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What's new in Digital Messaging

Updated on January 4, 2022

Pega Customer Service version 8.7 brings multiple enhancements to Digital Messaging capabilities.

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Caution: Legacy Webchat is deprecated and desupported for 8.7. To start the migration to Web Messaging, see Migrating from Legacy Webchat to Web Messaging.

Mobile-responsive Web Messaging widget

The Web Messaging widget is now mobile responsive, allowing users to access all the features of Web Messaging in phone and tablet browsers.

Web Messaging supports the following features in phone and tablet browsers:

  • Client logo
  • Welcome message
  • Minimize widget
  • Mute
  • End Session
  • Download transcript
  • Continue in another app
  • Emoji picker
  • Attachments
  • New Messages button
  • Audio notifications
  • Read and unread messages
  • Typing indicator
  • Browser language support
Note: The keyboard emoji selector replaces the emoji picker on phone browsers.

The following figure shows the mobile-responsive web messaging widget:

Mobile-responsive web messaging widget
Mobile-responsive web messaging widget

For more information on supported browsers and their versions on desktop machines, laptops, phones, and tablets, see the following topics:

Mobile Messaging SDK

Pega Customer Service 8.7 introduces iOS SDK and Android SDK mobile connections in Digital Messaging Manager, so that users can access Web Messaging right from their mobile phones.

Mobile messaging connections in Digital Messaging Manager
Mobile messaging connections in Digital Messaging Manager

Mobile Messaging SDK supports the following features in iOS and Android apps:

Feature Description
Messaging UI or View Area The SDK provides a Messaging UI to start the conversation.
Pega chatbot integration The SDK seamlessly integrates with the Pega chatbot.
Text Customers can quickly send and receive text messages from your application.
ImageCustomers can quickly send and receive images from your application.
DocumentCustomers can quickly send and receive documents from your application.
Menu Customers can receive the menu from the chatbot flow.
Link buttonCustomers can receive the link button from CSRs or the chatbot flow
Message StatusThe SDK provides message status, such as delivered, to customers and CSRs, so they know that the system has delivered messages.
Image previewCustomers can preview image files and they also have a download option for those image files.
Typing indicatorTyping indicators let customers know when a CSR is typing a response and CSRs see when a customer is typing a message.
Upload Progress UpdateCustomers see the delivery or upload progress of larger images and files.
Conversation History or Local CacheBuilt-in caching gives customers constant access to message history.
In-App notification/(Callback – No UI) Callback function notifies the user about a message that the SDK receives when the user is on another screen in the app.
Push notificationsPush notifications configure Webhook URL on the Push notification tab in the Digital Messaging Manager to receive messages when the user is away from the app. They also add custom headers that the server might require when the system triggers the webhook.

For more information, see Setting up Mobile Messaging SDK.

Proactive chat for Web Messaging

Starting with Pega Customer Service version 8.7, you can now add triggers for the Web Messaging widget on your website by using Proactive chat, in which chat is automatically offered to a customer based on specified conditions. For example, you can configure a proactive chat that automatically triggers when a customer is on the website for five or more seconds, based on your business requirements.

You can configure the proactive trigger on the Proactive chat tab of your Web Messaging connection in the Digital Messaging Manager, and add a chatbot response command in the Digital Messaging interface to call when your website triggers the proactive chat.

For more information on configuring proactive chat for a Web Messaging widget, see Proactive chat for Web Messaging.

Facebook messaging enhancements

In Pega Customer Service version 8.7, Facebook integration was enhanced to include the Get Started button.

Facebook Get Started button

Users can now see the Get Started button on the welcome screen in Facebook Messenger. When the user taps the button, the Get Started message is posted in the conversation, and the page is granted permission to send messages. Users will only see Get Started the first time they begin a conversation with the page on Messenger, both when initiated directly in Facebook, or following a channel switch from Web Messaging to Facebook Messenger.

The Get Started button is automatically enabled for connected Facebook pages in the Digital Messaging Manager when adding the page to your Web Messaging channel switch options.

Facebook before tapping Get Started
Facebook before tapping Get Started
Facebook after tapping Get Started
Facebook after tapping Get Started

For more information, see Setting up Facebook.

Customizations for the Web Messaging widget

Pega Customer Service version 8.7 provides switches on the General tab of the Web Messaging connection in Digital Messaging Manager to customize and control the display of the Web Messaging widget.

You can now enable or disable attachments on the Messaging attachment tab of the Chat and messaging settings in App Studio, instead of using the upload attachment switch. The switch is no longer available in Digital Messaging Manager version 8.7.

The Web Messaging connection in Digital Messaging Manager now provides the following options to customize the display of the widget:

Emoji picker

When you disable the emoji picker switch in the General settings of your Web Messaging connection in Digital Messaging Manager, the emoji icon does not appear below the reply box in the Web Messaging widget during real-time conversations. By doing so, you prevent users from using the emoji picker to choose emoticons to add to their messages. However, mobile users can still select and send emoji icons using the emoji keyboard.

Powered by Pega

You can control the display of the text Powered by Pega in the widget footer, by enabling the Powered by Pega switch in the General settings of your Web Messaging connection in Digital Messaging Manager.

Typing indicators

A typing indicator is displayed to the customer before a chatbot or a CSR response arrives. You can now enable or disable this feature in the Digital Messaging Manager.

For more information on the toggle options in Digital Messaging Manager that you can use to control the display of the Web Messagingwidget, see Configuring general settings.

