Here is the list of all the steps available in the Bot Editor to send messages of different formats to your customers on the Instagram Direct channel, Instagram private messages.

Get Started

For an Instagram Direct scenario, there are steps when creating it: “Get Started” linked to “Message with menu”. It is not possible to separate them.

When Get Started is triggered during the customer's very first conversation on Instagram, the Message with menu step is used to present them, without them doing anything else, with "Icebreakers" https://developers.facebook.com/docs/messenger-platform/instagram/features/ice-breakers which are buttons that the customer can click to start the conversation.

The Icebreakers presented are those that you will have defined as “answer” in this step.

The message text defined for this step is not used.

If another step in the scenario refers to this "Message with menu" step linked to the "Start" step, the message text and defined buttons will be displayed normally to the client.

First Conversation

This step is necessary and should be added to the scenario.

It is triggered when a user with no conversation history in that channel chooses to type a message instead of clicking an "Icebreaker".

It therefore functions as a “free entry” exit in the step containing the Icebreakers.

Following conversations

This step determines the bot's behavior during a new conversation, as opposed to its very first conversation in the channel. It is triggered when there are messages in Alcmeon that formed a previous conversation (in the Alcmeon sense) for this client, and this client sends back a new message that is the start of a new conversation.

Note: When all previous messages from the customer have been “anonymized” (special action for GDPR compliance), if the customer sends a message, then this step is triggered.

Unexpected text

This step is used to intercept messages typed by a customer in the middle of the decision tree, when they would be expected to click a button presented to them instead. It is triggered when ALL of the following conditions are met:

• the customer sent a message
• this message is not a click on a button or on another element of the scenario), it is therefore a message typed by the client himself
• in the same conversation as this message from the customer, there is a message immediately preceding it which is a message sent by the bot as part of THIS scenario
• This previous message from the bot does not have a "free message entry" or "default response" output, because in this case the script should follow that output, which takes precedence over "unexpected text".

Message with menu

This step sends a text message along with a series of "quick replies," which are buttons the customer can click. These buttons disappear when one is clicked. Once a button is clicked, the label on that button is the message sent by the customer.

In the Alcmeon bot editor, you can connect each button to another step, so that the scenario continues when the customer clicks on it.

The text message sent can often, depending on the channel, contain emojis or an image, video, audio file or attachment.

Message only

This step sends a simple text message to the customer.

This step must be connected to another step, otherwise the bot scenario will abruptly stop at this step for the client.

Carousel

This feature allows you to send a set of up to 10 slides, which can scroll horizontally. Each slide can contain an image, a title (maximum 80 characters), an optional subtitle (maximum 80 characters), and up to 3 buttons.

Each button can be connected to another step in the scenario (continuing the bot experience for the customer), or open a URL that you can define.

Unlike the "quick replies" described in the "Message with menu" step, clicking a button in the carousel does not make it disappear: the customer can go back in their conversation history to click the same button again or another button in the same carousel.