Best practices when using an IVA for WhatsApp

After you successfully configure Pega Intelligent Virtual Assistant (IVA) for Unified Messaging to interact with users through WhatsApp Messenger, and define the chatbot behavior, there are several best practices to consider before you train and test the text analytics model, and move the system to a production environment. By following these guidelines, you can troubleshoot some issues related to the WhatsApp service, for example, when the IVA does not receive a response from users or cannot send large image files in WhatsApp Messenger.

Keep in mind the following important considerations when working with the IVA for WhatsApp:

• WhatsApp does not guarantee the availability of their service and may, from time to time, experience outages and delays that impact the delivery of messages to or from your customers. For example, on rare occasions, messages can arrive late to your Pega Platform queues because the WhatsApp service is sending them late. There might also be rare cases when you are unable to send any messages by using WhatsApp Messenger, due to problems with the WhatsApp service. In these situations, contact Pega Global Client Support for updates on changes in the WhatsApp service status.
• By default, you cannot send a message to users in WhatsApp Messenger unless they have previously sent a message to you within the last 24 hours. You can create an exception to this rule for your WhatsApp profile by sending notifications based on templates. For more information, see the Create 24-hour window templates section in Optional WhatsApp configuration for your Twilio account.
• You can send and receive image files in WhatsApp Messenger if the image file is in one of the following formats: GIF, JPEG/JPG, MP4, and PNG.
• The maximum size of image files that you can send or receive in WhatsApp Messenger is 5 MB. The system automatically discards images that are larger than 5 MB.
• A user can, at any time, delete a chat conversation with you in WhatsApp Messenger. If you send messages to a user that has deleted a conversation with you, you will not receive a response.