If you've been offering real-time support to your customers, we've got good news for you: The new version of Kayako Messenger has arrived, and it delivers a vastly improved experience for both your customers and your agents.
Thanks for reporting a problem. We'll attach technical data about this session to help us figure out the issue. Which of these best describes the problem?
Choose one Video plays but frequently stutters Video has poor quality Video fails to play OtherAny other details or context?
With the new Messenger, your agents will be able to reply to customers directly from the agent area – no more Kayako Desktop! Your customers can start or resume Messenger conversations at any point, whether your team is online or not. From both sides, there's more visibility into who's online, who's typing, whether a message has been seen, etc. Overall, the new Messenger behaves much more like the messaging apps you use in your daily life.
In this article, we'll take you in detail through the differences between the original Messenger and the new version, we'll touch on some upcoming improvements, and then walk you step-by-step through the process of switching to the new Kayako Messenger.
Understanding what's different about the new Messenger
The new Messenger has grown by leaps and bounds since its original release. Here are some of the highlights:
| Original Messenger | New Messenger |
|---|---|
| Agents used Kayako Desktop to reply to chats. | No more Kayako Desktop! Agents can reply to customers from the agent area, in real-time, like any other conversation. |
| Agents had to be online in order to reply to Messenger conversations. | Whether agents are online or not, customers can start and update Messenger conversations at any time. |
| No way for customers to know when they could expect a response. | Messenger tells customers so customers know when to expect a response. |
| Limited options for changing Messenger's appearance. | Full range of customization options so you can bring Messenger in line with your brand. |
| Outdated interface on the agent side. Basic chat experience on the customer side. | Slick, full-featured experience. Feels like messaging with your friends. |
| No options for adding Messenger to mobile apps. | Dedicated SDKs for iOS and Android. |
We're also working on some powerful additions to Messenger's capabilities, which are coming up in the next couple of months. On the top of that list are:
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Notification center | Adds a centralized alert panel to the agent area for important updates and messages in your conversations. |
| Proactive engagement rules | Lets you create automatic replies and actions in Messenger, depending on customer types and behaviors. |
| Smart identity verification | Gives you the option to let Messenger identify customers based on their accounts in your own mobile or web app. |
In the meantime, though, switching to the new Messenger takes just a few minutes of configuration – most of which is taken up by choosing a color palette! We'll go through the steps to switch below.
Moving over to the new Messenger from the original version
If you've already been using the original Messenger, there's a few steps you'll need to follow to get up and running with the new Messenger.
NOTE: To enable the new Messenger in Kayako, you will need an administrator account with the 'Manage channels' permission.
To switch to the new Kayako Messenger:
- Sign in to the Help Center.
- Click the Customize button, and then the Customize templates link.
- From the Template dropdown on the toolbar, select 'Footer'.
- Here you just want to make sure you don't have any code leftover from the original Messenger.
- If you haven't made any modifications to the template, you can just click the Revert to default button, and confirm that you want to reset the template.
- If you have made modifications, you'll just need to cut out the
{% if display_messenger %}and{% endif %}tags, along with everything in between them. - Click the <- Back button and then click Settings.
- Make sure the Show Messenger toggle is set to 'Yes'.
- Now, you can switch over to the admin area and follow the instructions in our main Messenger article to set up and publish Messenger on your Help Center!
Kelly O'Brien