Note: Messaging is our new modern platform for engagements. It improves on our legacy Live Chat platform in many ways. Learn more or see a feature comparison. All new customers and free trials after January 1, 2024 use Messaging by default.
Our new Messaging widget looks and feels similar to our legacy Live Chat widget. This means the learning curve will be small for your agents. The new widget was also designed to increase agent focus and efficiency. It has many upgrades over the legacy Live Chat widget. For example, agents will be able to handle multiple channels of conversation asynchronously and at scale.
What's New?
Status Header
The new status header provides agents with better visibility into the status of the current conversations.
| Status | Icon | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Unread | Conversations that have not been read | |
| Unresponded | Conversations that have been read but not answered | |
| Ongoing | Open conversations that are currently in progress | |
| Closed | Conversations that have been marked as ‘closed’ by the agent or the customer, or that have been automatically closed by the system due to timeout |
Conversation List
The conversation list helps enable agents to manage more conversations in less time.
When a conversation is selected from the list, it will open in conversation mode where the agent can view the full transcript. To help agents distinguish between agent and visitor messages, the colors of the messaging conversations have changed. Bot messages are yellow, agent messages are grey, and visitor messages are blue.
End and Resume Conversation
As was the case in the Chat platform, the agent has the ability to end the conversation.
As a new feature, the agent can now resume the conversation and reply to a customer even if the customer is not online. This makes for a better consumer experience.
User State Indicators
We also added new indicators to show the user state. This helps the agent identify the channel, see if the visitor is authenticated, and if the visitor is linked to a contact record in the CRM.
| Indicator | Icon | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Web | The conversation originated from the web | |
| The conversation originated from Instagram | ||
| The conversation originated from Facebook | ||
| Twilio | The conversation originated from Twilio | |
| The conversation originated from WhatsApp | ||
| Email Connect | @ | The conversation originated from an email |
| Authenticated | Shows that the visitor is authenticated, either by an authenticated engagement or an official channel | |
| Link-to-contact | Shows that the visitor has been linked to a known CRM contact |
Visitor Information
We also enhanced the agent widget with an easy way to view visitor information.
Large Ring Alert
We have added a large ring alert for new chats. This gives a better visual indication of a new engagement.
To activate this feature, enable the ‘Show large ring alert for new Chat’ option from the Settings menu of notifications.
Emoji Picker
Agents can now send emojis during a conversation.
Note: The Messaging widget can only be displayed inside a panel within the main Microsoft Dynamics 365 user interface. It cannot be popped out into a “Full Mode”.
Ready to Get Started?
The Messaging widget is now available but it requires back-end enablement. See Enabling the Messaging Agent Widget for the steps to accomplish this.