Overview: What is Facebook Messenger Channel?
Facebook Messenger allows your team to manage messages sent directly to your business Facebook Page right inside your BusinessChat inbox. Because Facebook and Instagram are both owned by Meta, Messenger shares similar messaging rules (such as the 24-hour reply clock), but offers more flexible file sharing capabilities and dedicated page management tools.
Vital: Activating any channel (Instagram, Messenger, Live Chat, and upcoming channels) is free of charge until 30 September 2026. Prices are yet to be determined per channel.
How to Connect Facebook Messenger
Connecting Facebook Messenger takes only a few minutes, but requires full administrative access to your business Facebook Page.
Verify Administrative Access: Make sure your personal Facebook account has full administrative control over the Facebook Page you wish to connect.
Then follow these steps to connect Messenger to your Businesschat account:
From your profile avatar, click Settings
Under Channels, choose Messenger → Connect Facebook Page.
Log in to your Facebook account from the popup, then "Choose the Pages". Tick the Page, and approve.
If you have one Page, it will connect instantly. If you have several Facebook Pages, then pick one from the list.
Once connection is done, the Page appears in the table. Conversations start arriving.
📌 Why the Checkbox Check Matters: If you approve the connection without ticking the box next to your Facebook Page, Facebook withholds permission from our app, causing the setup to fail with the error "No Facebook Pages found".
Welcome Experience Configuration
You can customize the initial greeting experience when a customer opens a new chat window with your Instagram profile.
Ice Breakers: Display up to 4 clickable question prompts (80 characters max each). When a customer opens a new chat, tapping an ice breaker sends the question into the chat automatically and triggers automated bots.
Persistent Menu: Add up to 20 menu options (30 characters max each) to send automated messages or open external website links.
Get Started Button: Automatically added to the chat window whenever you save a persistent menu.
Display Priority & Delay: Ice breakers take priority over the persistent menu when a customer first opens a chat. Note that Meta limits menu updates to ~10 updates per 10 minutes, and menu changes can take up to 24 hours to appear in the Messenger mobile app.
To set up Instagram ice breakers, follow these steps:
Under Settings → Messenger, click Icebreakers and Menu. Toggle the Icebreakers option on and add the questions.
Toggle on the Menu option and add the menu options with the links. Then click "Save"
Important Rules & System Constraints
The 24-Hour Hard Stop Rule: The 24-hour reply window begins the second a customer sends a message to your Facebook Page. While the clock is active, agents and automated bots can send unlimited replies. Once 24 hours pass without a customer message, the window locks completely.
Important Note: Messenger has no template messages, tags, or broadcasts to reopen a closed window. The customer must send a new message to unlock the chat.
2,000 Character Text Limit: Messenger limits single text messages to 2,000 characters. If an agent or automated bot sends a response longer than 2,000 characters, our system automatically splits it into multiple clean messages at sentence or paragraph breaks.
25 MB Universal File Format Support: Unlike Instagram (which only accepts PDF files), Messenger allows sending all document formats up to 25 MB—including Word (.docx), Excel (.xlsx), CSV, ZIP, HTML, PDF, photos, and videos.
Page Health Monitoring & Connection Recovery: Our platform checks your Facebook Page connection health every 6 hours. Connection tokens do not expire on a timer, but if an admin changes their Facebook password, revokes permissions, or loses Page rights, the status will show
Disconnected. Clicking Reconnect in Settings restores access instantly.
Note: Replies sent from the Facebook's Page inbox do not show in BusinessChat inbox.
What You Can and Cannot Send
Supported Outbound: Text messages (2,000 character auto-split), Photos, Videos, Audio files, Documents (all formats up to 25 MB), Quick Reply buttons (up to 13), Link buttons, Carousels, and Quote-replying specific messages.
Unsupported Outbound: Voice notes (delivered as standard audio attachments), Message Reactions, Pin drop locations, Product catalog cards, Outbound marketing templates, and structured UI button/list menus.