Design Your Website and App to include the Messages Buttons

Place a button to give your customers an easy way to access your support. Design your Messages buttons that will appear on your website and app, and have Apple review the call-to-action (CTA) text. Do not enable them until your account is approved to go online. You can place the buttons on contact information, support, order confirmation, product, and order history pages. When you're done, your website and app should have the Messages buttons configured and enable-ready for your customers to use.

Use one of Apple’s provided CTA’s to help your customers understand the type of support they can expect to receive. You can also leverage the standalone Messages app button in case you have a widget or a the in the context of a smaller area.

Button Type	Description
	"Message Us", call-to-action.
	"Contact an Agent", call-to-action.
	"Ask a Question", call-to-action.
	"Get Help", call-to-action.
	Messages app icon only

The images below display the output of the Messages button or icon on a website.

For more information about best practice positioning and using alternative style (dark or light), see HIG Buttons in the Messages for Business Human Interface Guidelines.

Adding a Messages Button to Your Website

Give your customers the ability to start a conversation with you, through your website’s Messages button.

Using the PNG/SVG Button

Make sure you use an appropriate call-to-action message so your customers know that they can get resolution to their questions by tapping this entry point. Download the PNG/SVG button resources and can then create the HTML link around the image of the button and CTA. Format this link as described in Starting a Message from a URL.

Starting a Message from a URL

Customers may start a message using a URL you provide. When customers click the URL, the system redirects them to Messages so they can send your business a text message.

You decide how and where to provide the URL. You can include it as a link in an email message, on your website, or use it as the action for a button in your app.

The URL to use is https://bcrw.apple.com/urn:biz: <your-business-id>, replacing <your-business-id> with the business ID you received from Apple after registering with Messages for Business.

There are optional query string parameters you can include in the URL:

• biz-intent-id
• biz-group-id
• body

The biz-intent-id parameter lets you specify the intention, or purpose, of the message. The biz-group-id parameter lets you indicate the group, department, or individuals best qualified to handle the customer’s particular question or problem. The body parameter prepopulates the message so the customer only has to hit send to initiate the conversation. For more information, see About Intent, Group, and Body Values.

Here’s an example of what the URL might look like for a bank customer with a question for the credit card department:

https://bcrw.apple.com/urn:biz:9c231233-d943-482a-b913-7c625ba19988?biz-intent-id=account_question&biz-group-id=credit_card_department&body=Order%20additional%20credit%20card

NOTE Parameters and data attributes that form the URL, such as the intent, group, and body, must not contain a subset of URI reserved characters, such as &, #, [], (), {} and /.

About Intent, Group, and Body Values

Businesses define the values for the intent, group, and body parameters, and these parameters are included in a URL that initiates a chat session in Messages when a customer clicks or taps the Messages button.

When a customer starts a chat session through your app or website, you can choose to include the following three parameters as part of the URL for defining messages:

• Intent, or purpose, of the chat.
• Group designates the department or individuals best qualified to handle the customer’s particular question or problem.
• Body, a parameter that prepopulates a message for your customers so all they need to do is tap Send in Messages.

Use the intent, group, and body values to define the customer's intent so you can quickly direct them appropriately within your support organization. How you define these values is up to you.

For example, if your company is a financial institution and a customer contacts you with a question about their credit card account. The customer taps or clicks a Messages button, and Messages provides an autogenerated response, "How may we help you today?". Messages opens when the customers clicks the Messages button, and displays a greeting with a list of options to choose from. For example, these options could include "Credit Card Account," "Checking Account," and "Savings Account," among others.

The customer taps one of the options (the intent)—in this case, "Credit Card Account"—which routes the message to the Credit Card Department (the group).

The body parameter, which you add manually to a URL, allows you to provide more granular information such as "Order an additional credit card." Messages for Business uses the body value to prepopulate a message for your customers so all they need to do is tap Send in Messages. In this example, the customer taps a chat button which opens a prepopulated text message, "Order an additional credit card." The customer only needs to tap Send to notify the business of their intent and initiate the conversation.

NOTE The Spotlight entry point doesn't allow intent and group values.

Starting a Message from Your App

You can let a customer start a message from your app by creating a class button and adding it to the app’s user interface. Build the Messages button so that it calls the Messages for Business URL link used in the target-action mechanism to initiate a conversation with your business when the customer taps the button.

Use the SVG/PNG button images to create a Messages button class. Make sure you use an appropriate CTA message so your customers know that they can get resolution to their questions by tapping this entry point. For more information about using the Messages button for your website or app, see Messages for Business Human Interface Guidelines.