Table of Contents

Keyword Options ๐Ÿ”‘ Assign keywords to buttons (WhatsApp and Facebook)

Ilaria Scuotto Updated by Ilaria Scuotto

Improved experience for messaging channels

What would happen if Buttons and Keyword Jump had a baby? ๐Ÿ‘ถ

We thought about it for a while, and finally came up with a solution: a newborn block, named Keyword Options! ๐Ÿ”‘

What we did was combine the two features in order to improve the experience of answering "Buttons" questions in WhatsApp and Facebook.

Buttons and Keyword Jump definitely make sense as separated features in Web Bots, but we're going to see that in WhatsApp and Facebook, things are slightly different!

Buttons in WhatsApp

Let's have a look at how Buttons work for WhatsApp.

In the builder, the block looks just the same as web bots:

As you can see, in WhatsApp, Buttons are displayed as a numbered list of options, in which the valid answer is always the number corresponding to the chosen option (The variable stored is also going to be the numbers corresponding to the options):

What happens when you answer "incorrectly"?

If you answer something different from the numbers, the bots won't recognize the answer, and if you write again, it's going to restart (giving the feeling of being "stuck in a loop" and not knowing why)

This is not very intuitive, isn't it? Moreover, having a text input in WhatsApp makes you automatically want to write text and not numbers!

Buttons in Facebook Messenger

Messenger bots do display buttons, but there are certain limitations: the characters are limited to 20, and the arrangement can only be horizontal.

But the main problem with Facebook buttons is that while you have buttons, you can still write in the text field and send a message.

In the example below we have a question built with the Buttons block. If we try of write a message instead of choosing the button, the bot will stop. If you write again, it'll restart, resulting in a frustrating experience.

Keyword Options

In the builder, the Keyword Options looks just like a Buttons block:

But when you open the side menu, you'll be able to associate one or multiple keywords to each Button/Option aside from the numbers (Which are provided by default as keywords).

Before creating the Keywords, please keep in mind that:

  1. It works withย single wordsย (one word for each field, like in the picture above) andย emojis โœ…
  2. Keywords are not recognized if the user types the Keyword + a punctuation to the word โŒ
    If the user types a keyword, but he adds some punctuation (, . ! ?) with no space between, the keyword wonโ€™t be recognized.
    For Example: the keyword isย yes
    User input: Yes I doย โœ…
    User input: Yes, I doย โŒ
  3. Itย Doesn't work with phrasesย orย 2 or more words in the same fieldย โŒ
  4. It Doesn't work with variablesย โŒ

Keyword Options for WhatsApp

In WhatsApp, the options are displayed as a number list of choices, but now you can use multiple keywords for each option, aside from the numbers.

This way the valid answer to this question could be the corresponding number or one of the corresponding keywords. As in the example: returns

The variable stored is going to be whatever the user typed (only if it contains one of the keywords)

Keyword Options for Facebook Messenger

With Keyword Options, we allow both user inputs. We can click on buttons and write in the text field.

Note: โš ๏ธ Keep in mind that the text in the buttons has to contain at least one of the keywords from your set-up โš ๏ธ like this:

Let's have a look at an example.

Clicking on the buttons: the variable stored will be the text from the button.

Typing the keyword or a phrase containing the keyword: the variable stored will be the user input (whatever the user typed).

Same as happens with the Buttons block, the Keyword Options block in Messenger bots has a limitation of up to 14 buttons (default button included).

If not all the buttons fit on the screen, you can click on the arrow pointing to the right to see more options.

Warning: If you add more than 14 buttons to the Keyword Options block, it will not work.

The block will not be triggered, and the bot will stop at this point of the flow.

Validation error message

For WhatsApp

We recommend you to set a validation error message from the builder so that if the user's answer doesn't contain one of the keywords/numbers, he will immediately know what went wrong!

We also recommend you to write the keywords in bold (in the text of the buttons), to give the user a hint on what to answer to the next question!

As you can see, if the user answer doesn't contain one of the keywords/numbers, they are going to receive this message: "Please, write a number or one of the words in bold"

For Facebook Messenger

For Facebook, since we don't have the bold format, we can suggest the user use the buttons or type one of the most relevant words in the button's text.

Default output

In both WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, you can switch off the validation error message to use the default output.

As soon as you switch off the validation error message in the left-side panel, the default option will appear on the block:

You may need this when the user answer is indifferent to the flow and doesn't lead to separate paths:

How did we do?

Reply Buttons block (WhatsApp)

List Buttons Block (WhatsApp)

Contact