Messenger Platform

Sender Actions

The sender actions message property allows you to control indicators for typing and read receipts in the conversation via the Send API. This is helpful for letting message recipients known you have seen and are processing their message.

Contents

Displaying a Sender Action

To display a sender action in the conversation, send a POST request to the Messenger Platform with the sender_action property:

curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{
  "recipient":{
    "id":"<PSID>"
  },
  "sender_action":"typing_on"
}' "https://graph.facebook.com/v2.6/me/messages?access_token=<PAGE_ACCESS_TOKEN>"

Note that the request should only include sender_action and the recipient object. All other Send API properties, such as text and templates, should be sent in a separate request.

For a complete list of API calls and request properties, see the Send API Reference.

Supported Sender Actions

The following sender actions are supported. Typing indicators are automatically turned off after 20 seconds, or when the bot sends a message.

Sender Action Description

mark_seen

Mark last message as read

typing_on

Turn typing indicators on

typing_off

Turn typing indicators off

Best Practices

When batching Graph API requests, do not include typing_on and typing_off sender actions in the same batch. This will likely result in the typing_on indicator being displayed for fractions of a second, since batched requests are executed in order very quickly.

Do not allow an unnatural amount of time (too long or too short) to pass between typing_on and typing_off sender actions. Ideally, the user should feel that a real person was typing the message in the elapsed time.

Send the typing_on indicator when your bot receives a message it will respond to. This helps create a conversational experience.

Send the mark_seen indicator when your bot receives a message so that the user doesn't feel ignored.