@Cm13000 you can use quick replies instead of buttons. Quick replies give you the option to ask the person to click one of the buttons if they reply with text instead of taking action.

You can also configure your Default Reply, to say 'Click the buttons above to continue' so the person is instructed to go back and click the appropriate buttons.

The best alternative depends on your setup and what other stuff you have going on ;)

Thank you for your answer. The thing is that i want to have a natural conversation. There is no way to identify the content of the message automatically and to assign a tag or something ?

I am also looking for a solution like this. 
and i can’t see any option for a quick reply. 
 

​@barad quick replies are not available in Whatsapp unfortunately! So for Whatsapp you’ll need to work with Data Collection and buttons.

​@Cm13000 ​@barad you can also use AI to identify the intention of the user.

Check this post I made a couple months ago: 

I’m using setups like this very often with my clients, with AI being used as a classifier to help the rest of the automation flow (add tags, trigger flows, etc etc).

Hope this helps!

Thank gustavo, 
yeah i already figured it just doesnt exist on whatsapp and i found a solution myself using the Data collection in the Next step. 
its not a perfect solution as i need to send more text after the question with the buttons but its ok for now. its better then to start adding a million delays and conditions. 

not sure why manychat doesnt just offer to add buttons to data collection :\

anyway your video looks great! could come in handy, thanks, just for now it doesnt fit my current use case.

not sure why manychat doesnt just offer to add buttons to data collection :\

Because Meta doesn’t let them!

Meta controls what goes into each app, and they haven’t enabled quick replies for Whatsapp unfortunately. So Manychat cannot add it because it’s not available…

And I’m happy you were able to sort it out!

Im sorry friend but thats simply not true.

i have been using a different platform before i moved to Manychat and it has the option to ask a question with multiple choices - up to 10 - on whatsapp - and can also save it to a field or whatever.
can also add a timeout or also a failure if they answer something that is not in the buttons. 

Meta allows it.
 

i have been using this system for many years and it always had it (they did add a few things along the way) 
Manychat still has more features, but this specific one was the most usefull on that platform and now i miss it lol.

​@barad how do they show on Whatsapp?

Like this?

If so, these are called ‘List Messages’ in Manychat, and you can also create them:

They’re treated more like buttons than Data Collection, but you can create the logic to assign the answer to user fields, validate if the person clicks elsewhere, etc.

Multiple choice Data Collection in Manychat (for Messenger and IG) has historically been with Quick Replies (text bubbles), and these, as far as I know, are not supported by Whatsapp.

But yeah, I’m guessing we’re talking about the same thing, just with different names ;)

Hey ​@Gustavo Boregio 
Its not exactly like the list message cuz in the other system there is no Title and description, only the 1 text for the button, up to 10 buttons, and a menu name(if you add more then 3 buttons) - thats all the settings. 
So yes it works like quick replies i think(havn’t worked yet with instagram much) , so my point is that This is supported by WhatsApp. If it will help to demonstrate for manychat that its possible. then i can show proof. - or you can start a trial on Respond.io and check for yourself but you will have to connect a whatsapp number.

It is completely possible that respond.io might be using some other predefined logic in their system that manages to offer multiple choice with data collection.(they simply call the step “ask a question” but its same as manychat data collection just with the added multiple choice option) 
 

again, still manychat is better in most things and provides much more value for money, respond.io is very expensive and doesn't have many of the features Manychat has.
but this specific settings regarding how a multiple choice message on Whatsapp works that it actually waits for input from the user with the buttons and also gives a fallback in case they dont click a button, thats a big plus - it might be the only plus they have over Manychat . - the workflow just works different there so its hard to compare.

anyway, please know that this is supported by Whatsapp and i still think Manychat should implement this and not only able to wait for input of “open text” and also allow multiple choice input in data collection.