What's new in Instant Messaging? | Zoho Desk | Feature Releases | Sept'2024

What's new in Instant Messaging? | Zoho Desk | Feature Releases | Sept'2024

Improve your business communications with these new and enhanced features in Instant Messaging!

Excellent communication is at the heart of every strong work relationship. These new features and enhancements for professionals will help you build better connections with Instant Messaging.

We're adding more ways to stay connected with your customers! 

We are excited to add Facebook Messenger and Instagram to Zoho Desk's list of IM integrations. You can now easily manage your Meta Business (Facebook) Page's activity alongside messages from various channels on one common platform.

Facebook Messenger

One of the most popular messaging channels, Facebook Messenger, fulfills your business communication needs and provides an easy outlet for communicating with customers and maintaining your social media branding. 


Instagram

Manage your Instagram messages directly from your instant messaging inbox and assist your customers using the same inbox automation features you already rely on, such as blueprints, business hours, and much more.



These new integrations let you link your business account with Zoho Desk and respond to customer inquiries on this popular IM platform.

Business Messaging that matches your needs

Business Messaging

Integrate Zoho Desk's native Business Messaging widget seamlessly across webpages and apps, and customize it to align with your brand's style. This allows seamless hand-offs between bots and agents with automation to facilitate personalized and engaging conversations. Whether integrated independently or through the ASAP help widget, you can manage all your interactions using the Instant Messaging module.



Now, you can personalize your messenger to align with your brand, making your conversational experience accessible on both web and mobile platforms. Engage with a broader customer base through our business messaging channel, which is easy to set up, adaptable to your needs, and scalable for future expansion!

Enhancements in WhatsApp

Multi-WABA support

Great news! We are now supporting multi-WABA for businesses on the instant messaging platform. If you've been using the WhatsApp channel to communicate with your customers, you're likely aware that every WhatsApp Business Account (WABA) needs a verified phone number specifically dedicated to that IM channel for the current WhatsApp Business Platform. Log in for more information: Facebook Business Manager Account.


Acquire in-depth insights on how you spend WhatsApp Credits

Easily identify conversation patterns and anomalies, spot trends quickly with our color-coded graph, and promptly see your actual usage with our clear and easy-to-read conversational payment statements.


Blended conversation is now available across multiple channels

Get ready to experience Bot messaging like never before

You have the option to create a complete Guided Conversations custom bot flow, which enables the development of entirely automated interactions that work in tandem with Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Line, Telegram, and other business messaging channels.


Support teams can set their status as online or offline

Set Business Hours

Now, customers can specify their business hours. This feature provides greater flexibility in managing customer expectations with instant messaging. It allows you to customize business hours for individual teams to accommodate varying time zones or differing work hours for support and sales teams. We have also included the offline message as an automated response informing customers that the support team will be unavailable for an extended period.


Now chat with your customers the way they want

Instant Messaging inbox enhancement

We've enhanced the instant messaging inbox to improve and optimize messaging to provide better tools, features, and capabilities for managing and responding to messages.


Easily configure webhooks in IM

Do more with our Instant Messaging APIs

We introduced a webhook to support all inbound and outbound messages from your applications for custom events across channels.


Promote your business with replies via WhatsApp

Send WhatsApp messages in bulk to your contacts

Agents can now select contacts from the Contacts module to send WhatsApp messages to multiple contacts. The message can be sent to the contact's phone number, mobile number, or both. WhatsApp facilitates effective marketing, engagement, and customer retention management.


 
Send a WhatsApp message to a Contact using quick action

Agents can send WhatsApp messages to single contacts directly from the quick actions list by clicking the drop-down arrow from the top panel next to the plus sign (+). Alternatively, they can use the keyboard shortcut "w+" from any location within the desk. Each time a message is sent to a new contact, a new record is automatically created in the Contacts module.


Omni-channel messaging

IM conversations thread separation

You can now manage all channel conversations in your ticketing threads. This brings all IM channels and their conversations into one easily accessible ticket thread so that you can quickly understand how communication is handled across users.


