Use Ada with social media channels

Overview

Integrate with third-party channels to bring the chat experience everywhere your customers are, including email and a variety of social media channels.

This guide will walk you through the setup process, feature compatibility, and channel variable usage for third-party channels in Ada.

note

This feature may not be included with your organization's subscription package. For more information, see Ada's Pricing page, or contact your Ada team.

Configuration methods

Configure Channels in Ada

To set up channels with one of the following handoff methods, contact your Customer Success Manager:

• Salesforce Live Chat

• Zendesk Email Ticketing

• Email

Configure with Sunshine Conversations

To set up channels with a handoff to Zendesk Messaging, you will need a Sunshine Conversations license. If you do not have a Sunshine Conversations license, your Ada team can help you get set up with one.

Additionally, you will need to configure Sunshine Conversations in Ada, along with the Messaging integration. For setup help, see Configure and use Sunshine Conversations.

Supported channels currently include:

• WhatsApp

• Facebook Messenger

• Twitter DM

• Instagram Direct

• Twilio SMS

note

The Zendesk Live Chat handoff is not compatible with social media channels.

See Connect Zendesk social channels to multiple AI Agents using Sunshine Conversations for help setting up channels with Ada.

Understand how handoffs interact with social channels

There are four methods to hand off conversations to human support in third-party channels. Depending on the handoff methods you use, you may be able to continue a live agent conversation within the channel, or you may have to move the conversation to email:

• Handoff to Zendesk Messaging: Customers are directly connected to a live agent within the third-party channel.

• Handoff to Salesforce Live Chat: Customers are directly connected to a live agent within the third-party channel.

• Handoff to Zendesk Email Ticketing: Customers are asked for their email address and receive support from an agent via email.

• Handoff to Email: Customers are asked for their email address and receive support from an agent via email.

Feature compatibility

The following table lists the social media channels you can use with Ada, as well as the features and blocks each one is compatible with.

note

In some cases, features might be partially supported or work differently in some channels. In those cases, click the 🗒 icon for more information.

Feature	Ada Web Chat	WhatsApp	Facebook Messenger	Twilio SMS	Instagram Direct	Twitter DM	Sunshine Conversations SDKs	Zendesk Messaging SDKs
Blocks
Text	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Capture	✔	✔	✔	✔	🗒	✔	🗒	🗒
List option	✔	🗒	🗒	🗒	🗒	🗒	🗒	🗒
Conditional	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Request	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Handoffs
Zendesk email handoff	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✘	✘
Ada Glass for Salesforce - Live Agent	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✘	✘
Ada Glass for Zendesk - Live Chat	✔	✘	✘	✘	✘	✘	✘	✘
Ada and Sunshine Conversations	✘	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔

Additional notes

For more information on how some channels may work differently from others, please click each expander below.

WhatsApp

• List options: Customers can see a Make a selection button, which they can tap to choose an option from a pop-up menu, as long as they meet the following criteria:

  • There are a maximum of 10 list options

  • Each option's button label contains 24 or fewer characters

  • The block is configured to only accept a single selection, rather than multi-select

  

note

Unlike in web chat, after the customer makes a selection, the Make a selection button is still visible.

Additionally, it's not possible to customize the "Make a selection" button text.

If the list options don't meet the above criteria, instead of being able to use the pop-up menu, customers see options as a numbered list and can type a number to select the corresponding option.

Some List Option blocks might meet the above criteria, and some might not, so you may see both selection methods.

Facebook Messenger

• List options: Instead of being able to select an option, customers see options as a numbered list and can type a number to select the corresponding option.

Twilio SMS

• List options: Instead of being able to select an option, customers see options as a numbered list and can type a number to select the corresponding option.

Instagram Direct

• List options: Instead of being able to select an option, customers see options as a numbered list and can type a number to select the corresponding option.

Twitter DM

• List options: Instead of being able to select an option, customers see options as a numbered list and can type a number to select the corresponding option.

Sunshine Conversations Web Messenger

There are several blocks and features that work differently from Ada's default chat in Sunshine Conversations Web Messenger. For additional information, see Understand how Ada features work in Sunshine Conversations Web Messenger.

• Greetings: Unlike in other channels, customers start the conversations in Sunshine Conversations Web Messenger. Customers only see the greeting if they write a greeting like "hello." Otherwise, if a customer starts a conversation with a question like "how do I return an item," the AI Agent directly answers their question.

• Capture: Sunshine Conversations Web Messenger doesn't support the "Required" toggle. If a dialog flow contains a Capture block, the customer must provide the requested information to advance through the dialog flow. If they don't, they exit the dialog flow.

• List options: Instead of being able to select an option, customers see options as a numbered list and can type a number to select the corresponding option.

• Satisfaction Survey: Sunshine Conversations Web Messenger doesn't support Ada's Satisfaction Survey block. However, you can use Zendesk Messaging's survey feature, which asks customers about their experience once the agent marks the conversation as Solved. For more information, see About CSAT ratings in messaging at Zendesk Messaging's documentation.