Client Channel API

Pega Customer Service version 8.7 introduces a Client Channel API to create integrations with additional channels, such as Teams, Webex, Slack, and other channels. You add a new Client Channel API connection in the Digital Messaging Managerof your Digital Messaging interface, in the same way that you add connections for other Digital Messaging channels.

Client Channel API in Digital Messaging Manager
Client channel API in Digital Messaging Manager

The system supports the following features during communication from a client channel to the Digital Messaging service:

  • Text messages
  • Typing indicators
  • Attachments
  • Postbacks
  • End session event (customer ended the conversation)
  • Context data

The system supports the following features during communication from the Digital Messaging service to a client channel:

  • Text messages
  • Typing indicators
  • Attachments
  • List pickers
  • Links/buttons
  • Carousels
  • End session event (CSR/chatbot ended the conversation)

For information on configuring a Client Channel API in Digital Messaging Manager, see Setting up a client channel connection.

Events table for reporting CSR actions

Pega Customer Service version 8.7 offers two event tables in Dev Studio: EventDetails and EventStats. EventDetails captures the actions of CSRs in the Interaction Portal, and EventStats captures the duration of those actions in theInteraction Portal.

These two tables provide event-related information in raw form. Customers can use these tables to create reports for different events related to CSRs, including CSR availability, log in and log out of the CSR, and the queues that the CSR joined or left.

For more information, see Event tables for reporting CSR actions.

Asynchronous messaging and timeout settings

The Timeout and close behavior tab in App Studio provides the timeout settings for the new channels, such as Android SDK, iOS SDK, and Channel API, that are introduced in Pega Customer Service version 8.7.

The following new sections can be found on the Timeout and close behavior tab: Reminder message and CSR disconnection settings. Additionally, the When chat CSRs are unavailable section, which was previously an entire section in App Studio under the chat and messaging settings, is now moved to the Timeout and close behavior tab of the chat and messaging settings.

When chat CSRs are unavailable

The When chat CSRs are unavailable section on the Timeout and close behavior tab of a channel contains the following three options:

  • Queue for when CSRs are available
  • De-escalate to bot and do not queue
  • Give email option, de-escalate to bot, and do not queue
For more information, see Timeout and close behavior.

Messaging AI

Pega Customer Service version 8.7 provides Messaging AI features, such as case type suggestions, form autofill, and knowledge suggestions.

Messaging AI assists CSRs during live chat interactions by providing contextually relevant, real-time suggestions.

Powered by natural language processing (NLP) and emotion detection capabilities, Messaging AI uses context to drive intelligent guidance to the CSR. Messaging AI also provides post-chat analytics that can help customer service teams make better recommendations.

For more information, see Messaging AI.

Intelligent routing improvements

Starting with Pega Customer Service version 8.7, the Intelligent routing section in the Routing feature of App Studio displays the additional Source Channel option, which offers multiple channels.

The channels offered by the new Source Channel option are:

  • Android SDK
  • Apple Business Chat
  • Channel API
  • Facebook Messenger
  • Facebook Public Posts
  • iOS SDK
  • Legacy Webchat
  • SMS
  • Web Messaging
  • WhatsApp

The Connections option also displays the connections for new channels that are introduced in Pega Customer Service version 8.7 as well as the channels in the earlier version. The Intelligent routing feature is now also available for third-party routing. For more information, see Configuring intelligent routing.

Note: Due to changes by Twitter in the API and the licensing model, direct integration with Twitter is no longer supported in the Digital Messaging channel interface.

Knowledge suggestions for chatbots

In Pega Customer Service version 8.7, you can create knowledge suggestions in your Digital Messaging interface, so that Messaging AI can suggest appropriate Pega Knowledge articles in the chatbot to CSRs during a real-time chat interaction.

By defining knowledge suggestions, CSRs can save time because they do not need to manually find knowledge articles that are relevant to a customer inquiry. For more information on configuring knowledge suggestions in your Digital Messaging interface, see Configuring knowledge suggestions.

Web Messaging enhancements

Pega Customer Service version 8.7 enhances the Web Messaging widget with several new features.

The new features that are available in Pega Customer Service version 8.7 are described in the following table:

FeatureDescription
MuteWhen sound notifications are enabled for the Web Messaging widget in Digital Messaging Manager, customers can control sounds and mute or unmute notifications by selecting this option in the Web Messaging widget during the real-time conversation.
New messagesWhen new chat messages arrive and are not visible to the customer, the system displays a New messages navigation button. Upon clicking the button, the chat window scrolls to the bottom of the widget, so that customers can view the newly-arrived messages.
Audio notifications When sound notifications are enabled, the system notifies customers when new messages arrive in the chat widget using the audio notification. Customers can mute notifications in the menu.
Read messagesWhen customers open the widget and then scroll down to read a message, the system considers the message as Read.
Unread messages The system displays the number of unread messages as a count badge on the chat bubble if the chat widget is minimized. When customers open the widget, the system clears the count.
Typing indicatorA typing indicator is displayed to the customer before a chatbot or CSR response arrives. You can disable this feature in Digital Messaging Manager.
Browser language supportThe Web Messaging widget captures the browser language and loads supported languages configured in the interface.

Localization of Web Messaging widget

Starting with Pega Customer Service version 8.7, you can configure a chatbot to ensure that it interacts with users in multiple languages. The languages that you configure for the Digital Messaging interface also determine the languages that you can display on the Web Messaging interface.

For more information, see Configuring a multilingual chatbot.

Tags

Pega Customer Service 8.7 Pega Customer Service for Communications 8.7 Pega Customer Service for Financial Services 8.7 Pega Customer Service for Healthcare 8.7 Pega Customer Service for Insurance 8.7

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