Keywords

Keywords are special words or strings that identify and trigger some conversations. When a respondent expresses a keyword — and only the keyword — in a message, it automatically triggers the associated conversation, even if another conversation is currently active. For example, a respondent might message "help" which might trigger a conversation that provides options for contacting the company or how to list the conversation options.

Tip: When entering keywords, type the text, then press Enter to add the keyword.

A conversation may have multiple keywords, all of which trigger the same conversation. For example, this conversation has three keywords: agent, operator, person:

Simple conversation with three keywords: agent, operator, and person

Keywords are case-insensitive: stop, STOP, and Stop are considered identical.

Keywords are not required, except for some Specialized conversations which use the predefined keywords. In that case, the system uses the keyword to chose the conversation. See Predefined keywords, next, for details.

Predefined keywords

Pre-defined keywords identify Specialized conversations which the system initiates.


Predefined keyword	Conversation type
`default_conversation`	An existing respondent initiates a conversation, but the message was not recognized. See Default conversation for details. Note: For first-time respondents that are initiating the communication, the `welcome` conversation is used instead, if it is defined.
`expired_conversation`	The conversation the respondent was attempting to engage with had expired. The Expiration conversation is usually a simple message informing the respondent of the fact.
`welcome`	A respondent first initiates a conversation by sending any message that is not a keyword. See Welcome conversation for details. Note: This is only for first-time respondents who initiate the conversation. For feeded and existing respondents, the `default_conversation` is used instead.

Opt-out keywords

Opt-out keywords are assigned to Channels instead of conversations, and they are words or phrases respondents may send requesting their intention to opt-out of receiving future conversations from the company, on that channel only. After receiving the opt-out instruction, the channel sends a message to the respondent acknowledging the request.

Each entry may be a single word, such as 'stop', or a multi-word phrase such as 'opt me out'. The text is case-insensitive: 'stop', 'STOP', and 'Stop' are all recognized when the word is 'stop'.

Opt-out keywords showing "stop" and "Opt Me Out" as keywords

For more information, see Channels.