• Apps: Ada apps are supported on Sunshine Conversations web messenger with the exception of the Fetch Chat Metadata block. To get conversation data, you can use a Request block to request data from Sunshine Conversations' API. For more information, see Conversations at Sunshine Conversations' API documentation.

For further information on the features that Sunshine Conversations Web Messenger supports, see Web Messenger at Sunshine Conversations' documentation.

Zendesk SDKs

There are several blocks and features that work differently from Ada's default chat when using Zendesk's SDKs to deploy your AI Agent on mobile.

• Greetings: Unlike in other channels, customers start the conversations when interacting with the AI Agent through Zendesk SDKs, customers start the conversations. Customers only see the greeting if they write a greeting like "hello." Otherwise, if a customer starts a conversation with a question like "how do I return an item," the AI Agent directly their question.

  Optionally, when configuring the web widget, you can add text that appears next to the launcher button. For more information, see Configuring the widget launcher at Zendesk's documentation.

• Capture: Zendesk SDKs don't support the "Required" toggle. If an dialog flow contains a Capture block, the customer must provide the requested information to advance through the dialog flow. If they don't, they exit the dialog flow.

  Additionally, when the AI Agent captures data in sensitive variables, that data isn't masked in the chat UI.

• List options: Instead of being able to select an option, customers see options as a numbered list and can type a number to select the corresponding option.

  Zendesk SDKs don't support the "Response Required" toggle. If a dialogue flow contains a List Option block, the customer can skip it without exiting the dialogue flow. This can cause problems in some dialogue flows, so check your handoff or greeting dialogue to confirm that customers can't skip List Option blocks.

• Satisfaction Survey: Zendesk SDKs don't support Ada's Satisfaction Survey block. However, you can use Zendesk Messaging's survey feature, which asks customers about their experience once the agent marks the conversation as Solved. For more information, see About CSAT ratings in messaging at Zendesk Messaging's documentation.

• Metavariables: You can't set metavariables using Zendesk SDKs. If your dialogue flows require access to metadata, you can contact your Ada team for assistance, or use an HTTP Request block to request data from Sunshine Conversations' API. For more information, see Sunshine Conversations' API documentation.

Use channel variables to customize conversations in different channels

Channel variables allow you to create different chat experiences across varying channels. To do so, add a conditional block with the sunshine_end_user_channel variable and set the input to one of the following:

Channel	Variable Input
WhatsApp	Whatsapp
Facebook Messenger	Messenger
Twilio SMS	Twilio
Instagram	Instagram
Twitter	Twitter

Here is an example of how to personalize the experience by channel:

Manage how your AI Agent responds to unsupported media

Some social media channels give customers the option to send files like images, audio, video, and other attachments, but your AI Agent can't understand them. You can edit how your AI Agent responds when customers try to upload these files.

Your unsupported message response contains default content. You can edit that content directly, or you can edit it by adding or removing blocks.

1. On the Ada dashboard, go to Channels > Social channels. Then, under Handling media messages, click Unsupported Messages.

2. Edit the blocks in the response content. You can:

   • Edit the existing content in a block directly
   • Drag additional blocks from the block drawer on the right side of your screen into your response, then add content in them
   • Click the Delete icon on a block to remove it

   Depending on the way your AI Agent is configured, the blocks available to you may vary. You can click one of the expanders below to learn more about any one of the blocks:

   Text block

   The Text block delivers simple text messages to your customers. Each Text block appears as a single chat bubble, and can contain up to 320 characters.

   You can add emojis and line breaks to give your Text blocks some personality and formatting 😎

   
   

   Use AI to improve your text content

   Any time you serve up content using the Text block, no matter which of Ada's supported languages you're writing in, you have the option to polish it with AI. You can click the Improve button to automatically run your content through GPT and replace it with a rephrased version with improved tone. Even after improving your content automatically, you can always go back and edit it yourself until you're happy with it.

   

   Add variations to your text content

   You can also use the Text block to create variations of the same message so you can keep your content fresh. Your AI Agent will randomly select a variation to send to your customer, and you can either write your own variations or generate them with AI.

   We recommend using variations with content that is likely to show up repeatedly in a single conversation. For example, adding different versions of "hi" or "hello" in the Greeting will give your AI Agent more personality and prevent the conversation from feeling robotic.

   If your shuffled message contains essential information, make sure that information is in every variation — otherwise, only random customers will get the important message!

   

   Use AI to create message variations

   To start creating content variations for your AI Agent to shuffle between, start typing a message into your block. If you want, you can use the Improve button to refine your initial message.

   Then, you can use the Create variations button to use GPT to rephrase your content into 3-5 variations for your AI Agent to randomly serve to customers - in any of Ada's supported languages. All of these automatically generated variations are editable and removable, so you can further refine the variations you get from the AI. You can also click Add manually to write additional variations yourself.

