Messenger, Instagram and social comments

Facebook Messenger, Instagram messages and Facebook and Instagram comments are part of Cliedesk Pro. You connect your own Meta app and Facebook Page. People with the Manage channels permission (Cliedesk Admins and Owners) set them up in Settings → Channels → Messaging.

Messages and comments become normal conversations. Rules, SLAs, routing and the AI agent work on them as on email and chat. Each account gets a row in Settings → Channels → Channel matrix for its product, queue and type.

Connect a Page

1. In your Meta app, add Messenger (and Instagram for Instagram). Make a long-lived Page access token for your Page, and copy the App secret (Meta app → Settings → Basic).
2. In Cliedesk, select Connect account and choose one:
   • Facebook Messenger: enter the Page ID and, for “Continue on Messenger” links, the Page user name.
   • Instagram DMs: enter the Instagram account ID, the Linked Facebook Page ID and the Instagram user name.
   • Facebook comments or Instagram comments: enter the same IDs. In Sources, list what becomes a conversation: posts, ads, mentions, recommendations (Facebook only). Leave it empty for all.
3. Enter the Page access token and the App secret. Leave Verify token empty: Cliedesk makes one.
4. Select Save.
5. In the list, select Copy URL and Copy verify token. Paste both in your Meta app webhook settings (object Page for Facebook, Instagram for Instagram). Subscribe to messages, messaging_postbacks, message_deliveries, message_reads, messaging_referrals and, for comments, feed, mention and ratings (Facebook) or comments and mentions (Instagram).

Meta allows one webhook address per app. If you connect both Messenger and Facebook comments, use the same app secret for both and paste the address of either one: Cliedesk sends each message or comment to its own account.

Customers and identity

Cliedesk finds the customer by their Messenger or Instagram ID. Meta does not share a proven phone number or email, so these customers are not joined to other contacts on their own. You can merge contacts by hand.

The reply window

On Messenger and Instagram you can answer for 7 days after the customer’s last message. Rules and the AI agent can answer only within 24 hours. After 7 days, reply by email if the customer has an email address.

A message more than 5 days after you resolved a conversation opens it again as a new episode, so the history stays in one place.

Away message

In the account, enter an Away message. It goes out once when a new conversation or episode starts and nobody is working on it. Write {{ replyBy }} where the expected reply time should be, for example: “Thanks! We reply by {{ replyBy }}.”

Stories

Story replies and story mentions on Instagram arrive as messages with the story link. The link works for 24 hours; the message shows until when.

Comments

Each new comment, mention or recommendation is its own conversation. Replies under it join the same conversation.

• Reply: your reply is posted in public under the comment.
• Private reply: one private message to the person, within 7 days of the comment, through the API action Reply privately to the public comment. A note in the conversation shows what was sent.
• Hide, Show again, Like (Facebook only) and Delete: in rules, workflows and macros, use the actions Hide the public comment, Show the public comment again, Like the public comment and Delete the public comment. Each request is logged. At most 30 requests per Page and hour go out; more wait for the next hour.

Example rule: when a conversation is created and the subject contains a word you do not allow, Hide the public comment.

With the AI on, the AI can hide spam and abuse, answer product questions in public and answer personal issues with a link to a private chat or email. Each of these has its own setting in Settings → AI → Switchboard.