Messenger

Customers message your Facebook Page on Messenger; it becomes a conversation in your inbox; your reply goes back to them on Messenger. They never leave Messenger, and you never leave your inbox.

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What you need

A Facebook Page you are an admin of, and two minutes. Nothing to host, nothing to install, and no code. Only an Owner can connect it.

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Set it up

Send the Page a message from a different Facebook account to confirm it works. It should appear in your inbox within a few seconds.

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One Page per workspace

A workspace connects one Page, and a Page belongs to one workspace. In the list, a Page that another workspace already uses is marked Connected to another workspace and cannot be picked. To switch to a different Page, disconnect the first.

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If your Page is not in the list

The list shows what Meta shared with us, nothing more. If your Page is missing, or the dialog says Meta did not share any Pages, check that you are an admin of it and that you ticked it on Meta’s screen. Then press Connect again.

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Only messages from now on

Messages sent after you connect become conversations. Your existing Page inbox is not imported, so a customer you were already talking to starts a new conversation the next time they write.

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What arrives

Messages, and what comes with them. Photos and PDFs are stored alongside the message, up to 10MB each, the same as everywhere else in the product. Videos, voice messages and other files are not stored. An internal note names each one, so your team knows something was sent and can look in Messenger. We stop at images and PDFs because almost every support attachment is a screenshot, and every file type we accept is one we have to store and serve safely. A message with no words, like a photo on its own, still becomes a conversation. It gets a short placeholder line, like “(sent a photo)”, so the thread is not blank. Comments on your Page’s posts do not arrive. Only Messenger messages do.

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Which conversation a message joins

A chat has no threads, just one continuous stream. So a new message joins the customer’s open conversation if they have one. If every conversation with them is resolved or closed, it starts a new one. That means a customer coming back a month later opens a fresh conversation rather than reviving a finished one.

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Their name and picture

The customer’s Facebook name is used as their name in your inbox. Where they have a profile picture, we fetch it whenever they start a new conversation and show it beside their name. People with no picture keep the initials circle. The image is stored privately and shown through a short-lived signed link, not a public URL. Erasing a customer deletes the file along with the record.

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Replying

Your reply goes back on Messenger. Three things are worth knowing. Meta only lets businesses reply within 24 hours of the customer’s last message. A reply written by a person gets 7 days instead. The AI does not get the extra time, and does not need it: it answers within minutes. Once the window has closed, nothing reaches the customer until they write again. Long replies are split. Messenger caps a message at 2000 characters, so a longer reply arrives as several messages, broken at a line or a space. Only the text goes. Files you attach to a reply stay on the conversation in miniDesk. If the customer needs one, send a link.

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A reply that did not arrive says so

If Messenger refuses a reply, you get an internal note on the conversation saying it was not delivered, and why: the 24 hours have passed, the Page needs reconnecting, or Messenger did not accept it. The note is there so nobody on your team believes the customer has an answer they never got.

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Replies sent from Messenger

You can still answer from Messenger yourself. That reply is added to the conversation, labelled Messenger app, so the thread in your inbox stays complete. It is not sent a second time. A conversation you start yourself from the Page does not become a ticket. It is not a support request.

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Automated replies

If you have AI auto-reply switched on, Messenger follows it like any other channel. Once the Page is connected, the Reply automatically on list under AI Agent → Settings gets a Messenger switch. It starts on, so you can turn it off for Messenger and leave it on for email, or the reverse.

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The confirmation message

When the AI is not answering a new conversation, the customer hears nothing until someone on your team replies. Switch on Confirmation message in Channels → Messenger to send them one line straight away, so they know it arrived. It goes once, when a conversation starts, and only if the AI did not reply on its own. Leave the text as it is to send ours: “Thanks for your message! We’ll get back to you as soon as we can.” Or write your own, up to 500 characters. Clear the field to go back to ours. It is off until you switch it on. Your team does not see it as a message in the thread. It is listed as Confirmation sent in the conversation’s history, and the conversation still counts as unanswered.

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On the free plan

On the free plan, the first message we send in each conversation ends with the line “Sent from miniDesk.ai”. That is the confirmation message if one went out, or the first reply if not. Paid plans never add it, and upgrading removes it straight away.

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The states

The Channels screen shows which one you are in: Reconnect needed usually means your access to the Page changed on Meta’s side. Open Channels → Messenger and press Reconnect to log in on Meta again. When you come back, your Page is already chosen in the list: press Done. Log in with the same Facebook account you connected with. If you use a different one, the dashboard says so and stops, because the Page’s connection belongs to the first login.

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Pausing and disconnecting

Pausing is the Accept new conversations switch. While it is off, nothing customers send is picked up, not even replies to conversations already in your inbox, and nothing is kept for later. The connection is kept, so switching it back on picks up from the next message. Disconnecting removes the connection and withdraws the access Meta gave us. The Facebook Page itself is untouched and stays exactly as it is. Conversations that already arrived stay in your inbox either way. They are your support history, not part of the connection.

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Through the API

Conversations that start on Messenger have source: "messenger" in the REST API. Their requesters are never verified: Meta vouches that a Facebook account exists, not that it belongs to one of your customers.