   

   Link block

   With Link blocks, you can add links to your chat, so you can direct customers to websites like in-depth support articles, or give them the opportunity to communicate with your organization's support team directly.

   Configure the Link block using the table below as a guide:

   Field	Instructions
   URL	Enter the link you want to serve to your customers. The link can be a URL, or it can link to one of your organization's communication methods using the following formats: Email – [email protected] Phone number (with country code) – tel:+11234567890 Phone number (without country code) – tel:1234567890 (A country code is not required if the dialler is in the same country as the phone number.) SMS – sms://1234567890 or sms://+11234567890
   Link Text	Enter the display text for the link that the customer can click on.
   Alt Title	Enter an alternate title for the link, to give customers using screen readers some extra context (e.g., Link to call customer support line)
   Generate Preview	Turn this toggle on to automatically generate a preview of the link in Ada's web chat. If the toggle is off, you can manually create a preview for web chat by entering your own title, icon, and description for the link.
   Open in New Tab	Turn this toggle on to have the link open in a new browser tab for the customer. Otherwise, the link will open in the current browser tab.
   Count as Handoff	Turn this toggle on to count clicks on the link as a handoff, so you can track clicks in your handoff reports.

   

   
   Capture block

   You can use the Capture block to prompt customers for information, like their names, and save it as a variable to use in other blocks. For example, you can ask them their name, save it in a variable, and later use their name in other blocks. For each variable you want to populate with a value from a customer, use a separate Capture block.

   Configure the Capture block using the table below as a guide:

   Field	Instructions
   Content	Add a message to this field requesting the information you want to capture.
   Placeholder Text on the Chat Input (Optional)	Use this field to customize the placeholder text visible in the message field. Craft a brief instruction or example to help your customers understand what information they should send.
   Validation	Set the type of data the created variable will accept: Text – Accepts any character type. Email – Only accepts valid email addresses. Also verifies that the domain is valid, such as .com, .ca, etc. Phone Number – Only accepts input formatted as a phone number, disregarding any letters or special characters. Number – Only accepts numbers; allows periods and commas. Yes and No – Only accepts a positive or negative response (e.g., yes/no, true/false).
   Capture Settings	This section contains toggles that let you control the block's interaction behavior. Always Ask Deactivated – The Capture block won't display for customers if its variable is already populated. This ensures the bot only asks for specific information once, such as a customer's name. Activated – The block will always trigger whenever it is encountered, and overwrite any data that already exists in its variable. Required Deactivated – A Skip button displays in the chat window. Clicking this allows the customer to skip the Capture block and move on to the next block in the response. Activated – A Never mind button displays in the chat window. Clicking this exits the response entirely, and directs the customer to ask about something else instead.
   Save Response As	Use the drop-down menu to choose the variable the Capture block populates with the captured data. You can select an existing variable, or create a new one.
   Smart Detection (Optional)	Your bot can detect relevant information that returning customers have provided in past conversations. Depending on your bot's configuration, this option may not be available. Click the Select entity type drop-down menu and select the relevant entity for this capture event. Click Clear to remove a previously assigned entity type (e.g., full name, city, airport, date or time, etc.)

   Set Variable block

   With the Set Variable block, you can automatically define variables in your response that you can use in other blocks, without your customers ever knowing it's happening behind the scenes.

   1. Under Variable, select a variable to save the value in, or click Make New Variable to create a new one.

      note

      You can't select metavariables, which your AI Agent sets automatically, or variables that contain list responses.

      If this variable already has a value assigned to it at this point in the conversation, this block will overwrite the old value. If you created a new variable, follow these steps to finish creating it:

      1. If you created a new variable, enter a Name for it that describes the data it will contain.
      2. Under Availability, select either Only this Answer to limit the variable's use to the current response, or All Answers to make the variable available throughout your AI Agent.
      3. Under Type, select the type of information the variable should store, so your AI Agent can help validate chatter responses to fit it.
      4. Click Save. Your AI Agent saves your new variable.

   2. Under Content, beside the dropdown list, click the More Options icon and select a variable type:

      • Basic: Save a static text value that you add manually into the variable.

      • Variable: Save the content of another existing variable into this variable. For example, you can save the value of an existing metavariable into this variable.

        note

        For security reasons, you can't save a variable with the value of an authentication variable.

      • True/False: Save either a positive or negative response in the variable.
      • Null: Clear any previously set values from the variable.
      

   3. Under Content, enter or select a value to save in the variable. The options you have depend on the variable type you selected, or are absent if you selected Null.

   4. If required, click Add new variable to add additional variables to set at the same time.

      If the block contains more than five variables, it will be collapsed by default the next time you view the response, so you can scroll through the response's content more easily. To expand the block and view all of the variables, click the arrow icon next to the trash can icon in the upper-right corner of the block.

