International SMM

Messenger

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Platform · this deep dive is built from the official pages of the platform itself and of the tools that support it.

Overview

Messenger is Meta's messenger, fused with Facebook: a conversation is held not with a "Messenger account" but with a Facebook Page or an Instagram professional account. A brand has no feed and no followers here — it has incoming enquiries and the right to answer them within an allotted window.

The rule that determines everything else is stated by the platform in the very first line of the documentation: a conversation must be started by a person, and the business replies within 24 hours; the Messenger Platform itself is free. You cannot write first — you can only reply, use an exception with a message tag, or pay for a marketing message.

The second difference is that the whole business toolkit is moved into the API: menus, buttons, templates, the greeting screen, routing and campaign statistics are configured programmatically through Meta's graph, not in the page owner's interface. Working with Messenger almost always requires a contractor or in-house development.

Who's here

The developer product page speaks of "billions of people" with a footnote to Facebook's quarterly report for the first quarter of 2021. This is Meta's claim about itself, resting on reporting five years old.

An indirect sign of the geography is the list of locales supported for the greeting screen and the persistent menu: by our count 31 locales for the web version and 44 for Android. The count is ours, it is not on the page, and the page itself is dated 25 July 2023.

The list of markets for paid marketing messages says more honestly which countries are involved: Meta names twenty countries whose companies may use the Marketing Message API, and five jurisdictions to which such messages may not be sent: the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Australia and the United Kingdom. This is a map not of the audience but of the advertising options.

Getting started

What you need to set up

There is no separate "Messenger business account". The starting point is a Facebook Page or an Instagram professional account. Everyone who writes to you is given an identifier tied to the account: page-scoped for a Facebook Page and Instagram-scoped for an Instagram account; moreover a person logged into Facebook cannot write to your Instagram account, and vice versa. The same person in two channels means two different identifiers, and a single "inbox for everything" has to be built on your side.

The app and review

Then development begins: create a Meta app, connect the Messenger product, obtain a page token, set up a server for webhooks. Webhooks are HTTP notifications about changes in Meta's graph, including a new message to a Page or an Instagram account; without them there will be no conversation. Sending the first message is shown in the getting started guide. A public launch requires app review: compliance with the platform policies and community standards, a published Facebook Page, a webhook that returns a 200 OK response within 20 seconds, and reviewer access to restricted flows.

Everything a person sees before the first message is set through the Messenger Profile API: the "Get started" button, the greeting screen, ice breakers, the persistent menu, the list of whitelisted domains, account linking and commands; calls to this API are limited to ten per ten minutes — changing the presentation on the fly is not possible.

What you can publish

There are no publications in the usual sense here — there are messages. The content types: audio, buttons, files, menus, GIFs, images, stickers, templates, text and video; the examples in the documentation use API version v25.0 as of the check date.

The numeric bounds of the interface elements are documented precisely. Quick replies: a maximum of 13 buttons, a button title of up to 20 characters, a payload of up to 1000 characters. The persistent menu: no more than 20 top-level items, an item title of up to 30 characters, a payload of up to 1000 characters; the menu appears only if the user has Messenger version 106 or above, the page is published, the bot is marked as public and it has a "Get started" button set.

A separate format is utility templates: a message is assembled from a template with the name, the order number and the appointment date substituted in; a template is cloned from Meta's library or created yourself and approved within seconds. The page_utility_messaging permission is required, and there must be no marketing material in utility messages.

There is a requirement about the fact of automation as well: where applicable law requires it, an automated chat must tell the person that they are talking to a robot; the platform names separately the markets where this should be taken seriously — California and Germany.

How to grow

There is no algorithmic feed and no recommendations in Messenger — growing means increasing the number of incoming enquiries. The list of actions that open a messaging window is in effect the list of entry points: a message to the Page, a tap on a button such as "Get started", a click on an ad that leads into Messenger, the "Send to Messenger" and checkbox plugins, an m.me link into an existing conversation, a reaction to a message, a comment on a post or a visitor post.

The ways of building a subscriber base for paid marketing messages are named separately: an ad that leads into Messenger — whoever replies to it becomes a subscriber immediately; uploading a CRM list with phone numbers and email addresses, where people matched to Facebook profiles are subscribed automatically; sending an opt-in template directly in the conversation. Read the second method carefully: uploading a customer base results in a subscription without any separate action by the person inside the messenger.

Something measurable exists only for paid marketing messages — messages delivered, link clicks, spend, the read rate, the click rate, the cost per click and the cost per delivered message, and on the same page these metrics are said to be under development for the "alpha" stage.

Path to monetization

Messenger does not pay authors: there is no content reward programme here. The business pays: integrating the API itself is free, while for each marketing message Meta charges the sending company.

The payment model is described in the FAQ: you pay for messages delivered to a user's device; Ads Manager shows a recommended bid and an estimate of the volume that will be delivered for a given budget; Meta invoices directly, and spend on marketing messages goes onto the same invoice as advertising. The budget is set either daily or for the whole period: a daily budget limits spend per day, while a lifetime one requires an end date and stops sending once the ceiling is reached. The example in the documentation works with a notional unit.

