Conversation starters (ice breakers)
Show a few ready-made questions when someone opens a chat with you on Instagram or Facebook. One tap, and the conversation has started.
An empty chat box makes people stop. A question like "Where is my order?" or "Do you ship to Canada?" gets them to write.
#What you can set
| Setting | What people see | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Ice breakers | Up to 4 questions to tap, 80 characters each | Instagram, Facebook |
| Greeting | A short welcome before the first message, up to 160 characters | |
| Get Started button | A button that opens the chat | |
| Persistent menu | A menu always open in the chat, with up to 3 items |
#Do it in the dashboard
- Open Connections, then Accounts, and click your Instagram or Facebook account (or choose View details).
- Find the Ice breakers box and choose Add question.
- Type the question people tap, for example "How do returns work?".
- Next to it, type a short payload, for example RETURNS. This is a label for the tap. People never see it.
- Add up to 4 questions and choose Save.
- On a Facebook Page, you can also set the Greeting, the Get Started button and the Persistent menu on the same page.
#Or ask your AI
Set Instagram ice breakers on my account: "What are your prices?", "Do you ship to Canada?" and "Talk to a person". Make "What are your prices?" start my Pricing workflow.
#Make a tap start a workflow
A question works best when it starts a real answer. Build a workflow first and activate it. Then ask your AI to link the question to that workflow. When someone taps it, the workflow begins: it can send your prices, ask a question, or hand the chat to you.
The workflow must be active, on the same account.
#WhatsApp has its own version
WhatsApp also shows tappable questions in an empty chat, plus slash commands and a welcome event. Set them in WhatsApp, then Senders: open your number and the Automation tab. A tapped question arrives as a normal message, so a workflow with Message received and that text as the keyword can answer it.
#Good to know
- On Facebook, Meta needs a Get Started button before it shows a Persistent menu. Set the button first.
- To remove the Get Started button, remove the menu first.
- Choose Remove to clear a setting.
- Ice breakers show when someone opens a new chat with you.
- Taps without a workflow are yours to answer in your inbox.
Related: Comment-to-DM, Set up WhatsApp
Building with the API? The developer guide for this feature.