   Conditional block

   With Conditional blocks, you can target specific content to different customers depending on variables associated with them.

   note

   You can't use variables from your Actions when you're setting conditions. This is because you can't control when your customer might trigger an Action, so you can't depend on your AI Agent having that information when it needs to use it.

   The Conditional block uses logic to decide whether it should serve content to customers. Sometimes this is called "if-then-else" logic. Here's how it works in Ada:

   • If statement: Set up the criteria your AI Agent uses to decide whether to serve the customer with a piece of content.

     • Within a single If statement, you can have multiple criteria. You can choose to make all of these criteria necessary ("if x AND y") or just one of them ("if x OR y").

   • Then action: Set up the action your AI Agent takes if the user meets the criteria.

     • For each If statement you create, drag in content blocks to serve to customers who meet that condition. If a customer doesn't meet the criteria, the AI Agent moves on to the next condition and try again, until it reaches the Else condition.
   • Else action: Set up the action your AI Agent takes if none of the above if statements apply. If you don't set up an Else action, the AI Agent effectively doesn't have any instructions, and doesn't perform any of the actions in your Conditional block.

   Create conditions to create targeted content

   To start using the Conditional block in your response, add the Conditional block and follow these instructions:

   1. Create a condition. On the dashboard, your first condition is indicated with the symbol.

      1. If you want your condition to work with multiple criteria, you can choose how that behavior works. Select either If all of or If any of in the dropdown list. With this option, you can create multiple criteria for the same condition, and define the logic that determines whether your AI Agent serves the content for this condition or if it moves on to the next condition.

         Example:

         • You want to send a message to customers who have both gold level accounts and who live in Canada. In this case, you select If all of, and you create two criteria (the account_type variable’s value is equal to “gold”; the country variable’s value is equal to “Canada”).

         • You want to send a message to customers who have either silver or gold level accounts. in this case, you select If any of, and you create two criteria (the account_type variable’s value is equal to “silver”; the account_type variable’s value is equal to “gold”).

      2. Choose a variable to use as a basis of comparison. There’s no limit to the number of variables you can use.

      3. Choose an operator. The comparison operators available vary depending on the type of variable you chose in step b; for more information, see the Understand comparison operators section of this topic.

      4. If the operator you chose compares the variable to a value, configure that value. To the right of the Value field, click the Options button and choose your field options. Then, enter a value to check against the variable’s value.

         • Basic: Compare the variable with a value you type yourself.

         • Variable: Compare the variable with a different variable.

         • Match Case: Only allow matches if the case matches for both the variable and your comparison value. For example, if the value you enter is Word, your AI Agent wouldn’t accept word , WORD, or wOrd as matches.

      5. To add additional criteria, click the Add button and repeat steps ii-iv.

   2. Under the condition you just made, drag and drop blocks that you want those customers to see.

      note

      You can’t drag and drop Conditional blocks into a Conditional block, because they're designed to contain other blocks instead of being contained. If you need more complex logic in your AI Agent, contact your Ada team for assistance.

   3. To add additional conditions, click the Add Condition button and repeat steps a-b. Additional conditions are indicated with the symbol.

   4. Lastly, it’s a good idea to set up an else condition, so customers who don’t meet any of your conditions still see content. The action is indicated with the symbol. For this condition, all you have to do is drag content blocks in. You don’t have to set up this condition, but it’s useful as a best practice.

   Understand comparison operators

   Comparison operators are logic statements that tell the Conditional block to match customer information that's captured in the variable you’re using. The available operators vary based on the variable type you're using:

   Operator	Variable types	Description
   Begins With	All text variables (including phone and email)	Match information in the variable that begins with certain text (partial match).
   Ends With	All text variables (including phone and email)	Match information in the variable that ends with certain text (partial match).
   Contains	All text variables (including phone and email) List variables	Match information in the variable that contains certain text in any position (partial match).
   Is	All text variables (including phone and email) Number variables	Match information in the variable that equals specific text exactly (exact match).
   Is Not	All text variables (including phone and email) Number variables	Match information in the variable that does not equal specific text exactly (exact match).
   Is Not Set	All text variables (including phone and email) Number variables List variables	Match if there is no information contained in the variable.
   Is Set	All text variables (including phone and email) Number variables List variables	Match if there is any information contained in the variable.
   Greater Than	Number variables	Match if the information in the variable is greater than a specific value.
   Less Than	Number variables List variables	Match if the information in the variable is less than a specific value.
   Is True	Yes/No variables	Match if the information in a variable is Yes (or True).
   Is False	Yes/No variables	Match if the information in a variable is No (or False).
   Does Not Contain	List variables	Match if none of the selected items contains this value.
   Is Equal To	List variables	Match if the customer selected a particular number of options in a List Option block.
   Is Greater Than	List variables	Match if the customer selected more than a particular number of options in a List Option block.
   Is Less Than	List variables	Match if the customer selected fewer than a particular number of options in a List Option block.

