[Video] Facebook Messenger Bot 24-Hour Rule Change Explained

Update: Facebook’s Messenger team has pushed the deadline for these broad-sweeping changes to March 4, 2020. The video below won’t reflect this latest news.

In case you didn’t hear, there’s a change or two coming to Facebook Messenger, early 2020. March 4th, 2020 to be exact.

Depending on when you’re watching this video, you have somewhere between 60 days or no days to prepare, either way, let’s get you squared away.

Watch the video below to discover the update 24-hour rule and how you can set yourself up for success.

The 24+1 Rule

You may be used to the 24-hour window to message your audience about anything: Promotions, updates, quizzes, whatever it took to get them engaged in converting. Outside of that 24-hour window, I had just one shot in re-engaging them, if they weren’t responding. This was the 24+1 rule.

The Updated 24-Hour Rule

The 24+1 rule is now the 24+ nothing rule, there’s no more plus one. After March 4th, if you message someone and they don’t respond after 24 hours, you can’t message them again, unless you’re message can fit under one of four message tags, set aside by Facebook.

• CONFIRMED_EVENT_UPDATE: Information about an event subscriber registered for
• POST_PURCHASE_UPDATE: Transaction confirmations, shipment status, order changes
• ACCOUNT_UPDATE: Application status, approvals, suspicious activity, fraud alerts
• HUMAN_AGENT: Human responses to inquiries within 7 days.

One-time Notifications

Facebook is planning to allow one-time notifications in February 2020. These notifications will let you send timely relevant notifications to a subscriber given their explicit opt-in. It will also let you support use cases that don’t fall into the definition of the four Message Tags. The way we expect this to work is that you will be able to request a one-time notification opt-in from a subscriber and then send them one message outside the 24 hours.

Sponsored Message Option

All is not lost, you’ve got options. ManyChat’s got your back. You can send highly targeted sponsored messages to people who’ve interacted with your business in the past and you can send them well outside of the 24-hour messaging window.

SMS and Email Option

Another option is taking that messenger conversation over to SMS and email, two marketing channels that you’ve probably heard of. You can build these right inside the marketing animations you put together in ManyChat. Every time you get someone to re-engage with you, through one of these methods, it restarts that 24-hour window in Messenger and you can get back to business. If you’re worried that the conversations you’re having in ManyChat and Messenger spill outside of that 24-hour window, never fear, ManyChat once again has your back.

Protecting You From 24-Hour Rule

Before the March 4th deadline, we’ll be introducing a feature, that will protect you by blocking any intact message that would be sent outside that 24 messaging window. Whether a sequence, rule or smart delay inside of a flow, we will never send it to anyone who is not eligible to receive it based on their messaging window.

Now that you know about these changes, spend the next few weeks or hours getting your box ready.

We’ve also got plenty of educational content that keeps you informed and in good standing with Facebook.

Now, if you’re not already using SMS or email as part of your Chat Marketing strategy, go Pro so you can keep your conversations going.

If you have any questions, go to our Facebook community page or ask one of our agency partners for help in getting your bot compliant.