Skip to content
Sign in Get started
Documentation

9bx user guide

9bx Connect

Message flows

Design the conversations customers have with you on every channel: menus, questions, answers from the AI and the handover to your team.

Contents

Who can use it

Administrators with chat setup rights. A flow is the newer, visual way to build what the Chatbot page does.

Where to find it

Chat & Messaging → Settings → Live chat → Message flows

The flow list

Each row shows the flow name, its Status (Draft, Live, Paused, or "Live, unpublished changes"), the Channels it runs on, what it Starts with (keywords or any message), its Version, and the last 7 days: runs and handoffs to a person. Use New flow to start, or Import a chatbot flow to bring in a flow from the older chatbot.

Build a flow

  1. Click New flow and name it.
  2. Open the Start block and decide which conversations enter: Channels, website widgets, connected numbers, Keywords (and whether a message must contain, equal or start with one), Only the first message, Any contact / New contacts only / Returning contacts only, and whether to run At any time, Only within business hours or Only outside business hours. The first matching flow, by priority, runs.
  3. Add blocks from the Node palette and connect them in order.
  4. Click Tidy up to arrange the canvas. Use Undo and Redo freely.
  5. Open Problems to see anything that blocks publishing.

Building blocks

Block group Blocks
Trigger Start
Messages Send message (text, file, link buttons, suggested replies), Ask (keeps a checked answer), Menu (up to ten choices)
Logic AI answer (from the knowledge base), Condition, Wait, Jump to another flow
Actions Assign to a team and skills, Hand off to a person, Create record (a ticket or a lead), Set field (tags, contact fields, variables), Webhook (call an outside service)
End End: close the conversation or leave it for the team

A hints panel shows how each channel will show your message: buttons on one, a numbered list on another, links instead of files, and the shortest message limit among your channels.

Test and publish

  1. Click Simulate to chat with the flow without a real customer.
  2. Click Publish, add a note for the history, and leave Make it live on to start answering new conversations at once. Switch it off to publish without starting.
  3. Conversations already running finish on the version they started with.
  4. History lists versions. Pause stops the flow from starting for new conversations.

Troubleshooting

Problem What to do
"The flow cannot be published yet" Open Problems, fix each item (for example a block with no next step).
A flow never starts Check the Start block: channel, keywords, business hours, first message only. Another flow with higher priority may match first.
The canvas is view-only You can see flows but not change them. Ask an administrator for chat setup rights.