   Request block

   You can use the Request block to make an API call. You can save all or part of the response as a variable so you can serve the content in text blocks, or use the response to populate a list of options in the List Option block.

   note

   Currently, you can only make GET requests with the Request block.

   1. Enter the API address in the URL field.

   2. Select your request type from the Method list.

   3. If required, use the Headers fields to pass metadata, like public access tokens, content type, and language.

      Example:

      

   4. If required, fill out the Body Content fields to pass details or instructions to the API server. Make sure you accurately define the content type (string, number, list, etc.).

   5. Click Test Request to send a sample API call and see the response body that comes back.

      • If you want to repeat the request, click the Repeat icon at the top of the response.

      • If you want to copy the response body to your clipboard, click the Copy icon at the top of the response.

   6. Under Error fallback, you can click to edit the AI Agent's response if an error occurs and it can't complete the call successfully.

   7. Under Save As Variable, save all or a portion of the response body in one or more variables for use in other blocks.

      The easiest way to save a particular attribute is to click a blue tag with a “+” icon in the response body to automatically save that attribute as a variable. You can select or create a variable to save that value in, and the Data Key field automatically populates, as below.

      For more complex use cases, you may have to type in a data key yourself, so you can target a particular attribute or array in the response. For more information, see Use data keys to target a portion of an API response.

   8. To add an additional variable, you can either click another tag in the response body, or click the green “+” icon by the Save As Variable fields.

   Use data keys to target a portion of an API response

   Data keys are a way to tell your AI Agent to target a portion of the API request so you can save it as a variable. There is a variety of ways to do this, depending on your end goal. If you need any assistance, don't hesitate to contact your Ada team.

   Limitations

   Before targeting data in your API response, you should know that there are some limitations to how Ada processes the data they contain:

   • You can target nested data in your response, but only up to eight levels. If you try to target values that are nested farther down in your response, your AI Agent won't be able to retrieve them.
   • Variables can contain up to 100,000 characters. Particularly when you're saving all or part of an API response as a variable, make sure you don't exceed this limit. If you do, you may start seeing errors, because your AI Agent might not be able to correctly parse your variable content.

   Data key notation

   Ada uses different types of notation to target different parts of the response:

   • Target the entire API response

     To save the entire API response in a variable, use the ada_response_string data key.

   • Target a specific attribute or array

     To target a specific attribute or array, enter its name exactly as it appears in the API.

     Example: Target a specific attribute

     Here's a portion of a response from the above Studio Ghibli API, which contains information about Princess Mononoke:

     {
       "id": "0440483e-ca0e-4120-8c50-4c8cd9b965d6",
       "title": "Princess Mononoke",
       "original_title": "もののけ姫",
       "original_title_romanised": "Mononoke hime",
       "image": "https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w600_and_h900_bestv2/jHWmNr7m544fJ8eItsfNk8fs2Ed.jpg",
       "movie_banner": "https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/6pTqSq0zYIWCsucJys8q5L92kUY.jpg",
       "description": "Ashitaka, a prince of the disappearing Ainu tribe, is cursed by a demonized boar god and must journey to the west to find a cure. Along the way, he encounters San, a young human woman fighting to protect the forest, and Lady Eboshi, who is trying to destroy it. Ashitaka must find a way to bring balance to this conflict.",
       "director": "Hayao Miyazaki",
       "producer": "Toshio Suzuki",
       "release_date": "1997",
       "running_time": "134",
       "rt_score": "92",
       ...
     }

     To save the movie title as a variable, use the data key title. Note that the key has to exactly match what's in the API response, so the data key Title wouldn't work.

     Example: Target a specific array

     If the API request returns an array, you can save the whole array as a variable as well. For example, here's a heavily truncated response from the Star Wars API, which contains a list of the Star Wars movies:

     {
       ...
       "results": [
         {
           "title": "A New Hope",
           "episode_id": 4,
           "opening_crawl": "It is a period of civil war...",
           "director": "George Lucas",
           "producer": "Gary Kurtz, Rick McCallum",
           "release_date": "1977-05-25",
           ...
         },
         {
           "title": "The Empire Strikes Back",
           "episode_id": 5,
           "opening_crawl": "It is a dark time for the Rebellion...",
           "director": "Irvin Kershner",
           "producer": "Gary Kurtz, Rick McCallum",
           "release_date": "1980-05-17",
           ...
         },
       ...
       ]
     }

     In this case, you could use the results data key to save an array containing information about all of the movies in your variable.

   • Target a child array or attribute

     You can use dot or bracket notation to target either arrays or attributes nested in other arrays or attributes.

     Any of these notations would get your AI Agent to look for an attribute called parent and save either an array or attribute within it called child:

     • parent.child

     • parent[child]

     • "parent"["child"]

       • Using quotation marks might help if the array or attribute name has a space in it. You must use double quotes, as above; if you use single quotes (e.g., 'parent'['child']), the data key won't work.

