Messaging people on your site

Message the people who use your site and get their replies in your inbox, without waiting for them to report something.

Sometimes you want to hear from someone before they report anything: a customer who stopped halfway, a tester who went quiet, a client who hasn’t signed off yet. Open People, pick someone and send them a message. They see it in the Feedback window within a minute if they’re on your site, or on their next visit, and their reply lands in your inbox with the page they were on.

Good times to use it

• Someone came back to unfinished work: “Welcome back. What do you need working next?”
• A client is reviewing a new site: “Anything on the pricing page you’d like changed before launch?”
• A tester went quiet: “Did checkout work for you this time?”
• After a fix: “We changed how saving works. Does it work for you now?”
• Before you build something: “Would you use exporting to PDF? What for?”

Who you can message

• People signed in on your site: yes. Your site tells Bopmigo who they are (see below), and they show up in People by name.
• Visitors who aren’t signed in but sent feedback before: yes. They show up in People as Visitor. They see your message while they’re on your site in the same browser, as long as they haven’t cleared their browsing data.
• Visitors who aren’t signed in and never used Feedback: no. Bopmigo doesn’t keep anything about them, so there’s nobody to send to.

Let Bopmigo know who is signed in

To message people before they report anything, tell Bopmigo who is signed in, and add any details that help you choose who to message:

Bopmigo.identify({ id: user.id, email: user.email, name: user.name })
Bopmigo.setContext({ project: currentProject.name, plan: user.plan })

When someone signs out, call Bopmigo.identify({}). Their conversations are put away on that browser, so the next person to sign in there never sees them. Their messages stay in your inbox.

Call it after sign-in, on any page. Details from setContext appear on their profile in People and you can search by them.

What they see

The Feedback button changes to New message, and a short preview appears beside it. Nothing opens over the page unless you choose to. When they open it, they read your message and reply in a line or two, or send feedback instead.

What you see

• Sent: they haven’t been on your site since. You can Unsend it until they see it.
• Seen: they opened it.
• Replied: their reply is in your inbox, with your message above it.

If a message matters more, tick Open automatically before sending. The Feedback window then opens with your message while they’re on your site, once. Use it sparingly: most people prefer to open messages themselves.

From there it’s a normal conversation: reply to them from the inbox and they see it in the Feedback window, and they can answer back as many times as you both like. Messages you send them later continue the same conversation, so everything with one person stays in one place.

Messages and reports

A report is something a person sends on their own. A message is something you send. Their reply to your message stays in your conversation with them; it isn’t a new report and doesn’t count toward your monthly reports.

Good to know

• A message waits in the browser they last used on your site, so a stranger can’t pose as them to read it. On a different device, they won’t see it there.
• If they’re on your site when you send, the message appears within about a minute, without reloading the page.
• One message waits for each person at a time. You can unsend it until they’ve seen it.
• Messages aren’t emailed. They appear only in the Feedback window on your site.
• Available on websites and web apps. iPhone and Flutter apps are coming next.