Now Mobile notification of unread chat and Virtual Agent messages
Summarize
Summary of Now Mobile notification of unread chat and Virtual Agent messages
Now Mobile app users can receive push notifications for new, unread chat messages and Virtual Agent notifications even when they navigate away from an active conversation. This feature supports users who may be waiting for an agent or engaged in asynchronous conversations, allowing them to stay informed and engaged without needing to remain actively online in the app. The notifications help prevent unnecessary conversation timeouts and keep communication continuous.
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Enabling Notifications
To receive these Virtual Agent mobile push notifications, users must enable push notifications for the Now Mobile app on their iOS or Android devices. By default, Virtual Agent Message Push notifications are enabled for all Now Mobile users in base system instances. Users can adjust their preferences by accessing All > Self-Service > My Notification Preferences within the system.
How Notifications Work
- Notifications appear on the mobile device’s notification center and lock screen, showing information about unread chat messages from live agents or Virtual Agents.
- Tapping a notification opens the Now Mobile app directly to the relevant conversation.
- These push notifications are not shown in the app’s notification tab nor do they generate badge counts on the app icon; however, badge counts appear on the Virtual Agent quick launch icon within the app.
- The system runs a scheduled job every 60 seconds to detect new unread messages, queue them in the Push Notifications table, and deliver them to users who are away from the app.
- Delivery timing may vary slightly, and notifications might not always arrive in the exact order messages were received.
Notification Content
The message content in push notifications reflects the actual text from live or virtual agents. If the message includes controls that cannot be represented as text, the notification will display "New Message" instead. System action messages are generally excluded from notifications except for the critical live agent timeout alert ("The conversation is timing out, are you still there?"), which is sent to ensure users are aware of possible session closures.
When Now® Mobile app users navigate away from the app after starting an active conversation, they can automatically receive Virtual Agent mobile push notifications informing them of new, unread chat messages and Virtual Agent notifications that have arrived.
Now Mobile users might need to leave an active conversation for various reasons. They could be waiting for an available agent and decide to handle other tasks instead. Or, they could be engaged in a long-running (asynchronous) conversation and do not need to be online concurrently with an agent. Now Mobile users can check Virtual Agent push notifications to get timely information about their current conversations when they’re away from the app. These push notifications enable them to stay engaged with live and virtual agents and avoid unnecessary conversation closures (timeouts).
Enabling Virtual Agent message push notifications
To receive Virtual Agent mobile push notifications, your users must enable push notifications for the Now Mobile app on their iOS or Android devices.
In base system instances, the Virtual Agent Message Push notification is automatically enabled for all Now Mobile users. Users can modify their notification preferences by navigating to .
How Virtual Agent mobile push notifications work
- Checks which user accounts are registered to receive push notifications.
- Determines the mobile clients (devices) that are not in use.
- Runs the Generate Virtual Agent Push Notification scheduled job every
60 seconds to:
- Identify and batch new unread messages.
- Add unread messages records to the Push Notifications [sys_cs_message_notification] table, which generates the Virtual Agent push notifications.
- Delivers Virtual Agent push notifications to Now Mobile users away from the app.
Depending on when the Generate Virtual Agent Push Notification scheduled job processes new unread messages, push notifications might not arrive in the order that they were generated, and it might take slightly longer than one minute for push notifications to arrive.