Use Ada with social media channels
Overview
Integrate with third-party channels to bring the chat experience everywhere your chatters 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.
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 bots 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: Chatters are directly connected to a live agent within the third-party channel.
Handoff to Salesforce Live Chat: Chatters are directly connected to a live agent within the third-party channel.
Handoff to Zendesk Email Ticketing: Chatters are asked for their email address and receive support from an agent via email.
Handoff to Email: Chatters 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 | Facebook Messenger | Twilio SMS | Instagram Direct | Twitter DM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Quick replies | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
Proactive campaigns | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
Predictive suggestions | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
Answer review | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
Blocks | ||||||
✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||
✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||
✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
✔ | ||||||
✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✘ | ✘ | |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
Handoffs | ||||||
Email handoff | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
✔ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | |
✘ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
Additional notes
For more information on how some channels may work differently from others, please click each expander below.
Quick replies: Chatters can see a list of buttons, as long as they meet the following criteria:
There are a maximum of three quick reply options
Each option's button label contains 20 or fewer characters
Note
Unlike in web chat, after the chatter makes a selection, the buttons are still visible. If the chatter goes back and tries to make an additional selection, the bot responds with the Not Understood Answer.
If the quick reply options don't meet the above criteria, instead of being able to select a reply from a set of buttons, chatters see a message containing the options as a numbered list, and can type a number to select the corresponding option.
Some Quick Replies blocks in your bot might meet the above criteria, and some might not, so you may see both selection methods in your bot.
Videos: Instead of embedded videos, chatters get links to click to view videos.
List options: Chatters 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 chatter makes a selection, the Make a selection button is still visible. If the chatter goes back and tries to make an additional selection, the bot responds with the Not Understood Answer.
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, chatters see options as a numbered list and can type a number to select the corresponding option.
Some List Option blocks in your bot might meet the above criteria, and some might not, so you may see both selection methods in your bot.
Search for unsupported blocks
When third-party channels have been configured, a channel icon might appear for some Answers. This indicates that the Answer contains blocks that are not supported across all channels. To filter for these Answers, search <unsupported:sunshine> in the Answers view.
 |
Blocks that are not supported by all channels will have a "Channel specific" tag in the header.
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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 |
|---|---|
| |
Facebook Messenger |
|
Twilio SMS |
|
| |
|
Here is an example of how to personalize the experience by channel.
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Use fallbacks for unsupported blocks
To ensure the chat experience is not affected by unsupported blocks, a fallback flow must be created for incompatible channels using channel variables.
Here is an example of how to set up a fallback for unsupported blocks.
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Have any questions? Contact your Ada team—or email us at help@ada.support.