Updated Messaging Policies for EU Pages & Users - Effective 12/16/20

In order to stay compliant with new privacy rules in Europe, Facebook will be making updates to the Messenger platform that will impact businesses and partners using the Messenger API.

Beginning December 16, 2020, several Messenger API features will no longer be available for businesses in Europe, and for people in Europe who connect with businesses globally.

NOTE: Facebook will be working to re-enable some of these features over time, so the list of limitations are subject to change. Make sure to check back in this doc to see new changes.

Who's impacted?

These changes will impact the following audience:

  • European pages in all chats
  • Pages with admins in Europe in all chats
  • Any chats with people in Europe

Impacted countries: All of the 30 European Economic Area (EEA) countries, which includes:

  • All 27 European Union member states
  • Norway
  • Iceland
  • Liechtenstein
  • United Kingdom

What's changing?

  1. The following features will be unavailable for all impacted chats (pages in the EU or chats with someone in the EU):
    1. 1-Time Notification Widget (OTN)
    2. Typing Widget
    3. Main Menu
      1. Our suggested workaround: Instruct customers to use Q&A keyword to trigger a new dialogue mid conversation
    4. Share Links
    5. Ability to test a bot (from the Dialogues screen, Chat Starter, and and Campaigns.
      1. Our suggested workaround: use a test Q&A keyword to trigger a dialogue for testing
    6. Facebook opt-in plugins (Click-to-Messenger button & Checkbox plugin)
    7. Facebook landing pages - landing page will show but we can't show a call-to-action button.
    8. Inbox: Ability to use persona in your inbox response
    9. Inbox: Ability to receive attachments (i.e. a contact can't send your page an attachment)
    10. Inbox: Contact's profile image (We will still get the contact's name, but we no longer have access to their profile image)
    11. Access to subscription messaging/news index tags
  2. The following features are available only on Android & iOS Messenger apps (NOTE: they will not render on web or the Messenger chat widget):
    1. Text widget + buttons
    2. Gallery Widget
  3. The following are available with limited functionality:
    1. Video Widget - will send as a URL
    2. Attachment Widget - will send as a URL user can download
    3. Messenger chat widget - unable to launch the correct dialogue in all cases. --> In order to trigger the correct dialogue for new conversations, the first message in your chat widget must to be a Quick Question with buttons

How do I know if my page is impacted by this change?

You will see a red notification alert on your MobileMonkey dashboard on all impacted pages. There are 2 types of alerts you may see:

  1. Page Impact Alert: this will let identify any pages that have been marked as an impacted page. Impacted pages are restricted by the new EU messaging policies on ALL chats.
  2. Contact Impact Alert: this will identify any pages that have active conversations with impacted EU contacts. These pages will be restricted by the new EU messaging policies ONLY on chats with EU residents.

The alert will look like this on your dashboard:

When you click "Click here to resolve" you will see this message:

What actions should I take to Prepare for these changes?

If you received a Page Impact Alert (i.e. your page is identified as 1 of the affected EU pages) OR if all your Messenger contacts are based in the EU:

We recommend that you update your chat dialogues to comply with the new messaging limitations. We will show some visual alerts in MobileMonkey to remind you which features have limited functionality. Here are some recommendations:

  1. Remove all 1-Time Notification widgets.
  2. For typing widgets it's ok to leave in place, but expect that they will be skipped
  3. In lieu of the Main Menu, try creating specific Q&As to help customers restart the conversation mid-dialogue. Then in your dialogue can you include some guidance like: “Type the word RESTART at any point to restart the conversation OR type the word AGENT to speak to a live agent."
  4. In order to test your dialogues - create a test Q&A keyword and use that keyword to trigger your test dialogue. If you are testing with an existing contact you can simple launch a dialogue from your MobileMonkey inbox using the "+" icon in the text input area:
  5. Avoid disabling freeform typing on your page (since the main menu is no longer available)
  6. If you have a decent amount of desktop traffic or are using the Messenger chat widget, consider replacing any text widgets with buttons or gallery widgets, since those will only work on Android & iOS Messenger app.
  7. If you're using the Messenger chat widget, make sure you use a Quick Question + buttons as the first message in your dialogue to ensure that your dialogue will get triggered properly

If received a Contact Impact Alert (i.e. your page communicates with users in the EU) AND you also communicate with users in other parts of the world:

We recommend that you create 2 different chat experiences, 1 for EU customers and 1 for non-EU customers. Please following the following steps to set this up:

  1. Navigate to the Leads section in MobileMonkey and click on "+ New Audience".
  2. In your Audience, add a filter for "EU Membership". This feature will be available by on or before 12/16/20. You can create 2 audiences: 1 for "EU" and one for "non-EU".
  3. Go to Chatbot > Dialogues and create a second dialogue for each of your active chat starters/campaigns. You can clone the original dialogue as a starting point. In each new dialogue, remove all widgets that are not supported for EU contacts (see above). Make sure you update the rest of the dialogue so it flows nicely.
  4. In each of your chat starters, use a Navigate widget to segment your users to 2 different chat dialogues: EU & non-EU.

Questions? Email us at support@mobilemonkey.com


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