Schema

{
  "id": long (int),
  "orgId": int,
  "body": string,
  "author": {
    "type": string (one of {contact, user}),
    "id": long,
    "bot": boolean
  },
  "type": string (one of {chat, private_note, private_prompt, suggestion, edit}),
  "conversationId": int,
  "createdAt": timestamp,
  "buttons": [MessageButton],
  "context": {
    "ip": string,
    "userAgent": string
  },
  "editedMessageId": long,
  "editType": {delete, replace, replace_body, replace_buttons},
  "attributes": object // additional information (see below)
}

Field Name	Description
id	A unique identifier for the Message. Should be treated as long or integer 64 bit data type.
orgId	The Drift organization this Message belongs to
body	The text contents of this message, if applicable. See the Message Body section for details on the format.
author	An object describing who authored this Message. `author.type` is `contact` if the author was a Contact and `user` if they were a User. `author.id` uniquely identifies the author within the object type specified by `author.type`. Bot indicates whether the posting user is a bot (won't be true for contacts).
type	Specifies the type of this Message; one of `chat`, `private_note`, `private_prompt`, or `edit`. See the section Types of Messages below for details.
conversationId	The `id` field of the Conversation this Message is a part of
createdAt	A Unix timestamp representing the moment this Message was created
buttons	A (potentially absent) list of objects representing buttons presented to Users or Contacts from this message. See the section on Message Buttons for details.
context	An optional object representing potential metadata about where the Message was published from.
editedMessageId, editType	Required fields for `edit` type Messages, see the section on Editing Messages for details.
attributes	Other metadata on the message. Possible fields: `preMessages` (object): If there were messages in the conversation prior to this current message, i.e. supplied by a bot user or on behalf of a drift user, these will be supplied here. This is generally present on the first site visitor message. `developer_app_id` (string): The dev app id will be included if the message was posted via the API.

Types of Messages

There are 4 types of Messages, corresponding to the type field in that object:

chat Messages are the most ubiquitous type. They correspond to a regular text-based communication from either a Contact or a User and are visible to both. chat type messages may also contain buttons, in which case they're only visible to the Conversation's Contact.
private_notes are Messages that can only be created by a User and seen by other Users. These are useful for sharing sensitive, but useful information to Users in the context of the communication they're having with a given Contact
private_prompts are similarly only visible to Users, but can only be created by Apps. They're intended to allow developers to present Users with an interactive context (via buttons) to perform an an action in the context of the Conversation.
edits allow an App developer to change Messages that have already been created. This is intended to be used interactivity in private_prompts and edits are restricted to pertain to those types of Messages for now. See the section on Editing Messages for details.

Message Bodies

The message.body field is the primary vehicle for communicating information in Messages. It follows a format that resembles HTML in order to allow for limited richness, but is heavily and automatically restricted. In particular, HTML reserved characters are automatically converted to their corresponding HTML entities if they're outside the context of an allowed tag. <b>, <em>, and <a> tags are allowed, but most others are automatically stripped, as well as any styles on the allowed ones. Ultimately, you can treat this field as plain text and not include any tags.

Message Buttons

Messages chat and private_prompt can be made interactive with buttons. Developers can present either the Contact (in the case of chats) or Users (with private_prompts) with buttons that either:

Automatically send a particular chat message as a reaction
Add a prepared message to the composer section of the Conversation view.
Invoke an action in an App.

Buttons can be set as a list in the message.button field and have the following format:

{
  "label": string,
  "value": string,
  "type": {reply, compose, action},
  "style": {primary, danger},
  "reaction": {
    "type": {replace, delete},
    "message": string
  }
}

They'll appear in your app like this:

Field Name	Description
label	For all button types, the `label` field is what is actually displayed as a label on the button to the User or Contact.
value	For `reply` type buttons, `value` must equal `label`. In `compose` types, `value` is what is entered into the User's composer. In `action` types, `value` should be a slug that identifies the sort of action intended by the button click; this is interpreted by an App to properly react to a button click.
style	Optional: This is only applicable to buttons within `private_prompt` Messages. When the value is `primary` the button is rendered as green with white text, if `danger` to be similar to the 'destructive' button above with white text. If `style` isn't specified, a style fitting with the overall design of the Drift UI is used.
type	Optional: defaulted to `reply` `reply` type buttons cause the text in the button to be immediately used as a new `chat` Message by the Contact when pressed. `reply`s are only ever rendered to Contacts (Users will only see the `body` of the Message) and are the only type allowed in `chat` Messages. `compose` buttons cause text be added to a User's Conversation composer. A User can then edit the message before they get sent. They are only allowed in `private_prompt` Messages. `action` type buttons signal a button click to Apps via their webhook. They are only allowed in `private_prompt` Messages.
reaction	A reaction can be specified to automatically cause a visual change when a button is pressed. If `reaction.type` is `delete`, the Message containing the button is (visually) deleted when the button is hit. If `reaction.type` is `replace`, the Message is replaced with one containing only a `message.body` set to the value of `reaction.message`. If the type is `replace`, `reaction.message` must be specified. Note that the effects of a `reaction` are implemented with `edit` Messages and can always been recreated by the App using them; `reaction`s are simply a shortcut to easily enable these common use cases.

Editing Messages

Messages of type edit allow changes to a Message that was previously created. The editedMessageId field specifies the id of the Message being edited; for now the type of the edited Message must be private_prompt. editType specifies the type of edit to be performed:

delete means that Message should simply be (visually) omitted.
replace has the body and buttons of the referenced Message replaced with those of the new edit message
replace_body and replace_buttons behave similarly to replace, but only replace the field specified in their names, leaving the other fields in the original Message as they were.

If a Message has multiple edit type Messages that reference it, only the last of those Messages is rendered. In particular, edits don't chain; a replace_body followed by a replace_buttons does not equal the same changes specified in one replace.

Dev.Drift

DEV.DRIFT

Message Model