The other side of it: a person's reply to a marketing message opens the ordinary 24-hour window, and the business's replies inside it are not charged — only the initiating touch is paid for.

And there are things that no longer exist: sponsored messages were discontinued on 31 July 2024, and Recurring Notifications on 10 February 2026. The old page about them has been kept and marked as deprecated.

Tools and automation

Official access

The Messenger Platform is itself the main instrument: sending messages, templates, buttons, utility notifications, getting the list of conversations and the message history through the Conversations API, and routing between apps.

Routing has changed: Meta no longer supports the Handover Protocol, and everyone has been moved to Conversation Routing; it designates the app responsible for a particular conversation, and without it all connected apps receive the webhooks and all of them can answer the same message. Duplicated replies when there are several contractors are something you sort out yourself.

Who can connect paid marketing messages

The threshold is high. The Marketing Message API is available exclusively to tech providers whose app has passed Meta's review for the ads_management, pages_messaging and paid_marketing_messages or marketing_messages_messenger permissions; the API works only for web apps. In addition it requires a Business-type app in Live mode, advanced access to the three permissions, Facebook Login for Business configured, an ad account with a payment method attached and a server for webhooks. A small company cannot connect marketing messages on its own — only through a partner service.

Limits and rules

The punishment here is not a fine but having a feature switched off: using tags outside the permitted scenarios may lead to the ability to send messages being restricted, and excessive negative feedback may lead to messaging capabilities being cut back or removed.

Who it's for

It suits a business with a ready flow of enquiries: an online shop, a delivery service, a clinic, a bank. Automating scenarios pays off here — menus, quick replies, utility notifications about an order or an appointment, handing the conversation to an operator. All of that works at no extra charge: the platform itself is free.

It does not suit as a broadcasting channel. You cannot set up a "channel" and write to subscribers: the person makes contact first, and everything else is either strictly non-promotional or paid. It does not suit projects without development: almost every feature in this article is an API call, not a toggle in an interface. And it does not suit those betting on marketing messages in the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Australia and the United Kingdom: they may not be sent there, and self-service access to the Marketing Message API is closed to everyone else as well.

Tools for this platform

The list is built from the tools' own facts: every line is a tool's statement that it supports the platform, with the source named. A tool missing from the list only means we have no such statement.

Scheduling and publishing:

Customer communication:

Automation:

Social listening:

Other tasks:

Verified data

The checked data this deep dive rests on.

About the platform

a conversation is held with a Facebook Page or an Instagram professional account; the conversation must be started by a person, and the business replies within 24 hours; the Messenger Platform itself is free

THE KEY FACT of this card

source, checked 2026-07-28

the old page about Recurring Notifications has been kept and marked as deprecated; it also says that excessive negative feedback may lead to messaging capabilities being cut back or removed

source, checked 2026-07-28

Who's here

the developer product page speaks of «billions of people» with a footnote to Facebook's report for the first quarter of 2021

Meta's claim about itself, resting on 2021 reporting; there is no recent measurement on the open pages

source, checked 2026-07-28

Getting started

a public launch requires app review: compliance with the platform policies and community standards, a published Facebook Page, a webhook returning 200 OK within 20 seconds, and reviewer access to restricted flows

source, checked 2026-07-28

Account and access

everyone who writes is given an identifier tied to the account: page-scoped for a Facebook Page and Instagram-scoped for an Instagram account; someone logged into Facebook cannot write to your Instagram account, and vice versa

source, checked 2026-07-28

Business terms

the «Get started» button, the greeting screen, ice breakers, the persistent menu, the list of whitelisted domains, account linking and commands are set through the Messenger Profile API

source, checked 2026-07-28

What you can publish

quick replies: a maximum of 13 buttons, a button title of up to 20 characters, a payload of up to 1000 characters

source, checked 2026-07-28

the persistent menu: no more than 20 top-level items, an item title of up to 30 characters, a payload of up to 1000 characters; it requires Messenger version 106 or above, a published page, a public bot and a «Get started» button set

source, checked 2026-07-28

message content types: audio, buttons, files, menus, GIFs, images, stickers, templates, text and video; the documentation examples use graph version v25.0

source, checked 2026-07-28

Content

the 24-hour window is opened by: a message to the page, a tap on a call-to-action button, a click on an ad that leads into Messenger, the «Send to Messenger» and checkbox plugins, an m.me link into an existing conversation, a reaction to a message, a comment on a post, a visitor post

Promotional content is permitted inside the window

source, checked 2026-07-28

message tags allow writing outside the window, but they may not contain advertising — discounts, offers, coupons; from 27 April 2026 requests with the CONFIRMED_EVENT_UPDATE, ACCOUNT_UPDATE and POST_PURCHASE_UPDATE tags return error 100

source, checked 2026-07-28

Promotion

subscribers come from ads that lead into Messenger, from uploading a CRM list with phone numbers and email addresses (those matched to Facebook profiles are subscribed automatically) and from sending an opt-in template in the conversation

