The Messenger channel
The Messenger channel connects your Facebook Pages to Atender. A customer messages your Page on Messenger, the message arrives in Atender via Facebook’s webhook, and the conversation lands in the same inbox as Email, Web Chat, Voice, and every other channel.
What you get
- One channel per Facebook Page. Each Page you operate gets its own channel in Atender. You can connect several Pages to the same tenant.
- Real-time delivery. Messages arrive via Facebook’s real-time webhook — there’s no polling delay.
- Customer identification. Customers are identified by their Facebook user ID, so returning customers are recognized automatically and earlier conversations link to the same contact.
- Per-channel routing. Each Page’s channel can route to a team or hand off to an AI Agent Stack. You configure routing independently per Page.
- Welcome message and bot name. Configure the greeting customers see when they start a new conversation, plus the bot name displayed in your responses.
- Attachments. Customers can send images, videos, and files; agents see them inline on the conversation.
- Auto-translation. Messenger works with Atender’s auto-translation. A customer’s message in a different language is translated for the agent; the reply is translated back.
How a channel maps to a Page
In Atender, a Meta channel is the connection record for one Facebook Page. Each channel has:
- A Page — the actual Facebook Page that’s connected.
- A default team — where conversations go when no other routing applies.
- An optional AI Agent — an Agent Stack that handles conversations autonomously.
- A bot name and welcome message — customer-facing UX.
- A toggle for Facebook Messenger — enables this channel for Messenger traffic.
You can disable a channel without disconnecting it — useful when you want to temporarily pause routing.
How it fits
A Messenger conversation is a regular conversation in Atender. It carries the same lifecycle (Active, Snoozed, Done, Archived), can be assigned, tagged, and merged, and surfaces in the same inbox views your team already uses.
What is NOT in the Messenger channel today
Two things worth being explicit about:
- Instagram messaging is not yet wired. The Meta channel form has a placeholder for Instagram, but the tenant-facing Instagram integration is not enabled in this version of Atender. For now, the channel handles Messenger traffic only.
- No outbound campaigns. Facebook restricts unsolicited outbound messaging — Atender follows that constraint. Messenger conversations are customer-initiated; agents reply within Messenger’s allowed messaging window.
Where to start
- Connect a Facebook Page — log in to Facebook through Atender, pick a Page, save.
- Configure the channel’s default team and (optional) AI Agent.
- Test by sending a message to your Page from a different account.