     If you're looking for something nested inside an array, you can target a particular instance based on its order in the API response. Note that this numbering starts at 0, not at 1, and that these numbers must be in brackets.

     For example, with this notation, your AI Agent would look for the first item in the array called parent, find the array within it called child, and save the second item within the child array:

     • parent[0].child[1]

     • [parent][0][child][1]

     • ["parent"][0]["child"][1]

     warning

     This method assumes that responses in the API will always be in the same order. Remember to test your API request with a variety of scenarios to ensure your data key correctly selects the attribute you're looking for. If you find that the order of items in your API response varies between calls, contact your Ada team to find a solution.

     Example: Target attributes or arrays nested in an array

     Here's another example from the Star Wars API, this time with a list of species that appear in the movies:

     {
       ...
       "results": [
         {
           "name": "Human",
           "classification": "mammal",
           "designation": "sentient",
           ...
           "films": [
             "https://swapi.dev/api/films/1/",
             "https://swapi.dev/api/films/2/",
             "https://swapi.dev/api/films/3/", 
             "https://swapi.dev/api/films/4/", 
             "https://swapi.dev/api/films/5/", 
             "https://swapi.dev/api/films/6/"
           ],
           ...
         },
         ...
       ]
     }

     "Human" is the first item in the list of Star Wars species in the results array, so if we want to target a piece of information that pertains to human characters, we'll start the data key with results[0]. From there, we can start targeting more specific information:

     • To target the name attribute of the species, use the data key results[0].name.

     • To target the entire array of Star Wars films in which humans appear, use the data key results[0].films.

     • To target only the fourth Star Wars film in which humans appear, use the data key results[0].films[3].

   List Option block

   The List Option block lets your bot offer customers a list of selectable items. Your AI Agent saves the item the customer selects as a variable that you can use in other blocks (e.g., in a Conditional block). You can create the list of options manually, or populate the list with saved variables.

   1. If you want the options in your list to populate dynamically from an API call, do the following:

      1. Set up an HTTP Request block in your response.

      2. Use a data key to save the required portion of the API response as a variable. That portion of the API response is what you’ll use to dynamically generate your list.

         caution

         Variables are limited to 100,000 characters. Particularly when you’re saving all or part of an API response as a variable, take care that you don’t exceed this limit. If you do, you may start seeing errors, because your bot might not be able to correctly parse your variable content.

         Other than the variable text limit, the only limitation on how many options can be in your list is that every message Ada serves must be under 10KB. Messages virtually never reach this size.

   2. In the text field at the top of the block, enter a message prompting the customer to make a selection. It could be as simple as “Pick an option,” but should also include specific instructions when necessary. This bubble will appear right before the list of options.

   3. Under Options Source, choose how you want to populate the list items. Then, depending on your choice, configure how you want the list items to appear under Option Setup.

      • Click Manual to use a static list of options. You can type these out yourself, or use variables.

        Configure manual list options

        By default, when a customer makes a selection, your AI Agent saves the text they selected as the variable value. Optionally, you can define custom values for each option for your AI Agent to save, instead of the text that appears to customers. When configuring manual list options, you have the option of managing those items separately:

        • Label: The text that customers see

        • Value: The text that your AI Agent saves when the customer makes a selection

        If you choose to make custom labels and not separate values, your AI Agent will save the label text upon customer selection instead.

        1. Under Label, enter the labels you want customers to see. You can type out text, use variables, or use a combination of the two.

           To add an option to the list, click Add Option. To delete an option, hover your cursor to the right of an option row and click the Delete button that appears.

           note

           If an option label only consists of a variable, and that variable is empty, that option won’t appear to customers.

        2. In some cases, you may need to save the customer’s selection in the dashboard differently from how it appears to them. To do this, toggle on the Assign different values from label option. Then, in the Value column that appears, enter the values you want to save in your variables.

           tip

           Different values can be useful in use cases like multilingual AI Agents that have manual translations. You may want to use translated variables so customers see the options in their languages, but behind the scenes, you may want the saved variable to be in English for all customers.

           Note that if your AI Agent uses automatically generated text, values are always stored in English in the back end, regardless of the language that customers see.

      • Click Dynamic to use a dynamic list of options from an API response. In this case, you must save an array from the API response so you can use all instances of an attribute in the array to appear as your list options.

        Configure dynamic list options

        1. In the List Option block, beside Data Source, enter the variable you saved the API response portion in.

        2. Beside Label Key Template, enter one or more attributes that appear in the variable to appear in the list options.

           • To include an attribute, put it in curly braces: {{item_name}}.

           • You can include multiple attributes, and have additional text in the items too: {{item_name}}, ordered on {{order_date}}.

   4. Select the Multiple Select checkbox to allow customers to select more than one option.

   5. Under Error fallback, you can click to edit the AI Agent's response if an error occurs.

   6. Under Save Response as Variables/a Variable, create or select a variable to save customers’ responses in, so you can use them later. For more information about the types of variables you can save responses in, see Understand variable types.

      note

      If you turned on Multiple Select, you must save the response in a List type variable.

