Hi all,
I'm trying to send Meta-approved Utility Message Templates on Messenger to
contacts outside the 24-hour window, from an external system through the
ManyChat API. Nothing reaches a contact whose window is closed, and I've run
out of things to check. Setup:
- 7 Utility Message Templates, all showing Approved under
Settings → Messenger → Utility Message Templates.
- One automation per template. The first step is a Send Message block set to
"Send outside 24 hour window", Content type "Utility Message Template",
with the approved template selected and its variables mapped to custom
fields. Each automation is LIVE and published.
- Account is on a trial; the page is in the US (Pacific time).
What I've tried, each to my own test contact whose last message to the page
was 4 days ago (status Subscribed, opted in through Direct):
1. API: setCustomFieldByName for each variable, then
POST /fb/sending/sendFlow with subscriber_id and flow_ns.
Response is {"status":"success"}. Live Chat shows the fields changing and
then nothing: no "Automation triggered", no message.
2. A Rule / "Tag applied" trigger on the automation. Live Chat logs
"Tag added" and "Rule triggered", still no message. The builder shows the
warning "First message of the selected flow has no Content type. It might
not be delivered to contacts who interacted with you via Messenger over
24 hours ago", although the block's Content type is Utility Message
Template.
3. A Broadcast using the same template, with no API involved, to two
contacts: one who messaged within 24 hours and this one. The report says
sent to 1. The closed-window contact is excluded before sending.
4. Refreshed the page's permissions under Settings → Messenger. No change.
So ManyChat itself seems to treat this contact as not eligible for a
utility message, before Meta is ever asked. The contact shows
"Contact Time: Unknown" in ManyChat if that matters.
Questions:
- What does ManyChat check before it will send a Utility Message Template
to a contact outside the window? Is there a per-contact eligibility
(country, locale, something else) that would make a contact be skipped?
- Is there any trial-account restriction on utility messages?
- Is sendFlow expected to honor the Utility Message Template content type on
the first step, or is there a different recommended API path for sending
a Messenger utility template from an external system?
Thanks for any pointers.