Here's a list of all the available steps in the Bot Editor for sending various message formats to your customers via the Instagram Direct channel, Instagram private messages.

Get Started

For Instagram Direct scenarios, the "Get Started" step is uniquely linked to a "Message with menu" step during creation; they cannot be separated.

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". Icebreakers are pre-defined buttons that the customers can click to initiate the conversation.

The Icebreakers displayed are those you define as "answers" within this step.

The message text you define for this step is not used. 

However, if this same "Message with menu" step is referenced in another step in your scenario (i.e., not via the initial "Get Started" trigger), both its defined message text and buttons will be displayed to the customer as normal.

First Conversation

This is a crucial step and has to 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 dictates your bot's behavior for subsequent conversations with a customer, distinguishing them from their very first interaction on the channel. It triggers when a customer, who has a prior conversation history recorded within Alcmeon, sends a new message (in the Alcmeon sense) that initiates a new conversation thread.

Note: If all of a customer's previous messages have been "anonymized" (for GDPR compliance, for example), this "Following Conversations" step will also trigger if that customer sends a new message.

Unexpected text

This step is designed to intercept messages typed by a customer in the middle of the decision tree, when a bot was expecting them to click a button instead. It triggers when ALL of the following conditions are met:

• The customer has sent a message.
• This message is not a click on a button or on another scenario element; it is a text typed by the customer.
• In the same conversation as this message from the customer, there is a message immediately preceding this customer message which is a message sent by the bot as part of this specific scenario.
• That preceding bot message does not have a "free message entry" or "default response" output. If it did, the scenario would follow that designated path, which takes precedence over "Unexpected Text."

Message with menu

This step allows you to send a text message accompanied by a series of "quick replies." These are interactive buttons that customers can click. Once a customer clicks a button, the entire set of quick replies disappears. The label of the clicked button becomes the message effectively "sent" by the customer.

Within the Alcmeon bot editor, you can connect each button to a different step, allowing the scenario to branch dynamically based on the customer's choice.

The text message sent can also support various media elements, including emojis, images, videos, audio files, or other attachments, depending on the specific channel.

Message only

This step simply sends a text message to the customer.

This step must always be connected to a subsequent step. Otherwise, the bot conversation will abruptly end for the customer at this point.

Carousel

This step enables you to send a set of up to 10 horizontally scrollable slides. Each slide can include an image, a title (maximum 80 characters), an optional subtitle (maximum 80 characters), and up to 3 buttons.

Each button can be configured to either connect to another step within your scenario (allowing the bot conversation to continue) or open a specified URL you can define.

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