The Messenger Platform’s policies are designed to help people and businesses connect in ways that drive meaningful outcomes. At the heart of this is the understanding that people and businesses need a seamless, reliable way to get something done - whether it is getting a question answered, making a purchase, or communicating important and relevant updates.
On August 29, 2019, we announced updates to the platform policies designed to make communication between people and businesses on Messenger relevant, important and timely. Developers are highly encouraged to start adopting these policies right away. See below for more details.
The Messenger Platform’s policies are designed to help people and businesses connect effectively through Messenger to achieve meaningful outcomes. At the heart of this is the understanding that people and businesses need a seamless, reliable way to get something done - whether it is getting a question answered, making a purchase, or communicating important and relevant updates. We know people expect businesses to respond quickly, and businesses who respond to users messages faster see better business outcomes. The policies are designed to encourage businesses and developers to:
Here is an overview of our standard messaging, message tag, and subscription messaging policies that will apply starting January 15, 2020. For complete details on applicable policies, please see the Facebook Platform Policy.
Standard Messaging - Businesses will have up to 24 hours to respond to a user. Messages sent within the 24 hour window may contain promotional content. We know people expect businesses to respond quickly, and businesses that respond to users in a timely manner achieve better outcomes. We highly encourage businesses to respond to people’s messages as soon as possible. The +1 message that allowed businesses to send 1 additional message after the 24 hour window will no longer be available starting Jan 15, 2020. This change aligns with people’s expectations of faster responses from businesses.
Message Tags - Enable businesses to send important and personally relevant 1:1 updates to users outside the 24 hour Standard messaging window. We are simplifying message tags by reducing the number of tags from 17 to 4 to support certain use cases. Businesses can start using these 4 new messaging tags right away. The new message tags include a Human Agent tag (in Closed Beta) that allow businesses to manually respond to user messages within a 7 day period. Learn more here.
Subscription messaging - Only Pages that are registered with the Facebook News Page Index (NPI) will be allowed to send non-promotional subscription messages. We highly encourage relevant pages to submit their application immediately to register with the News Page Index to allow sufficient time for review and approval before the new policies go into effect.
Sponsored messages - Sponsored messages allow businesses to send promotional content outside the standard messaging window. Sponsored messages are subject to ads integrity controls and the auction dynamics, which work to protect the user experience and ensure the volume of promotional messages is consistent with user expectations.
Here is an overview of the Standard Messaging policy that will be in effect from January 15, 2020.
Businesses will have up to 24 hours to respond to a user. Messages sent within the 24 hour window may contain promotional content. Users have the option to block or mute a conversation with a business at any time.
Here are examples of the user actions that open the 24 hour Standard Messaging window:
For information on how you may be able to send messages outside the 24-hour messaging window, see Message Tags, and Sponsored messages.
On August 29th, 2019 we announced updates to Message Tags on the Messenger Platform. The newly introduced tags are now available. The current message tags will be supported until January 15, 2020.
Message tags enable sending important and personally relevant updates to users outside the 24-hour Standard messaging window, for a set of approved use cases. For complete details on allowed use cases, see the list of supported Message Tags. Use of tags outside of approved use cases may result in restrictions on your ability to send messages.
On August 29th, 2019 we announced that, effective January 15, 2020, only Pages registered via the News Page Index (NPI) are allowed to send subscription messages.
Subscription messages allow news publishers to send regular news updates to their subscribers in Messenger. This feature is only available for registered news Pages under the Facebook News Page Index (NPI). Registered news Pages may opt in to use the subscription messaging to send messages outside the 24-hour standard messaging window in Page settings. Pages registered with the News Page Index don’t need to apply for subscription permission.
Subscription messaging apply to news content only, and must not be used for promotional content, including but not limited to subscription offers, deals, coupons, discounts or content produced by or that promotes a third party (e.g., branded content, affiliate marketing). To send subscription messages, NPI registered pages need to use the non-promotional subscription message tag. To learn more, see subscription messaging.
Sponsored messages allow businesses to reengage with people who have an open conversation with their Page in Messenger. Sponsored messages can be sent outside the 24 hour standard messaging window and can include both promotional and non-promotional content. Sponsored messages are subject to the integrity controls and user caps, which work to protect the user experience and ensure the volume of promotional messages is consistent with user expectations. Sponsored messages are annotated in the conversation with the word 'Sponsored' above the message.
Sponsored message content must comply with all other Messenger Platform policies and Facebook advertising policies.
For more information on sending sponsored messages, see Sponsored messages
Any time a Page is restricted from sending messages for Platform Policy reasons, the page will receive an explanation of the Policy violation in an email sent to the Page Support Inbox for the app. To ask questions about a policy violation notification, respond to this email and one our our Policy team members will respond.
To access the Page Support Inbox, click 'Page Support Inbox' the left sidebar of your Page settings:
The following is an overview of policies that are in effect for Messenger Platform integrations until January 15, 2020. For complete details, also see the Facebook Platform Policy. On January 15, 2020 the policy changes announced on August 29, 2019 and described above will go into effect. New apps and Pages may continue to apply for the subscription permission under the current platform policy until January 15, 2020. We encourage all apps and Pages to migrate to the new policy to avoid any service disruption.
Policy | Current Policy (Until January 15, 2020) | New Policy |
---|---|---|
24-hour window - Standard Messaging |
| Stays as is |
+1 Message |
| Not Available |
Subscription Messaging |
|
|
Message Tags (link) |
|
|
Sponsored Messaging |
| Stays as is |
On August 29th, 2019 we announced updates to the policy to remove the “+1” of the 24+1 Policy starting January 15, 2020.
Businesses and developers using the Send API have up to 24 hours to respond to a message sent by a person in Messenger when using standard messaging. A bot may also send one additional message after the 24-hour time limit has expired. This is commonly referred to as the '24 + 1 policy'.
For information on how you may be able to send messages outside the 24-hour messaging window, see the Message Tags documentation, and Sponsored messages.
The following guidelines apply to usage of the Send/Receive API for standard messaging:
On August 29, 2019 we announced that, effective January 15, 2020, we will no longer support subscription messaging for pages that are not registered and approved as News Publishers via the News Page Index (NPI). We encourage relevant Pages to apply for NPI sooner to allow sufficient time for review and approval.
Subscription messaging is allowed for specific use cases, and gives a business or developer the ability to send regular content to a person on Messenger. A user may opt-out of receiving subscription messages from a Page at any time.
To send subscription messages, the Page admin must submit their bot for review in Page settings. Once a Page is approved, any app subscribed to the Page may send subscription messages on the Page's behalf using the Send API's NON_PROMOTIONAL_SUBSCRIPTION
message tag to anyone that begins a conversation with the Page.
The following guidelines apply to usage of the Send/Receive API for subscription messaging:
Page admins may access the subscription messaging request form by doing the following:
In the form, the Page admin will be asked to provide the following:
On August 29th, 2019 we announced changes to message tags. We are simplifying message tags by reducing the number of tags from 17 tags to 4. Plus a new use human agent tag in Beta. The new tags are available from the moment of the announcement. The current tags listed on this section will no longer be supported on January 15, 2020.
Message tags give you the ability to send messages to a person outside of the normally allowed 24-hour window for a limited number of purposes that require continual notifications or updates. This enables greater flexibility in how your bot interacts with people, as well as the types of experiences you can build on the Messenger Platform.
A message tag may only be used for its intended purpose. For complete details on allowed use cases, see the list of supported Messenger message tags.