Message types

You can use several different types of messages with Live Chat as your communication channel. Messages are customizable to meet various requirements, also allowing you to collect the data you need from your customers.

Supported file types

The following are all the file types that both agents and customers can share over Live Chat. Other file types are not supported due to security reasons, as we want to make Live Chat as secure as possible.

File Type
Image	jpeg, bmp, gi, svg+xml, png, tiff
Video	x-msvideo, mpeg, quicktime, mp4
Audio	aac, mp3, amr, AMR, mpeg, ogg, x-wav
Others	xml, x-directory, javacript, x-wav, vnd.ms-excel, text/plain, vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet, vnd.oasis.opendocument.graphics, x-gzip, octet-stream, pdf, msword, json, rtg, text/html, vnd.oasis.opendocument.text, vnd.oasis.opendocument.presentation, zip, vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document, vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation, vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet

Greeting

A greeting message is the first message which is automatic and visible to end users before the conversation even starts. Welcome your users and give guidance on how to proceed with the conversation.

You can define the greeting message in the widget configuration.
These are the options that you can tweak:

• Image
• Text
• Card buttons
• Quick reply buttons

Standard

A standard message can contain text and emojis.

This message type is available over:

• Answers bot action
• Agent panel
• Conversations API

Image

In addition to a standard message, you can also add image attachments to your message. Supported formats are png, jpg, jpeg.

Your end users can save the image by simply clicking on it. They can also send you a message that contains an image.

You can send outbound messages with images from:

• Answers bot action
• Agent panel
• Conversations API

Video

Use a video message to share some guidance with your end users. A video preview is available right there in the widget and the end users can save it quickly. They can also send you a message containing a video.

The supported file format is mp4.

You can send outbound messages containing video from:

• Answers bot action
• Agent panel
• Conversations API

Document

Besides media files, you can also send any other types of documents to your end users. They can save these documents by clicking on the message containing the document you have sent.

Validation is not required for this message type.

Quick replies

Messages with quick replies are a great and simple way to guide your end users over automatic dialogues. Quick replies always have only one simple action – send an automatic postback response with a quick reply title.

Note that the Quick reply title is limited to 25 characters.

Quick reply messages are available via:

• Greeting message in the widget configuration
• Answers bot action
• Conversations API

Card buttons

You can use card buttons to drive your end users to a target action. Also, in some cases, you can use these buttons for navigation across your bot logic.

Each card button message can contain images, text, and additional buttons.

Buttons are defined by the following properties:

• Button title – Not longer than 20 characters

• Button action type:

  • URL
  • Postback

• Payload

  • Link for URL action
  • Payload data for your bot logic once the end user clicks the button

You can send messages with CTA buttons via:

• Greeting message in the widget configuration
• Answers bot action
• Conversations API

Carousel

Carousel messages fit well into complex scenarios when you need to provide multi-choice offers to your end users. It might happen that none of the suggested offers suits the user, and in this case, you can use quick replies for the carousel to leave the user a choice to continue without having to select a specific carousel card.

These messages are scrollable horizontally and can contain up to 10 elements.

Each carousel message has the following elements:

• Image - The supported files are png, jpg, jpeg. Recommended ratio 4:3.
• Title - Displayed as bold. Limited visibility to 1 line only.
• Text - Llimited visibility up to 3 lines.
• Card buttons - Can contain up to 4 buttons. At least 1 button is required for each of the cards in the carousel.
• Quick Reply - Optional parameter for the carousel message type. If you specify quick replies in your carousel, they will always be visible when users are scrolling through cards

Rich text formatting

You can send messages to your customers using rich text formatting to create visual highlights of the most important aspects of your message.

These are the available functionalities of rich text formatting in Live Chat:

• Bold/italic/underline/strikethrough formatting text types
• Hyperlinks with text labels
• Bullet points
• Quoted text

This is where you can use rich text formatting:

• Agent panel conversation reply
• Welcome message widget configuration