Reply to IM tickets

Allows support agents to respond to customer inquiries and interact with them seamlessly across different messaging platforms while maintaining a unified view of the conversation history.


Associating agents made easy

Edit channel form

After successfully adding the instant messaging channel, you will be alerted: You have successfully linked your Zoho Desk account with a messaging channel. You can update your preferences for each messaging channel created in your help desk anytime. The preferences allow you to assign different agents for each channel within the channel form.


IM Automation

Triggering Blueprint is designed as a process management tool for IM conversations

Automating ticket actions via Blueprint transitions helps your team save time and streamline ticketing processes for instant messaging conversations. This allows agents to connect with customers and ensures the proper process is followed.


Monitor customer happiness ratings

Measure Customer Satisfaction across IM channels

By enabling the happiness rating, you can ask the customer to rate their experience in a survey that appears after the conversation ends—supported channels are WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and LINE.



With these improvements to your business communications, you can resolve issues faster, boost customer satisfaction, and grow your business successfully.

For more details, refer to the Instant Messaging help docs.


Cheers,

Kavya Rao
The Zoho Desk Team

    Access your files securely from anywhere







                            Zoho Developer Community




                                                  • Desk Community Learning Series


                                                  • Digest


                                                  • Functions


                                                  • Meetups


                                                  • Kbase


                                                  • Resources


                                                  • Glossary


                                                  • Desk Marketplace


                                                  • MVP Corner


                                                  • Word of the Day


                                                  • Ask the Experts



                                                            • Sticky Posts

                                                            • Zoho Desk Partners with Microsoft's M365 Copilot for seamless customer service experiences

                                                              Hello Zoho Desk users, We are happy to announce that Zoho Desk has partnered with Microsoft's M365 to empower customer service teams with enhanced capabilities and seamless experiences for agents. Microsoft announced their partnership during their keynote
                                                            • WhatsApp pricing changes: Pay per message starting July 1, 2025

                                                              Starting July 1, 2025, WhatsApp is shifting from conversation-based pricing to per-message billing. That means every business-initiated message you send will count. Not just the first one in a 24-hour window. Pricing updates on the WhatsApp Business Platform
                                                            • Live Webinar - Work smarter with Zoho Desk and Zoho Workplace integration

                                                              Hello customers! Zoho Desk and Zoho Workplace are coming together for a webinar on 14th May, 2024. Zoho Workplace is a suite of productivity apps for email, chat, docs, calls, and more at one single place. Zoho Desk is closely integrated with a few tools
                                                            • Apple iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 updates for Zoho Desk users

                                                              Hello Zoho Desk users! Apple recently announced the release of iOS 17 and iPad OS 17. These latest OS updates will help you stay productive and efficient, through interactive and seamless user experiences. Zoho Desk has incorporated the updates to help
                                                            • Zoho Desk Cheat Sheet For The Year-End

                                                              Check out these Zoho Desk best practices to end this year on a high and have a great one ahead! #1 Set Business (Holiday) Hours - If you have limited working hours, please make sure you restrict your business hours or set them as holidays for the coming days. Let your customers know when you will, and won't, be available. #2 Update the Annual Holiday List - Check the holidays for the new year and update the holiday schedule. Usually, holidays from the current year will be carried over for the next


                                                            Manage your brands on social media



                                                                  Zoho TeamInbox Resources



                                                                      Zoho CRM Plus Resources

                                                                        Zoho Books Resources


                                                                          Zoho Subscriptions Resources

                                                                            Zoho Projects Resources


                                                                              Zoho Sprints Resources


                                                                                Qntrl Resources


                                                                                  Zoho Creator Resources



                                                                                      Zoho CRM Resources

                                                                                      • CRM Community Learning Series

                                                                                        CRM Community Learning Series


                                                                                      • Kaizen

                                                                                        Kaizen

                                                                                      • Functions

                                                                                        Functions

                                                                                      • Meetups

                                                                                        Meetups

                                                                                      • Kbase

                                                                                        Kbase

                                                                                      • Resources

                                                                                        Resources

                                                                                      • Digest

                                                                                        Digest

                                                                                      • CRM Marketplace

                                                                                        CRM Marketplace

                                                                                      • MVP Corner

                                                                                        MVP Corner









                                                                                          Design. Discuss. Deliver.

