The background
Users have told us that they want:
- To have a super flexible default trigger that will ‘catch’ any unrecognised phrases.
- Greater control over how users can interact with bots.
So, we’ve put together a package of changes that we’ll release tomorrow (18th August).
We’ll update this thread as soon as we release these changes.
What we’re changing, in brief
We’re simplifying triggers so that every time a user interacts with your bot, you’ll either trigger a New Message (if the phrase is recognised) or a Catch-all (if it’s not).
If the bot doesn’t have any Catch-all triggers, the welcome message will be shown.
New Conversation renamed Catch-all
We’ll be renaming New Conversation to Catch-all, and also adding in Message and Message Type outputs.
Important: After we release this change, any existing flows you have under a New Conversation trigger will also run if the user types an unrecognised phrase.
Handling of unrecognised phrases
If the user types an unrecognised phrase, the bot currently tells the user that it doesn’t understand.
When this change comes into effect, the user will either see the welcome message, or whatever messages a Catch-all trigger sends.
Reserved welcome words such as ‘hello’
Currently, using any of the reserved ‘welcome’ words (such as ‘hello’) shows the welcome message. We’ll start treating those reserved words as unrecognised.
As unrecognised words will now cause the welcome message and/or Catch-all trigger to fire anyway, for most users this won’t affect how your bots actually behave.
Huh? So tell me in full how things will work after the change
- If a user types a phrase that has a matching New Message trigger, that flow will run.
- If the message is a mention or overhear, we’ll stop here.
- If the phrase is not recognised (or when the bot is first installed on some platforms), then the bot will run any Catch-all trigger.
- If no New Message or Catch-all triggers are found, then the bot’s default welcome message (including any shortcut buttons) will be shown.
Note that there is an option in each bot’s settings to also show the welcome message if a catch-all trigger is found. This is enabled by default for all bots created before these changes.
Questions?
We realise this is a lot to digest, so we’re always here to help with your questions.
Or, reply to this thread to ask us about this right here on the community site.