The Welcome Screen

This document shows you how to create a welcome screen for your Messenger experience. The welcome screen displays the name for your business' Facebook Page, the profile picture and cover photo from your Facebook Page, the time it usually takes for your business to respond to messages, an optional greeting message, and a Get Started button. When a person clicks the Get Started button, a message Get Started will be posted into the conversation, and your app can send the person messages.

How It Works

When a person clicks the Get Started button in your Messenger experience, a webhook notification will be sent to you. You can use this notification to send an initial welcome message such as a text or set of quick replies.

Before You Start

This guide assumes you have read the Messenger Platform Overview and implemented the needed components such as a Facebook Page for your business (or test Page), registered as a Meta developer, and created a Meta business app ID with the Messenger product.

You will need:

A Page access token requested from a person who can perform the MESSAGING task on the Page
The pages_messaging permission
To subscribe to the messaging_postbacks webhook event

Limitations

For apps with Standard Access, the welcome screen will only be visible to people with role on the app.

Commands

If your Page uses Commands, the welcome screen shows the list of commands supported by the messaging experience, making it easy for people to understand what actions the Messenger experience can be asked to perform.

Implement the Get Started Button

To set the postback payload, send a POST request to the Messenger Profile API:

curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{
  "get_started": {"payload": "<postback_payload>"}
}' "https://graph.facebook.com/v2.6/me/messenger_profile?access_token=<PAGE_ACCESS_TOKEN>"

For complete details, see the get_started property reference.

Best Practices

Do communicate next steps to encourage a response in your welcome message. You can use buttons to add structure to your message and call out specific actions people can take.
Do share basic commands in your welcome message. Communicate which keywords or terms people can use to ask for help, get updates, etc., so they find what they want more quickly.
Do change your onboarding experience when your bot experience changes. Revisit your greeting text and welcome message as you update your capabilities to make sure they’re still relevant.
Don't forget everything on the screen works together. The context you provide in your Messenger Greeting should complement the “Get Started” button.
Don’t be too generic. Try addressing people by name to make the message feel personal and treating it as an opportunity to teach them how to use and control the experience.

Setting the Greeting Text

The greeting text on the welcome screen is your first opportunity to tell a person why they should start a conversation with your Messenger bot. Some things you might include in your greeting text might include a brief description of what your bot does, such as key features, or a tagline. This is also a great place to start establishing the style and tone of your bot.

You may provide default and localized greeting text.

To set the greeting text, send a POST request to the Messenger Profile API:

curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{
  "greeting": [
    {
      "locale":"default",
      "text":"Hello!" 
    }, {
      "locale":"en_US",
      "text":"Timeless apparel for the masses."
    }
  ]
}' "https://graph.facebook.com/v2.6/me/messenger_profile?access_token=<PAGE_ACCESS_TOKEN>"

For complete details, see the greeting property reference.

Personalization

You can personalize the greeting text using the person's name. You can use the following template strings:

{{user_first_name}}
{{user_last_name}}
{{user_full_name}}

Example

"greeting":[
  {
    "locale":"default",
    "text":"Hello {{user_first_name}}!"
  }
]

Best Practices

Do consider your greeting an introduction and a summary of your experience. Greetings have a 160 character maximum, so keep it concise.
Do communicate your main functionality. Context helps people understand how to interact with you and sets expectations about your capabilities.
Don’t treat your greeting like an instructional manual. Because your greeting disappears, use your actual messages to introduce specific functionality and commands.
Don't use excessive text formatting (ex: spacing, punctuation, returns) in your greeting so you can make the most of the character limit.

The Welcome Screen

How It Works

Before You Start

Limitations

Commands

Implement the Get Started Button

Best Practices

Setting the Greeting Text

Personalization

Example

Best Practices

See Also