The first message in messengers

Let's look at how you can set up a user's first interaction with your bot.

In many messengers, you can set up a description message in which you can specify exactly what this bot can offer.

How to set up the first Telegram message

In Telegram, you can set up such a welcome message description in the botfather. It will be displayed together with the "start" button when the user clicks on the link in your bot.

You need to contact @BotFather (the bot that registers new bots) and give him command /setdescription.

Bot description is exactly the text visible to all users before launching the bot.

Next, select the bot (if there are several of them) where you want to set the first message in the bot.

Then, write a welcome message in the bot:

How to set up the first message in Facebook

Facebook also has a bot description, which appears alongside the "Start" button. It can be configured in the project settings (see Figure 2).

How to set up first message in Viber

In Viber, you can set up such message by filling in the "Reply to the user's first message" field in the Project Settings. You can add buttons to it:

How to set up the first message in WhatsApp

There are no bots in WhatsApp, so there is no such default greeting message or button. However, you can generate a link with pre-filled text that appears in the user's input field, requiring only a tap to send. This serves as a functional equivalent to a start button. Instructions for creating such a link are provided in the article How to get links to messengers

How to set up the first message in online chat

In online chat, you can specify not only the first message text, but also the list of buttons displayed with it:

The "Response to the user's first message" is designed to reply to the user's initial message when the bot doesn't recognize the query. Its purpose is to inform the user about the commands available in the bot. You can also specify buttons to be included with this message. This message is sent only once per user and has the lowest priority in the response hierarchy.

To create a universal response message for all messengers, set up a primary verification block and enable the "Response once per chat" option in its settings. This will make the bot respond to any user's first message with this reply and then guide them further into the funnel flow.