Quick replies

Quick replies (or chips as Google calls them) provide a convenient way of interaction between chatbots and users. They act as “canned replies” that the bot displays to the user as options and users can click these replies instead of typing long text messages.

Quick reply suggestions in a chatbot conversation

Chatbots treat quick replies as regular user messages – actually, there’s absolutely no difference to the chatbot whether the user clicked “New York” in the example above or typed “New York” on the keyboard.

Some channels (Facebook Messenger, for example) use quick replies to simplify sending certain user-specific data to the bot – like the user’s email address, phone number, or geolocation. When using these kinds of quick replies, chatbot users are able to provide this data to a chatbot with a single click.

Use the LISTEN block to provide various types of quick replies as canned responses when your chatbot is waiting for the user input.

Various quick reply types in Activechat visual chatbot builder