Regular Message

Configure a Regular Message to send automated chatbot messages and route users through a WhatsApp, SMS, or RCS flow.

A Regular Message can include text, emojis, multimedia, and interactive menu options. Use it to guide users through choices and route them to a response, interaction, integration, campaign, webhook, or Live Chat team.

Create a Regular Message

To configure a Regular Message for the Welcome Message:

Select the Regular Message interactive-message option.
Enter the welcome message that starts the chatbot conversation.
Configure the menu options that users can select:
- Set a selection menu with Menu Pre-fix.
- Select a redirect destination for each option.

Define the Welcome Message

Enter a greeting for the channel you selected. Character limits and formatting options vary by channel:

Channel	Character limit	Formatting options
SMS	Up to 160 characters	Plain text
WhatsApp	Up to 1024 characters	Plain text, Markdown, and emojis
RCS	Up to 1024 characters	Plain text and Markdown

The Welcome Message supports Markdown syntax, including bold, italic, strikethrough, and monospace text. For WhatsApp messages, use the smiley-face icon at the right end of the message box to select emojis.

Optional: Add multimedia to WhatsApp messages

Enable the multimedia toggle, then drag a file into the upload box.

The platform supports these multimedia files:

File type	Supported formats	Maximum file size
Image	`.jpeg`, `.jpg`, `.png`	5 MB
Video	`.mp4`	16 MB
Document	`.pdf`	100 MB
Audio	`.aac`, `.amr`, `.mp3`, `.ogg`, `.m4a`	16 MB

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Multimedia file requirements
Upload files that meet these requirements:

Images must be 8-bit, RGB, or RGBA.

Video files must use the H.264 video codec.

Audio tracks in video files must use the AAC codec.

The platform sends the file as a separate message before or after the chatbot interaction message. Delivery order is not guaranteed.

Configure the Menu Pre-fix

Use Menu Pre-fix to configure the menu options that users select from the message.

Enable Menu Pre-fix.
Choose numbers or letters for option prefixes.
Add each response option and its redirect destination.

Each prefix adds four characters to the message length. Account for these characters when creating SMS messages, which are limited to 160 characters.

Users reply with the single-character prefix for their selected option. Each number or letter represents one response in the current chatbot interaction.

For every option, select a redirect destination. Responses must be a single character, which the chatbot uses to route the user to the next action.

The number of response options depends on the channel:

SMS: 1–4 response options.
WhatsApp and RCS: 1–20 response options.

Each response option includes these fields:

Field	Description
Menu Text	The option name shown in the message menu.
Redirect Type	The type of next step to use after the user replies.
Redirect To	The destination for the selected redirect type.

Menu Text

Enter the option name in the Menu Text box.

Keep SMS option names short because they count toward the message-length limit. WhatsApp supports longer option names and emojis.

Redirect Type

Select the next step in the chatbot sequence from Redirect Type.

The platform provides six redirect types:

Redirect type	Description
Attribute	Requests and captures user information. Attributes are placeholders (personalized fields) that can store details such as a user's name, email address, or address. See Attributes.
Campaign	Routes the user to a Live platform automation with content associated with the chatbot's purpose, or to an out-of-flow action.
Integration	Routes the user to a third-party solution added to the interaction flow.
Interaction	Routes the user to another interaction step in the chatbot flow.
Live Chat	Routes the user to an agent through Live Chat.
Webhook	Sends a notification event to your application, including data that identifies the flow step the user reached.

Integration timeout

The platform supports Bright Pattern, OpenAI, and Custom Webhook integrations.

When you select Integration as the Redirect Type, set the interaction timeout. This timeout is the number of inactive minutes before the session closes. For example, if a session starts and the user does not respond to or interact with the automation, the session closes after the configured timeout.

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Interaction timeout limit
The maximum interaction timeout is 120 minutes.

Live Chat timeout

To route a user to an agent, select Live Chat from Redirect Type. Then, set the number of inactive minutes before the connection ends. For example, if the user does not respond to an agent within five minutes, the connection ends.

To create, build, and deploy a chatbot that connects to Live Chat, see Integrate Chatbot with Live Chat. To configure a chatbot webhook, see Setting Webhook.

Redirect To

Select the destination for the next action from Redirect To. Available destinations depend on the selected redirect type.

Redirect type	Redirect To options
Campaign	Automations with Live status, formatted as `Automation Name - Automation Type`.
Integration	Created and available integrations, formatted as `AliasIntegration Type`.
Interaction	Interactions created during chatbot setup.
Live Chat	Teams available in the Live Chat platform.

For integration destinations, first create and enable the integration. See Integrations.

For Live Chat destinations, use Redirect To to select the team that receives the conversation:

Specific Team (for example, Product, Sales, or Support Team): Routes every chatbot conversation to the selected team.
Default assignment: Uses the default team routing configured in Live Chat.

After configuring Redirect Type and Redirect To, select Add. To add a webhook to the chatbot, see Setting Webhook.

The menu-item table lists entries in the order you add them. The keyword identifier advances automatically for each entry.

The following example shows a WhatsApp chatbot Welcome Message with an interaction option and the completed menu-item table.

Configure interactions

Define the Interaction flow after configuring the Welcome Message. Use Interaction to create automated responses, questions, and actions based on user input or triggers.

To configure each interaction, see Interaction.