Facebook Messenger

Introduction

Facebook Messenger is one of the world’s most popular instant messaging platforms, used by nearly one billion monthly active users. Through this platform, brands can create engaging chatbots to interact intelligently and automatically with their customers.

MoEngage × Facebook Messenger

The MoEngage and Facebook integration leverages MoEngage Connectors to message your users in Facebook Messenger through the Messenger Platform API. The Facebook Messenger platform is intended for “non-promotional messages that facilitate a pre-existing transaction, provide other customer support actions, or deliver content requested by a person.” To read more, see Facebook’s platform guidelines and examples of acceptable use cases.

Integration

Acknowledge the following before proceeding with integration:

• Facebook does not allow the usage of the Messenger platform to send marketing messages.
• You will need the user’s explicit permission for messages from your page.
• To send messages to users who are not test users of your Facebook App, your app will need to pass Facebook’s app review.

REQUIREMENT	DESCRIPTION
Facebook Messenger page	https://www.facebook.com/pages/create A Facebook page will be used as the identity of your bot. When people chat with your app, they will see the page name and profile picture.
Facebook Messenger app	https://developers.facebook.com/apps The Facebook app contains the settings for your Messenger bot, including access tokens.
App bot review and approval	https://developers.facebook.com/docs/messenger-platform/app-review When you are ready to release your bot to the public, you must submit it to Facebook for review and approval. This review process allows us to ensure your Messenger bot abides by our policies and functions as expected before making it available to everyone on Messenger.
Page-scope IDs (PSIDs)	https://developers.facebook.com/docs/messenger-platform/reference/webhook-events/messages You need to have users PSIDs to send messages on Facebook Messenger. Once a user interacts with your app via Messenger, Facebook will create a PSID. This PSID can be sent to MoEngage as a string custom attribute.
Page access token	https://developers.facebook.com/docs/messenger-platform/getting-started/app-setup#page_access_token These access tokens are similar to user access tokens, except that they provide permission to APIs that read, write or modify the data belonging to a Facebook Page. To obtain a page access token, you need to obtain a user access token and ask for themanage_pagespermission. Once you have the user access token, you then get the page access token via the Graph API.

The following shows how to set up a MoEngage Facebook Messenger connector -

Step 1: Collect customer PSIDs

To send messages on Facebook Messenger, you need to collect your users’ page-specific IDs (PSIDs) to identify your user and interact with them consistently. PSIDs are not the same as the user’s Facebook ID. Facebook creates this identifier whenever you message a customer or when a customer messages you.

PSIDs can be found using one of the various entry points Facebook offers. Once the user messages your app or takes an action in a conversation, such as tapping a button or sending a message, their PSID will be included in thesender.idproperty, so your bot can identify who took the action.

JSON

{
  "sender": {
  	"id": "<PSID>"
  },
  "recipient": {
  	"id": "<PAGE_ID>"
  },
  "timestamp": 1458692752478,
  "message": {
  	"mid": "mid.1457764197618:41d102a3e1ae206a38",
    "text": "hello, world!",
    "quick_reply": {
    	"payload": "<DEVELOPER_DEFINED_PAYLOAD>"
    }
  }
}

Whenever you send a message, their PSID will be included in therecipient.idproperty of the request to identify who should receive the message.

Step 2: Save PSIDs on MoEngage as custom attributes

PSIDs are strings that can be accessed by making an API call to Facebook APIs. Once you obtain a list of PSIDs, you will send them to MoEngage.

• If you have a user identifier such as phone number, you can add them on MoEngage as a ps_id - custom tracked user attribute/property (like phone number). You can save this data to MoEngage either using:
  • User Data APIs or
  • Upload them using User Imports inside MoEngage.
• If you do not have any user identifier (meaning the user has not shared his personal details with your bot), you can upload them as Anonymous users.

Step 3: Create Connector Campaign on MoEngage to send message

To create a connector campaign on MoEngage,

1. Navigate to Create Campaign >> Connectors >> Custom and choose delivery type most suitable to your needs

2. Choose Segment of users for whom ps_id exists (You can combine with other Segment criteria)
3. On step 2 of the campaign, enter the FB url, add parameters and payload for your message. Read more about Facebook messenger send API here.

4. At this point, your campaign should be ready to test and send. You can also test your connector configuration using the Test functionality available on Step 2 of Create Connector Campaign

If your test user successfully receives the message, your set-up is ready. You can go ahead and Publish the campaign.