger screen, click Continue with Facebook.

   

4. When prompted, log in to your Facebook account as a user with Admin permissions for all accounts being added, then follow the on-screen instructions to authorize Zendesk to use your Facebook account.
5. Select all the Facebook pages you want to manage in Zendesk, and ensure page permissions are toggled to Yes.

   

6. On the Add Facebook Messenger screen, choose a Facebook page from the list and then click Next.

   

7. Click Add channel.

   When the channel connects successfully, a Channel added message appears.

8. Enter a Channel name.
9. If your account has multiple brands, select a Brand to associate with the channel.
10. Click Save settings.

Next steps

After you add Facebook Messenger channels to the Zendesk Agent Workspace, you may need to complete these additional tasks:

• Adjust your Facebook Messenger business rules and views (see Setting triggers, automations, and views for social messaging).

  When using Facebook Messenger with the Zendesk Agent Workspace, you need condition statements that read Channel + Is + Facebook Messenger and Brand + is + [selected brand].

  

  Do not use Facebook Private Message in your condition statements. Only customers that are using Facebook Messenger with Support and that haven’t enabled the Zendesk Agent Workspace need to use this condition.

• Make sure your agents are set up to use the channel (see Getting started for administrators in the Zendesk Agent Workspace).

• Add your Facebook accounts to your Admin settings in Support, if you want to send and receive public messages from Facebook pages. Follow the steps in Setting up your Facebook channel.

• Make sure you understand what happens if you decide to disable the Zendesk Agent Workspace later on (see Disabling the agent workspace).

Limitations

This section describes some important limitations about using Facebook Messenger in the Zendesk Agent Workspace.

• Facebook Messenger channels that are added to the Zendesk Agent Workspace from Admin Center do not support public messaging. If you want to perform public messaging with a Facebook account, you must also add the account to Support from your Support admin settings. When you do, make sure that the Include private messages setting remains disabled.

• There's a 2000 character limit for messages sent through Facebook Messenger. Messages longer than that will not be delivered.

• Facebook Messenger allows a business only seven days to respond to the end user before the messaging window closes. To prevent messages from being sent but not delivered, the composer will be blocked once the messaging window is closed. The only way to re-open is if the end user sends a new message.

• If an end user sends you both public and private Facebook messages, duplicate user profiles are created for the same user. For example, there will be profiles from public messages to channels that were configured in your Support admin settings, and others from private messages channels that were configured in Admin Center. You will need to merge these profiles manually (see Merging a user’s duplicate account).

  Profiles associated with private messages do not include the user’s Facebook ID.

• For Facebook Messenger channels in the Zendesk Agent Workspace, do not use the Facebook Private Message condition in your business rules and views. Use the Facebook Messenger condition for these channels instead. For more information, see What's next?.

For additional limitations, see Messaging limitations and Chat limitations.

No other data shared with Meta/Facebook

For clarity, aside from the conversations occurring directly through your Facebook Messenger account within Zendesk, no other data from your Zendesk account, such as ticket data, is shared with Meta in connection with use of the Facebook Messenger integration. Only conversations occurring directly through your Facebook Messenger account will be accessible by Meta.