Chat: WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram in one inbox
Answer buyers on WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram from one inbox in the dashboard. What each channel needs, how messages arrive, and the 24-hour reply rule.
Buyers like to ask on the apps they already use. With the chat integrations, messages sent to your WhatsApp Business number, your Facebook Page or your Instagram account arrive in the Chat inbox of your dashboard, and you answer from there. You connect the channels in Tools > Integrations > Chat, and you work in the Chat page.
Compare the channels#
| Channel | You need | You paste | Good to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| WhatsApp Business | A Meta app with the WhatsApp use case and a business phone number | Phone number ID, business account ID, access token, app secret | After 24 hours you can send only an approved template |
| Messenger | A Facebook Page you manage and a Meta app | Page ID, Page access token, app secret | Public customers need Meta to approve your app |
| An Instagram Business or Creator account and a Meta app | Instagram account ID, access token, app secret | Public customers need Meta to approve your app |
You can connect one, two or all three. Messaging prices and rules belong to Meta; check its own pages.
How a message arrives and how you reply#
Meta sends each new message to a web address of your website, called the Callback URL. Jukto checks the message really came from Meta (using your app secret), saves it once even if Meta sends it twice, and shows it in the inbox. Your reply goes the other way through Meta.
Text version of the diagram
- Customer writes to you to Meta calls your Callback URL
- Meta calls your Callback URL to Signature matches your app secret?
- Signature matches your app secret? to Ignored (No)
- Signature matches your app secret? to Message appears in the Chat inbox (Yes)
- Message appears in the Chat inbox to Within 24 hours of their last message?
- Within 24 hours of their last message? to You reply; Jukto sends it through Meta (Yes)
- Within 24 hours of their last message? to WhatsApp: send an approved template (No, WhatsApp)
- Within 24 hours of their last message? to Messenger, Instagram: wait for them to write again (No, others)
What Meta decides, not Jukto#
- WhatsApp: connecting your own number with your own token needs no review by Meta. Your Meta app must be set to Live, or no message reaches you.
- Messenger: until Meta approves
pages_messagingfor your app, only people who have a role on the app (you and your team) can message the Page and be answered. - Instagram: the same for
instagram_business_manage_messages. The account must be a Business or Creator account.
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