Creating a Unified Messaging channel

Configure the Pega Intelligent Virtual Assistant (IVA) for the Unified Messaging platform so that users can interact with your application using different social messaging channels. The IVA for Unified Messaging is quick to set up and provides a completely new user experience. For example, users can chat with the IVA using Apple Business Chat, Facebook Messenger, MMS/SMS (Twilio), Twitter, or WhatsApp Messenger to inquire about a car insurance estimate, book a flight, report an issue, or receive step-by-step guidance through a process.

Before you begin: Create a new channel for the IVA for Unified Messaging. For more information, see Creating a conversational channel.

You can define custom IVA responses to fit the business needs of your organization and to extract the intent of users with natural language processing (NLP), decisioning, and text analytic capabilities. In the preview console, you can test whether the configured Unified Messaging channel works correctly before moving the channel to a production environment.

Define the Unified Messaging channel security settings:
1. In the header of Dev Studio, click the name of the application, and then click Definition.
2. In the application rule, click the Integration & Security tab.
3. In the Unified Messaging security section, in the Manager ID field, enter the identifier for the channel integration manager.
4. In the Manager Key field, enter the key for the channel integration manager.
5. Click Save.
To obtain the security settings for your Unified Messaging channel, the Manager ID and the Manager Key, contact Global Customer Support. For more information, see Configuring Unified Messaging channel security.
Configure a Unified Messaging channel for a social messaging platform:
- To enable users to chat in Business Chat, configure the channel for Apple Business Chat.
  For more information, see Setting up the IVA for Apple Business Chat.
- To enable users to chat in Facebook Messenger, configure the channel for Facebook.
  For more information, see Setting up the IVA for Facebook.
- To enable users to chat with SMS or MMS, configure the channel for SMS/MMS (Twilio).
  For more information, see Setting up the IVA for SMS/MMS (Twilio).
- To enable users to chat in Twitter, configure the channel for Twitter.
  For more information, see Setting up the IVA for Twitter.
- To enable users to chat in WhatsApp Messenger, configure the channel for WhatsApp.
  For more information, see Setting up the IVA for WhatsApp.
You configure specific settings for a social messaging platform on the Connection tab using the integration manager that is displayed on a separate page.

What to do next: Define conversational channel behavior for the IVA, for Unified Messaging. For more information, see Defining conversational channel behavior.