   7. Under Capture Settings, choose whether you want to allow customers to advance through the response without making a selection.

      • Turn on the Response Required toggle to ensure that customers provide a response before being able to advance through the response.

        • If they don’t, and they click Never mind instead, your AI Agent will stop going through the blocks in your response and prompt the customer to ask about something else.

        • If the Response Required toggle is off, customers will see a Skip button that they can use to move on to the next block in your response.

      • If you turned on the Response Required toggle, a Show Cancel Button toggle appears. Turn this toggle on to show customers a Cancel button. If a customer clicks it, your AI Agent will stop going through the blocks in your response and prompt the customer to ask about something else.

   A completed List Option block looks like this:

   

   Understand variable types

   When creating a target variable for your options list, the variable type you choose depends on whether you allow the customer to select only one item from the options list or multiple items. If you have multiple select enabled, you must save the response in a List variable.

   • Text – A Text target variable can be used with any type of option variable.

   • Number – To use a Number target variable, all option variables in the list must be number variables.

   • Yes or No – The Yes or No target variable can only be used when the option variables in the list are also yes or no variables.

   • List – If you allow your customers to select more than one item from the options list, you must save their selections as a List variable. Items collected in a List variable are separated by semicolons.

     Once collected using the multiple select functionality, List variables can be used as you would any other variable. Here are a few examples:

     • Added to a block to relay the information back to the user, with each item separated by semicolons (e.g. “The items your shipment was missing are: lipstick; mascara; blush.”)

     • In a Conditional block

     Example: When asking a customer to indicate items missing from an order, assume you have separate sets of instructions for customers missing one item versus those who are missing multiple items. You can use the Conditional block to serve one set of instructions if the list length equals one item, and the second set of instructions if the list length equals two or more items.

   Sign In and Sign Out blocks

   In some cases, you may either serve customers with sensitive data, or give them the chance to make changes to their account, orders, bookings, etc. In these cases, you should authorize customers by asking them to sign in to their account.

   Sign-in confirms the customer is the person they claim to be, which should happen before your AI Agent shares any sensitive data. Sign-in generates an authentication token that you can use to call APIs that require an OAuth token in order to return account-specific information to the customer. After authentication, you can securely provide customers with a more detailed and personalized experience, by sharing information (such as balances, due dates, credits, etc.) or making changes to their account.

   Configure an authentication method

   Before you can use Sign-In and Sign-Out blocks in your response, you have to configure your authentication methods. For more information, see Authenticate your AI Agent's API calls using tokens.

   Add a Sign In block to your response

   After you have set up at least one authentication method in your settings, you can put Sign In/Out blocks in your response.

   note

   If the customer has already signed in from another response or prior to opening the AI Agent, the Sign In button will appear, but the customer won’t need to enter their credentials again.

   1. On the Ada dashboard, go to Channels > Social channels and open the Unsupported Messages response. Drag the Sign In block into your response.

   2. In the Sign In block, fill in the following fields:

      • Message: Write a prompt asking the customer to sign in.
      • Sign In Button Label: Write custom text to appear on the sign in button.
      • Auth Provider: Select the name of the authentication you configured in your settings.
      • Error Answer: If the authentication fails, the AI Agent will send the response specified here.

   Add a Sign Out block to your response

   The Sign Out block signs out the chatter from the authentication provider wherever you add it to your response. If you don't add a Sign Out block to your AI Agent, the chatter remains signed in until the authorization token expires.

   note

   The Sign Out block only signs the chatter out from the AI Agent. It does not log the customer out of their web experience.

   1. On the Ada dashboard, go to Channels > Social channels and open the Unsupported Messages response. Drag the Sign Out block into your response.
   2. In the Auth Provider list, select the authentication you configured in your settings.
   Fetch Chat Metadata block

   With the Fetch Chat Metadata block, you can add the chat transcript and/or customer information from a conversation, and save that information as variables. This can be very useful when you're setting up handoffs, so you can pass along additional information to the human agent.

   1. Under Select Variables for Inputs, beside Chatter Token, click inside the field and add the red chatter_token metavariable.

   2. Under Save Response as Variables, click the Select Optional Variables drop-down menu, then select any optional variables you’d like to capture:

      • Chat Transcript: Select this option to save the conversation transcript to a variable.
      • Chatter Info: Select this option to save the customer’s metadata to a variable. This is the same information available about the customer’s meta variables when you’re viewing a chat transcript.

   3. For each optional variable you selected, click the Choose a Variable drop-down menu, then select an existing variable, or create a new one, to capture the information.

   4. Under Fallback Answer, you can click to edit the AI Agent's response if an error occurs.

   Email block

   You can use the Email block to hand customers off via email. In any of the fields you configure for the email, you can include variables so you can pass relevant information on to human agents.

