> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.dmly.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Set up ice breakers

> Offer first-time contacts tappable questions that answer them or start a flow, and see what each channel actually supports.

Ice breakers are the suggested questions a first-time contact sees before they type anything.
Tapping one either sends back an answer you wrote or starts one of your flows. They are the
easiest way to get someone from "opened the chat" to a real conversation, because the contact
never has to guess what to say.

You set them up in **Configurations → Bot Setup**, on the channel selected in the channel
selector at the top. See [Bot setup](/automation/bot-setup).

## What each channel supports

Ice breakers are not the same feature on every channel. The biggest difference: **on WhatsApp
an ice breaker cannot start a flow** — it is only a question, with no action attached.

| Channel       | Ice breakers                                 | Can start a flow   |
| ------------- | -------------------------------------------- | ------------------ |
| **Facebook**  | Up to 4                                      | Yes                |
| **Instagram** | Up to 4, shown on mobile only                | Yes                |
| **Telegram**  | Up to 4, shown under the welcome message     | Yes                |
| **WhatsApp**  | Up to 4, on **Conversational Components**    | No — question only |
| **Live Chat** | None — use **Quick replies** in **Behavior** | —                  |
| **SMS**       | None                                         | —                  |

<Note>
  Live Chat has no ice breakers at all. The equivalent is **Quick replies** under
  **Behavior** in the widget customizer — see [Live Chat widget](/channels/livechat-widget).
</Note>

## Facebook, Instagram and Telegram

These three share the same editor: each ice breaker is a **Question** plus an action, and the
action is either **Text reply** (write the answer to send) or **Start flow** (pick the flow to
run).

<Steps>
  <Step title="Select the channel">
    Open **Configurations → Bot Setup** and select the Facebook page, Instagram account or
    Telegram bot in the channel selector.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Open Ice breakers">
    Select the **Ice breakers** section.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add a question">
    Select **Add ice breaker** and replace the question with one a real customer would ask —
    `What are your opening hours?`, `I want to book`, `Do you deliver?`. Keep it under 80
    characters — anything longer is cut off when it is sent to Facebook or Instagram. On
    Telegram the button label is cut at 64, so keep Telegram questions shorter still.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Choose what it does">
    Pick **Text reply** and write the answer, or pick **Start flow** and choose a flow.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Save">
    Select **Save changes**. On Facebook and Instagram this pushes the ice breakers straight to
    your connected page or account.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Warning>
  **Telegram takes four, not eight.** The Telegram page lets you add up to eight ice breakers,
  but saving more than four is rejected — you get an error toast and nothing is saved until you
  remove the extras. Stop at four.
</Warning>

### Two things that surprise people

**Telegram ice breakers ride on the welcome message.** They are shown as tappable buttons
underneath the message someone gets when they tap Start (`/start`). If the **Welcome** section
is switched off, or its text is empty, no ice breakers appear — there is nothing to attach them
to. Unlike Facebook and Instagram, they are never sent to Telegram itself; DMLY adds them as the
welcome goes out.

**Instagram shows them on mobile only.** They are correct and saved, they just don't render in
Instagram on desktop.

<Note>
  On Facebook, ice breakers need a Get Started button to appear at all. DMLY sets one for you
  whenever you have a welcome, an ice breaker or a menu configured, so there is nothing to do.
</Note>

## WhatsApp

WhatsApp keeps ice breakers on its own screen: **Bot Setup → Conversational Components**, where
they sit alongside **Show a welcome message to new conversations** and **Commands**. Add up to
four with **Add ice breaker**, each up to 80 characters, then save.

<Warning>
  A WhatsApp ice breaker is **only a question**. There is no **Text reply** or **Start flow**
  action to attach, because WhatsApp doesn't carry one. When a customer taps it, the question
  text arrives as an ordinary message from them — nothing answers it by itself.
</Warning>

So on WhatsApp, treat an ice breaker as a way of *putting words in the customer's mouth*, then
catch those words with a keyword. Write the ice breaker and the keyword to match:

1. Add the ice breaker `I want to book an appointment`.
2. Build a flow on that WhatsApp channel with a keyword trigger for `book`.
3. Publish it. See [Triggers](/automation/triggers) and
   [Publishing bots](/automation/publishing-bots).

<Tip>
  Keep WhatsApp ice breakers short and distinctive, and give each one a keyword no other flow
  uses. Two active flows matching the same keyword both reply — DMLY blocks publishing when it
  spots that. See [Common mistakes](/automation/common-mistakes).
</Tip>

## How Start flow works

On Facebook, Instagram and Telegram, the **Start flow** picker lists the flows that are **active
flow-builder automations on the selected channel**. Quick-form automations and flows built for a
different channel don't appear.

A tap starts that flow directly, from its first step. The flow's own trigger and keywords are
irrelevant to the tap — you don't need to give a flow a keyword just so an ice breaker can reach
it. The flow does still have to be **published**: an active flow with no published version is
listed in the picker, but tapping it does nothing.

<Note>
  On Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, ice breakers only show to someone who hasn't messaged you
  before, so they are the front door, not a menu. On Telegram they come back every time someone
  sends `/start`. If you want a prompt that's available for the whole conversation, use the
  [persistent menu](/automation/persistent-menu) instead — its items can start flows too.
</Note>

<Accordion title="I saved ice breakers but they don't appear">
  Work through it by channel:

  * **Telegram** — check the **Welcome** section is enabled and has text. No welcome, no ice
    breakers. They only show on `/start`.
  * **Instagram** — check on a phone. They don't render on desktop.
  * **Facebook / Instagram** — saving pushes them to Meta, and a failed push is reported the
    moment you save, with a message pointing at the logs. Open [Logs](/troubleshooting/logs) and
    look for the sync entry.
  * **Any channel** — an ice breaker with a blank question is skipped. Fill it in or remove it.
  * **Facebook / Instagram / WhatsApp** — you have already messaged this contact. Ice breakers
    are for first-time conversations; test with a number or account that has never written to
    you. (Telegram is different — just send `/start` again.)
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Tapping an ice breaker does nothing">
  For a **Text reply**, check the answer field isn't empty — a blank answer sends nothing.

  For a **Start flow**, check the flow is published, not just active. Then check the usual
  silent non-starts: the bot is paused on that contact (unpause it from the
  [Inbox](/inbox/overview)), or the flow is set to respond only once per contact and has already
  run for them. See [Automation not triggering](/troubleshooting/automation-not-triggering).

  On **WhatsApp**, nothing happening is expected unless a keyword matches — the ice breaker has
  no action of its own. See the WhatsApp section above.
</Accordion>