                                                                                          Create visually engaging stories with Zoho Show.

                                                                                          Get Started Now


                                                                                            Zoho Show Resources

                                                                                              Zoho Writer

                                                                                              Get Started. Write Away!

                                                                                              Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                                                                                                Zoho CRM コンテンツ



                                                                                                  Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


                                                                                                      ご検討中の方




                                                                                                              • Recent Topics

                                                                                                              • add zoho account

                                                                                                                How to add a zoho mail to previous zoho account? I have two
                                                                                                              • Name changed in settings for mailbox but still not changed when typed in To field

                                                                                                                In the email account secretary@ i have updaetd the new staff members details but the old members name still appears when I type secretary@ in the To field. I cant work out where Zoho is finding the old name from. I have deleted the browser cache. If I
                                                                                                              • Printing to a brother label maker

                                                                                                                I see allot of really old unanswered posts asking how to print to a label maker from a zoho creator app. Has their been any progress on providing the capability to create a customized height & width page or print template or whatever to print labels?
                                                                                                              • Sync desktop folders instantly with WorkDrive TrueSync (Beta)

                                                                                                                Keeping your important files backed up and accessible has never been easier! With WorkDrive desktop app (TrueSync), you can now automatically sync specific desktop folders to WorkDrive Web, ensuring seamless, real-time updates across devices. Important:
                                                                                                              • Track online, in-office, and client location meetings separately with the new meeting venue option

                                                                                                                Hello everyone! We’re excited to announce meeting enhancements in Zoho CRM that bring more clarity and structure to how meetings are categorized. You can now specify the meeting venue to clearly indicate whether a meeting is being held online, at the
                                                                                                              • Calling the new 'Custom API' feature from within a Custom Widget

                                                                                                                From what I've learned it is not possible to call an endpoint from the new "Custom API" feature within a Creator Widget. The SDK's doesn't support it yet, when calling it natively you end up with CORS issues or at least I couldn't get it working even
                                                                                                              • Announcing new features in Trident for Mac (1.32.0)

                                                                                                                Hello everyone! We’re excited to introduce the latest updates to Trident, which are designed to reinforce email security and protect your inbox from evolving threats. Let’s take a quick look at what’s new. Deliver quarantined emails. Organization admins
                                                                                                              • Marketing Tip #5: Improve store speed with optimized images

                                                                                                                Slow-loading websites can turn visitors away. One of the biggest culprits? Large, uncompressed images. By optimizing your images, your store loads faster and creates a smoother shopping experience leading to higher sales. It also indirectly improves SEO.
                                                                                                              • PDF Attachment Option for Service Reports

                                                                                                                Hello Team, I would like to check with you all if there is an option to attach PDF documents to the service reports. When I try to attach a file, the system only allows the following formats: JPEG, JPG, and PNG. Could you please confirm whether PDF attachments
                                                                                                              • Zoho Browser??

                                                                                                                hai guys, this sounds awkward but can v get a ZOHO BROWSER same as zoho writer, etc. where i can browse websites @ home and continue browsing the same websites @ my office, as v have the option in Firefox, once i save and close the browser and again when i open it i will be getting the same sites. If u people r not clear with my explanation, plz let me know. Thanks, Sandeep  
                                                                                                              • SMS to customers from within Bigin

                                                                                                                Hi All, Is there anyone else crying out for Bigin SMS capability to send an SMS to customers directly from the Bigin interface? We have inbuilt telephony already with call recordings which works well. What's lacking is the ability to send and receive
                                                                                                              • Admins cannot see each others' Scheduled Reports?!

