Pro-active messages

[Avalaxy]

Hi, for most of the bots we build we really need the ability to send pro-active/welcome messages. It looks like this is currently no possible. Can you please build this ASAP and give a rough indication of when it will be available? I think almost every bot will need to be able to do this.

[MarKol]

Making Bots start a conversation has been submitted as a idea on the Idea forum:

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Power-Apps-Ideas/idb-p/PowerAppsIdeas/label-name/power%20virtual...

Can you please add your vote to it and leave a comment on you use case here:

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Power-Apps-Ideas/Make-bot-start-the-conversation/idi-p/404752

[4LB3r7 · Accepted solution]

Currently the auto-triggered welcome message is not enabled for web canvas (It is enabled in Teams and Facebook Channel). To be able to trigger the welcome message in web canvas, a hidden event activity need to be sent to the bot by the canvas.  The activity type="event" and name="startConversation".

There are some sample code on  how to implement in canvas:

https://github.com/microsoft/PowerVirtualAgentsSamples/blob/master/BuildYourOwnCanvasSamples/1.start...

[chass]

For more information on this be sure and check out: 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-virtual-agents/extend-custom-canvas-connect

[Avalaxy]

Thanks! Can you please also share how to do this on Facebook Messenger?

[kvbr]

In case of Facebook messenger, to proactively trigger messages, you send the desired topic trigger phase in the pay load of Get Started.

For example to trigger default Greeting topic:

curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{
  "get_started": {"payload": "Hello"}
}' "https://graph.facebook.com/v2.6/me/messenger_profile?access_token=<PAGE_ACCESS_TOKEN>"

  

You can find more details here.

[Diganta]

We are working on a blog called "Make your bot start the conversation using custom Web Chat" which will come out soon. Stay tuned!

[Anonymous]

Is there any way to send Pro-active messages in Teams at 9:00 AM everyday

[Anonymous]

@DigantaCan you provide any solution or alternative here?

[dsutradhar]

Hi @Diganta,

Is this feature implemented yet.. where the bot starts the conversation without the user having to even open the chat window on Teams?

Thanks in advance.