Uploading a base subscribes a person without any action on their part inside the messenger

source, checked 2026-07-28

Analytics

marketing message metrics: messages delivered, link clicks, spend, the read rate, the click rate, the cost per click and the cost per delivered message; they are said to be under development for the «alpha» stage and available in Ads Manager for viewing only

source, checked 2026-07-28

Pricing

integrating the API is free, and Meta charges the sending company for each delivered message; Ads Manager shows a recommended bid and an estimate of the delivery volume; Meta issues the invoices, and the spend goes onto the same invoice as advertising

There is no country rate card on the open pages

source, checked 2026-07-28

the budget is set either daily or for the whole period: a daily budget limits spend per day, while a lifetime one requires an end date and stops sending once the ceiling is reached

source, checked 2026-07-28

Limits and restrictions

calls to the Messenger Profile API are limited to ten per ten minutes

source, checked 2026-07-28

over a rolling 24 hours — 200 calls multiplied by the number of people the business may write to; the Conversations API — 2 calls per second per page; the Send API — 300 calls per second for text, links, reactions and stickers and 10 per second for audio and video; private replies — 750 calls per hour

source, checked 2026-07-28

if a page sends more than 40 messages per second, new messages stop appearing in the page's inbox and sending is blocked until the load drops; calls for the list of all conversations fail in the meantime

source, checked 2026-07-28

Restrictions

the «human agent» tag gives 7 days for a manual reply; a one-time notification token gives the right to one message and expires within a year; a private reply to a comment is one message within 7 days

source, checked 2026-07-28

an automated bot must respond to any user input within 30 seconds

source, checked 2026-07-28

news messaging is available only to pages from the News Page Index register and only with the NON_PROMOTIONAL_SUBSCRIPTION tag, without advertising, discounts or affiliate material

source, checked 2026-07-28

tech providers may serve companies from twenty countries (Australia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the UAE, the USA, Vietnam); sending is prohibited to the EU, Japan, South Korea, Australia and the United Kingdom

Australia is simultaneously on the list of permitted senders and of prohibited recipients — that is what the source says

source, checked 2026-07-28

one page may send one person no more than one marketing message per day

source, checked 2026-07-28

a person unsubscribes through a link inside every marketing message; the unsubscribe text is set by Meta and cannot be changed by the business; a reply to a marketing message opens a 24-hour window, and the business's replies inside the window are not charged

source, checked 2026-07-28

sponsored messages were discontinued on 31 July 2024; Recurring Notifications were discontinued on 10 February 2026, with new integrations closed from 1 September 2025

The policy page meanwhile STILL describes sponsored messages as current — an internal contradiction in the documentation

source, checked 2026-07-28

where applicable law requires it, an automated chat must tell the person that they are talking to a robot; the markets of California and Germany are named separately

source, checked 2026-07-28

API access

a utility message is assembled from a template with values substituted in; the template is cloned from Meta's library or created yourself and approved within seconds; the page_utility_messaging permission is required; there must be no marketing material in utility messages

source, checked 2026-07-28

the Handover Protocol is no longer supported, and everyone has been moved to Conversation Routing; without it all connected apps receive the webhooks and all of them can answer the same message · the source is dated 2025-09-24

The page was updated on 24 September 2025

source, checked 2026-07-28

webhooks are HTTP notifications about changes in Meta's graph, including a new message to a Page or an Instagram account

source, checked 2026-07-28

the Conversations API returns the list of conversations and the message history of a Page or an Instagram account

source, checked 2026-07-28

the Marketing Message API is available exclusively to tech providers whose app has passed Meta's review for the ads_management, pages_messaging and paid_marketing_messages or marketing_messages_messenger permissions; the API works only for web apps

A KEY FACT: there is no self-service access for a company

source, checked 2026-07-28

in addition it requires a Business-type app in Live mode, advanced access to the three permissions, Facebook Login for Business configured, an ad account with a payment method attached and a server for webhooks

source, checked 2026-07-28

Languages

the interface language of the home page: ru; declared language versions: af, ar, ar-ar, bg, bn, bn-in, ca, cs, cs-cz, cy, da, da-dk and 69 more

The language is taken from the markup attribute, the versions from hreflang. The "and N more" figure is OUR count of the remaining hreflang links in the markup, not a claim by the source: that number does not appear on the page.

source, checked 2026-07-28

the documentation lists the locales for the greeting screen and the persistent menu: 31 locales for the messenger.com web version and 44 for Messenger on Android · the source is dated 2023-07-25

The figures 31 and 44 are OUR count from the list, they are not on the page; the page is dated 25 July 2023

source, checked 2026-07-28

Sources diverge: a divergence with the database: facts.tsv records «language versions: af, ar, ar-ar, bg, bn, bn-in, ca, cs, cs-cz, cy, da, da-dk and 69 more» from the www.messenger.com markup; the developer documentation lists 31 locales for the messenger.com web version and 44 for Messenger on Android

The lists serve different purposes: the site's hreflang against the locales supported by the Messenger Profile API. The figures 31 and 44 are OUR count. The database entry was obtained from a page that robots.txt closes to ClaudeBot, so we could not re-check it

source, checked 2026-07-28

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