   1. In the Select Variables for Inputs section, complete the mandatory variable fields:

      • Recipient Email(s): Add the primary recipient email address. You can add the email variable, or manually enter the recipient’s email address. Separate multiple email addresses with a comma.
      • Reply-To Email: Enter the Reply-to email address you wish to assign to receive replies to your email.
      • Email Subject: Enter the email subject.
      • Email Content: Enter the body text of the email.

   2. Click the Select Optional Inputs drop-down menu, then select any optional variable fields you’d like to add:

      • BCC Email(s): Add blind carbon copy recipient email addresses. BCC addresses are not visible to other recipients.
      • CC Email(s): Add secondary recipient email addresses. These addresses are visible to other recipients.

      • Content Type: Enter the MIME type you want to use in your email:

        • If you just want to enter plain text, or if you’re not sure what to use, enter text/plain.
        • If you want to use HTML tags, enter text/html.
      • Reply-To Name: Enter the name of the Reply-to recipient.
      • Sender Name: Enter the name of the email sender. This appears in the From field.

   3. Under Fallback Answer, you can click to edit the AI Agent's response if an error occurs.

   Scheduled block

   The Scheduled block allows you to set days of the week and time ranges for your AI Agent to deliver different responses.

   For example, your AI Agent can offer to hand customers off to a human agent when agents are scheduled to be available, or offer to send an email request when agents aren't available.

   Create a schedule

   Before you start using the Scheduled block, you need to create a schedule so your AI Agent knows when to deliver different responses.

   1. On the Ada dashboard, go to Platform > Schedules. The Schedules page displays.

   2. Click New Schedule. The New Recurring Schedule window opens.

      

   3. In the New Recurring Schedule window, configure the following settings for your schedule:

      1. Under Schedule Name, provide a unique name for your schedule.

      2. Under Timezone, select your time zone.

      3. Under Repeat every, select the days of the week for your schedule to be active. Then, for the days you selected, select either a window of time or click All Day to make the schedule active for the entire 24-hour period.

         If required, click Add a new rule to add additional days and times.

      4. Optionally, under Except, you can add exceptions to your regular schedule for events like holidays.

         For example, if your regular hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., but on December 10 your hours are 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., create an exception for December 10 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., during which you can set handoffs to be unavailable.

         If required, click Add a new exception to add additional exceptions.

   4. Click Save. Your schedule is now available for selection in the Scheduled block.

   Add the Scheduled block to your response

   1. On the Ada dashboard, go to Channels > Social channels. Then, under Handling media messages, click Unsupported Messages.
   2. Drag and drop the Scheduled block from the block drawer into your response.
   3. Under Within Schedule?, select the schedule you want your AI Agent to follow.

   4. Drag and drop blocks into both the Yes and No fields, and add content to them as required.

      • If the customer's question occurs within the date and time range, your AI Agent identifies the current state as Yes, and serves the corresponding block content.
      • If the customer's question occurs outside the date and time range, your AI Agent identifies the current state as No, and serves the corresponding block content.
      Notes

      • Make sure you have content in both the Yes and No fields, or else you won't be able to save your response.
      • You can't nest Conditional blocks inside Scheduled blocks.
   5. Click Save. Your AI Agent can now send customers custom content based on your schedule.
   Salesforce handoffs

   You can configure your AI Agent to hand customers off using Salesforce.

   • Before doing so, connect your AI Agent with your Salesforce instance. For more information, see Configure Ada Glass for Salesforce.
   • Then, you can use the Salesforce Chat block to hand off customers. For more information, see Manage customer experience using Ada Glass for Salesforce.
   Zendesk handoffs

   You can configure your AI Agent to hand customers off using Zendesk. You have some options for how to configure your handoffs:

   • You can send customers to a human agent immediately using Zendesk Chat. For more information, see Configure Zendesk Chat and Manage customer experience with Zendesk Chat.
   • You can create email tickets on behalf of your customers and send those to your human agents. For more information, see Create customizable email tickets using the Zendesk Ticketing app.

3. At the bottom of the screen, click Save. Your AI Agent saves your changes.

View and manage previous versions of your response

Your AI Agent saves a history of all edits you've made to your response over the last 30 days. You can revert your changes to your response back to any of these saved versions.

1. On the Ada dashboard, go to Channels > Social channels. Then, under Handling media messages, click Unsupported Messages.
2. At the top of the page, you can see when the response was last edited. Click that text to open a pane that contains a list of versions of the response over the last 30 days. You can click a version to see the response at that time.
3. Optionally, for significant versions, you can add a name and description for future edits. To do this, hover over the version, click the More options button that appears, filling in the Version Title and Description fields as required, then clicking Save.
4. To revert to a previous version of your response, select the version you want to go back to. Then, at the top of the page, click Restore Version. Review your changes to ensure you're not reverting anything you want to keep, then click Save to save your reverted changes.

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Have any questions? Contact your Ada team, or email us at [email protected].