Platform Release

The January 2020 Release - Messages Module Revamp & New Web Chat Widget

Iaroslav Kudritskiy
January 21, 2020

Happy 2020! Can you believe we're entering a whole new decade? The Roaring Twenties! I'm hoping we'll be moving into Art Deco buildings and spending our evenings at Jazz clubs with live flute. But that's just me.

The Rocketbots team has a New Years Resolution, one major release per month over the next twelve months. Make sure to add more of your amazing ideas to the Feature Request page because we're getting busy.

We're starting off this year with some overdue changes:

Messages Module Revamp

If you've been with us for a while you'll remember we've improved the Messages Module before. Let's just say we weren't completely satisfied. This time, we went for a complete rewrite with major changes to the Contact List, Messages Area & Input Bar.

The Contact List has been simplified and Contact Segment functionality has been added. To simplify the Contact List we removed the second level of filters that allowed filtering based on status and channel. Instead, we have a Search Bar.

Contact Filter Updates

To keep the current workflow, we added one more filter - New - it ensures all Contacts that are both Unassigned and Pending show in the left Filter. To replicate the Custom Segment functionality from the Contacts Module we added a button in the Search Bar.

Open Segment Builder

This button takes you to the Segments Sidebar, the same one you are familiar with in the Contacts Module. Segments work across Contacts & Messages now. Any Segment you build (in Contacts or Messages) will be available in the Contact List filter dropdown.

The Messages Area has been improved with an improved UI and a few additional tweaks.

Rocketbots Platform Lightbox

Instead of opening in a new tab, photos now open in a lightbox. But don't worry we've provided a button on the top right that will allow you to open the image in a new tab if necessary.

New Messages Time Date Format

There are a few changes to how Messages display too. The 23 minutes ago format will now only be shown up to one hour, afterward, a timestamp will be shown. Each message will now display a retry button if it fails to send.

A Card in the Messages Module

Dialogflow users will be delighted to find that many more messages types including quick reply, carrousel, and others are now supported in the UI.

Comments Are Shown Inline With Messages

Comments made in the Activity Tab will now also show inline throughout the conversation. Last but now least Smart Replies have moved from the sidebar to just above the Input Bar like Google Chat.

Smart Replies Show Above the Input Bar

Have any other improvements you want to see from the Messaging Module? Make sure to add them to the Feature Request page. And if you have any questions about the changes we made, don't hesitate to chat with us!

New Widget: Web Chat & Messaging Apps in One

With this release, you'll see a completely new Web Chat. The goal of this project was to unify the Multi-Channel Web Widget and Web Widget into one beautiful Widget.

Chat Options Pop Up After 5 Seconds

The Widget enables website visitors to chat through the channel of their choice, whether it be a Messaging App or Web Chat. Clicking one of Messaging App icons will take the visitor to a Messaging App chat website like Messenger.com.

To launch a regular Web Chat your website visitors can press the chat icon itself. Once pressed a regular Web Chat will open that allows the website visitors to chat without going through a Messaging App service.

Web Chat Open

As before, you may require Contacts to fill in a form before they chat, or start chatting right away. To improve this experience, we've added an inline Chat Form and enabled you to add any Custom Field on Rocketbots to the form.

The Form Is Now In The Chat

Aside from these massive changes we've enabled many new configuration features like:

  • Select the Messaging App channels to show on the Widget
  • Left Right Positioning
  • Trigger the Widget to open via a link

A request to the community. 🙏 This widget is brand new, so add any additional features you want to our Feature Requests page. For more info on how the new Widget works, please check out our Web Widget documentation.

Bits & Bobs

And of course, there are a few bits and bobs.

We are Deprecating Channels to make way for some additional channels we are going to be adding in the future. With this release, we are removing Facebook Workplace, WeChat Work & Slack.

Smart Replies are being updated too! Not only have we changed the way we display possible Smart Replies in the Messages Module. We have also removed self - learning as this wasn't something used by many.

That's it for this release, see you next month!

Iaroslav Kudritskiy
Chief Operating Officer
Iaroslav Kudritskiy is the Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of respond.io. He is a graduate of the MBA program at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and his previous roles include positions at Kodak Alaris, Xaxis and Light Reaction.
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