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›Design How To​s

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    • Beginner guide
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    Design How To​s

    • How to use timers
    • How to integrate with Zapier
    • How to increase web widget engagement
    • How to use Conditions
    • How to set parameters using buttons
    • How to send conversational reviews
    • Count sessions per Channel or Widget
    • How to use entities instead of multiple intents
    • How to handle multiple inbound messages
    • How to branch your chatbot
    • How to capture user input
    • How to change the language of your bot
    • How to clear the Flow web widget
    • How to create an Arabic speaking bot
    • How to create and manage multiple chatbots
    • How to create buttons
    • How to duplicate flows
    • How to export and duplicate a project
    • How to handle unknown input
    • How to use string templates
    • How to jump to the middle of a flow
    • How to loop flows
    • How to re-use intents
    • How to reset your password
    • How to schedule and broadcast chatbot messages
    • How to structure flows
    • How to use Business Hours
    • How to use carousels
    • How to use data to create context
    • How to use Quick Replies
    • How to pause a bot
    • How to send and receive files or attachments
    • How to deal with unexpected input
    • How to gather user feedback
    • How to track links
    • How to use WhatsApp click to chat links
    • How to accept payments
    • How to deflect calls to WhatsApp
    • How to delay replies
    • How to engage with customers using SMS
    • How to import contacts
    • How to test your WhatsApp chatbot
    • How to use Messenger m.me links
    • How to do multi-channel design

    Code How To​s

    • Code actions best practices
    • How to trigger channel specific flows
    • How to use math in a bot
    • How to create a location-aware bot
    • Create Parameters with Cloud Code Actions
    • How to use quick replies in code actions
    • How to add a delayed opening to the web widget
    • How to build a chatbot quiz for WhatsApp
    • How to catch API errors within Code actions
    • How to verify user input
    • How to check if an object property is undefined
    • How to create a dynamic opening based on the part of t…
    • How to create a Dynamic URL
    • How to create a Webview
    • Handle images in 3 steps
    • How to retrieve data from a database
    • How to connect with an external database
    • How to route back to the last flow
    • How to route your chatbot based on numeric input
    • How to send a confirmation email
    • How to send chatbot data to a database
    • How to send emails to multiple recipients
    • How to create Google maps images
    • How to use QR codes
    • How to use Javascript Comments in actions
    • How to send emails
    • How to store Parameters
    • How to capture and validate an address
    • How to find your Organization ID
    • How to work with dates
    • How to integrate with Wordpress
    • How to check if the user is on mobile or desktop
    • How to trigger bot events based on the page
    • How to combine functions in Javascript
    • How to set profile attributes

    Handover How To​s

    • Fallback
    • Chatbot Handoff How to nail the bot to human handoff
    • How to pause and resume a bot in Front
    • How to Enable or Disable Push Notification
    • How to hand over to a human agent
    • Send text versus trigger event
    • How to setup handoff with Front
    • THow to trigger flows inside Front

    Other

    • Audience
    • Projects
    • Analytics
    • Data retention

Delaying replies

Delays can be used for letting the bot wait a certain amount of time before sending the next reply message. This is especially useful for flows where the chatbot sends multiple text replies, because the addition of delays between them makes sure the user has the time to actually read the message before the next one is sent.

Deprecating Delay Delivery

The new Delay action works in a similar way to the Delay Delivery setting. You can add Delay Delivery by clicking on the Text Reply and going to the Advanced Settings, as shown below:

Configue Delay Delivery

We will remove support for this option in the near future and we recommend using the new Delay action instead.

The new Delay actions are better than the old Delay Delivery setting because it is more clearly visible. When adding a Delay Delivery, you will have to manually go to the advanced settings of each Text Reply in order to see its delivery time. This is inefficient, and you are more likely to forget one or two this way.

Delay actions, however, are actually shown in the flow, which gives you a clear overview of all delays, and helps you not to forget to add some.

Add Delays between Text Replies

Delay actions versus Timer Triggers

The way Delay actions work seems similar to Timer Triggers. Timer triggers are still better suited in some use cases.

Delay actions are practically only used for adding delays between text messages, so that the chatbot doesn’t spam multiple messages at once and improve the user experience.

Timer Triggers, however, can be used for waiting for user input and send a reply if no user input is received. For example, if your flow is expecting a customer to provide contact information, or for sending a follow-up message after a few hours of inactivity.

See our blog How to use Timers for more examples of the capabilities of the Timer Trigger.

How to use the Delay action

So in short, use Delay actions for just adding simple delays of a few seconds between your chatbots text messages, and the Timer Triggers should be used for more complex situations or when you want to wait for a longer time period. But how do you actually use these new delays?

  1. Simply drag them into your flow from your replies section
The Delay Reply
  1. Configure the settings
Settings of the Delay Reply

Next, you can click on it to configure its settings. We recommend the amount of seconds according to the length of the first message (the Text Reply above the delay), so the user has just enough time to read the first message before you send the next.

Note: “Send busy typing” is only supported with a few channels, like for example, the web widget.

When using a delay that is too short, the next message will be sent before the user is ready, and when the delay is too long, the user has to wait for the message, which is also not optimal. When the user has to wait too long, they might become inpatient and respond before they receive the new message. That is of course not what you want, so it is important to try to hit the sweet spot when using delays. Testing your bot helps checking if the length of your timers is good enough.

You can change these settings anytime by clicking on the delay icon within your flow.

More information

Feel free to join our Slack Community for a quick answer to all your questions!

← How to deflect calls to WhatsAppHow to engage with customers using SMS →
  • Deprecating Delay Delivery
  • Delay actions versus Timer Triggers
  • How to use the Delay action
  • More information
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