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Setting up the IVA for Facebook Messenger

Updated on February 10, 2023

Provide users with the ability to interact with your Pega Intelligent Virtual Assistant™ (IVA) in Facebook Messenger. By interacting with your chatbot on Facebook Messenger, users have a convenient, everyday messaging app available to resolve issues or request more help in your application.

For example, for a travel agency application, customers can interact with your chatbot in Facebook Messenger to cancel their flight.
Before you begin:
  • Configure Digital Messaging channel security settings. For more information, see Configuring Digital Messaging channel security.
  • If you do not have an IVA for Digital Messaging, create a Digital Messaging channel. For more information, see Creating a Digital Messaging channel.
  • If you do not have a Facebook Admin account and one or more Facebook pages, create them. For more information, refer to the Facebook developer portal.
Note: You use your Facebook Admin account to authorize the Pega Facebook App to retrieve Facebook messages that the system posts to your selected Facebook pages on your behalf. Your Facebook account must be an Admin of the Facebook pages in order to provide this authorization. You cannot use your Facebook Admin account to authorize a Facebook page for Digital Messaging in more than one Pega application at the same time, but you can use a Facebook Admin account to add multiple Facebook pages to the same application. When using Facebook, one Facebook page can have multiple Admins.
You access Digital Messaging Manager in the Digital Messaging channel to configure individual messaging accounts in one place for your application.

For relevant training materials, see the Configuring Digital Messaging Manager module on Pega Academy.

Note: After you update Pega Platform or Pega Customer Service, to use the latest Digital Messaging Manager features, save your existing Digital Messaging channel.
  1. In the navigation pane of App Studio, click Channels.
  2. In the Current channel interfaces section, click the icon that represents your existing Digital Messaging channel.
  3. In the Digital Messaging channel, click the Connection tab.
  4. Click Manage connections.
  5. In the Digital Messaging Manager window, click Add Connection, and then click the Facebook icon.
  6. If you are not signed on to your Facebook account in the browser, log in to your account:
    1. On the Facebook login page, enter the email address and password for your Facebook account.
    2. Click Log In.
    Note: The account you use must be an admin of the Facebook page that you want to authorize.
  7. In the displayed window, click Continue as <YOUR NAME>.
  8. In the page selection window for your Facebook page application, select the checkbox for the Facebook page that you will use with your Pega Platform application, and then click Next.
  9. Review the permissions for your Facebook page, and then click Done.
    This action ensures that you give permission to your Facebook page app to send and receive messages on behalf of the IVA channel.
    Result: The window displays information that your Facebook page is now linked to your Digital Messaging channel.
  10. Click OK.
    Result: The system displays information that the authorization for your Facebook page was successful, and displays a list of all of your configured messaging platforms.
  11. Optional: To display the Get Started button in the Facebook Messenger, turn on the Messenger Get Started Button switch.
    The Get Started button displays to the user on the Facebook Messenger welcome screen. When a user clicks the button, the system sends the Get Started message to the conversation and the system grants the chatbot permission to send messages. Because Facebook provides the Get Started button, you cannot customize the button.

    The system displays the Get Started button only when users for the first time begin a conversation in Facebook Messenger with your Facebook page. The system displays the Get Started button when both the user starts a conversation directly in Facebook Messenger or the user performs a channel switch from Web Messaging to Facebook Messenger.

    Note: The system automatically enables the Get Started button for the connected Facebook pages in Digital Messaging Manager, when you add the page to the channel switch options for your Web Messaging channel.
  12. Close the browser window, and then in the Digital Messaging channel, click Save.

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