                                                                                                                Very frustrating that as an admin I cannot see what my reports my fellow admins have created and scheduled.  After asking about this on the help chat, I was told the issue is trust and security.  By giving someone Admin status, it means we trust them with those responsibilities. Please change this, it is not a good process to have to bother other users to change a report or change users within a report.
                                                                                                              • Automatically CC an address using Zoho CRM Email Templates

                                                                                                                Hi all - have searched but can't see a definitive answer. We have built multiple email templates in CRM. Every time we send this we want it to CC a particular address (the same address for every email sent) so that it populates the reply back into our
                                                                                                              • Writer update results in BitDefender blocking it as malware

                                                                                                                After updating Writer to latest update, Bitdefender blocked the app and writer no longer runs.
                                                                                                              • Is there a way to invoke deluge function from within a widget?

                                                                                                                Hi! I have custom functions in deluge and I was wondering whether there is any way to call this function through a widget? Something like on click of a button inside a widget, run the deluge custom function. Would this be possible?
                                                                                                              • Missing Import Options

                                                                                                                Hello, do I miss something or is there no space import option inside of this application? In ClickUp, you can import from every common application. We don't want to go through every page and export them one by one. That wastes time. We want to centralize
                                                                                                              • Zoho CRM Portal Field Level Permission Issue

                                                                                                                Hi Support Team, I am using the Zoho CRM Portal and configuring field-level editing permissions. However, we are unable to restrict portal users from editing certain fields. We have created a portal and provided View and Edit (Shared Only) access for
                                                                                                              • Why am I seeing deleted records in Zoho Analytics syncing with Zoho CRM?

                                                                                                                I have done a data sync between Zoho CRM and Zoho Analytics, and the recycle bin is empty. Why do I see deleted leads/deals/contacts in Zoho Analytics if it doesn't exist in Zoho CRM? How can I solve this problem? Thanks
                                                                                                              • Custom Fonts in Zoho CRM Template Builder

                                                                                                                Hi, I am currently creating a new template for our quotes using the Zoho CRM template builder. However, I noticed that there is no option to add custom fonts to the template builder. It would greatly enhance the flexibility and branding capabilities if
                                                                                                              • Introducing the Zoho Projects Learning Space

                                                                                                                Every product has its learning curve, and sometimes having a guided path makes the learning experience smoother. With that goal, we introduce a dedicated learning space for Zoho Projects, a platform where you can explore lessons, learn at your own pace,
                                                                                                              • All new Address Field in Zoho CRM: maintain structured and accurate address inputs

                                                                                                                The address field will be available exclusively for IN DC users. We'll keep you updated on the DC-specific rollout soon. It's currently available for all new sign-ups and for existing Zoho CRM orgs which are in the Professional edition. Latest update
                                                                                                              • Collaboration with customers made easy with Zoom Meeting and Zoho Desk integration

                                                                                                                Hello everyone! We are happy to announce that you can now integrate your Zoho Desk account with Zoom Meeting. The integration bridges the gap between digital communication and human connection, empowering teams to deliver timely support when it matters
                                                                                                              • CRM Canvas - Upload Attachments

                                                                                                                I am in the process of changing my screens to Canvas.  On one screen, I have tabs with related lists, one of which is attachments.  There doesn't appear to be a way to upload documents though.  Am I missing something really obvious?  Does anyone have
                                                                                                              • TrueSync regularly filling up my local disk

                                                                                                                Seems that WorkDrive's TrueSync randomly starts filling up my local hard drive space. None of the folders have been set as "Make Offline" but still it seems to randomly start making file offline. The settings of the app is so minimal and is of no real
                                                                                                              • Kaizen #194 : Trigger Client Script via Custom buttons

                                                                                                                Hello everyone! Welcome back to another interesting and useful Kaizen post. We know that Client Scripts can be triggered with Canvas buttons and we discussed this with a use case in Kaizen#180. Today, let us discuss how to trigger Client Script when a
                                                                                                              • [Webinar] A recap of Zoho Writer in 2025

                                                                                                                Hi Zoho Writer users, We're excited to announce Zoho Writer's webinar for January 2026: A recap of Zoho Writer in 2025. This webinar will provide a recap of the features and enhancements we added in 2025 to enhance your productivity. Choose your preferred
                                                                                                              • Picklist field shows "none" as default

                                                                                                                Hello, Is there an option to avoid showing "none" as the default value in a picklist field? I also don't want to see any option displayed. My expectation is to have a blank bar, and then when I display the drop-down list, I can choose whichever I wa
                                                                                                              • Stage-probability mapping feature in custom module

                                                                                                                Hi, I'm building a custom module for manage projects. I would like to implement the stage-probability feature that Potentials has. Is this possible?
                                                                                                              • Create static subforms in Zoho CRM: streamline data entry with pre-defined values

                                                                                                                Last modified on (9 July, 2025): This feature was available in early access and is currently being rolled out to customers in phases. Currently available for users in the the AU, CA, and SA DCs. It will be enabled for the remaining DCs in the next couple
                                                                                                              • Field Description is very small

                                                                                                                Hello, The field Description in the activity is very small. Why don't try open a new window, or a bigger popup, or increase the width of the "popup". Example:
                                                                                                              • StatusIQ

                                                                                                                Please add StatusIQ to data sources. We using site24x7 and StatusIQ together and site24x7 integration is already there. Thanks and regards, Torsten
                                                                                                              • In Zoho People, the Operations buttons are frequently not visible or do not appear consistently.

                                                                                                                In Zoho People, the Operations buttons are frequently not visible or do not appear consistently. We request you to please investigate and address this issue, as it is affecting daily HR operations and user access.
                                                                                                              • Marketing Tip #14: Increase cart value with product bundles

                                                                                                                Bundling products is a great way to increase average order value while giving customers more convenience. Think “camera + tripod + memory card” or “soap + lotion + bath salts.” Bundles make shopping easier and feel like a better deal. It’s a win-win for
                                                                                                              • Problem with Workdrive folders

                                                                                                                I'm having a problem a problem accessing files in a Zoho work drive folder when using the Zoho writer app. The problem folder appears grayed out in the Zoho work drive window in both the online and writer application. However I can open the folder in
                                                                                                              • Add RTL and Hebrew Support for Candidate Portal (and Other Zoho Recruit Portals)

                                                                                                                Dear Zoho Recruit Team, I hope you're doing well. We would like to request the ability to set the Candidate Portal to be Right-to-Left (RTL) and in Hebrew, similar to the existing functionality for the Career Site. Currently, when we set the Career Site
                                                                                                              • Auto tracking URL generation based on Carrier

                                                                                                                Hi, While creating a shipment order for a package in Zoho Books, I have a requirement that for example, if the carrier is Delhivery and tracking number is 1234, then can automatically the tracking link/URL be generated as www.delhivery.com/1234. Similary,
                                                                                                              • Zoho Bookings form pre-filled with Zoho Forms in

                                                                                                                Hi, I've got a contact page on my website and I'd like to have the option to book an appointment (redirected to zoho bookings page) after an option is submitted on the contact form. how would I go about doing this? thanks
                                                                                                              • Pre-orders at Zoho Commerce

                                                                                                                We plan to have regular producs that are avaliable for purchase now and we plan to have products that will be avaliable in 2-4 weeks. How we can take the pre-orders for these products? We need to take the money for the product now, but the delivery will
                                                                                                              • Customer ticket creation via Microsoft Teams

                                                                                                                Hi all, I'm looking to see if someone could point me in the right direction. I'd love to make it so my customers/ end users can make tickets, see responses and respond within microsoft teams. As Admin and an Agent i've installed the zoho assist app within
                                                                                                              • Zoho Books' 2025 Wrapped

                                                                                                                Before we turn the page to a new year, it’s time to revisit the updates that made financial management simpler and more intuitive. This annual roundup brings together the most impactful features and enhancements we delivered in 2025, offering a clear
                                                                                                              • Next Page