1. Facebook acknowledges that the existing message tags do not apply to all situations where Messenger communication is useful for your subscribers. To bridge this gap, they2. have introduced One-Time Notifications (OTN)3. , which allows you to send messages to subscribers 24 hours after you have given explicit permission.Notice4. This is an example of a useful OTN situation for Facebook:
5. Like message tags, One-Time Notifications do have some specific rules:
6. No deception
- 7. – Messages sent using OTN must match the messages that users have agreed to receive. 8. – No incentives
9. – You cannot offer subscribers monetary value or equivalent rewards to sign up to receive other messages. However, the messages they signed up to receive may be very valuable, such as notifications when specific products go on sale. 10. Violating any of the above or receiving a large amount of negative user feedback will result in loss of access to the OTN API, meaning you will lose the ability to use OTN in the future.
11. From start to sending One-Time Notifications
12. Please follow these three steps to get started with OTN: gain access, request OTN permission from subscribers, and then start sending OTN messages.
13. Apply for One-Time Notification access
14. To get started with One-Time Notifications, you need to request access in the page settings under "Advanced Messaging." #
15. In most cases, OTN permission will be granted immediately.
16. Request One-Time Notification permission from subscribers
17. Once you have access to One-Time Notifications, you will see a new message block option appear in Flow Builder called "OTNR" (which stands for One-Time Notification Request). #
18. After selecting the “OTNR” message block, you will be prompted to choose or create an OTN topic. Creating an OTN topic is like building a new custom field, label, or
19. conversion event.Conversion EventJust as easy. Please note that the OTN topic name will not be sent to Facebook, so it does not need to match the content exactly—feel free to use a naming convention that suits you.
When building the OTNR block, you will be able to customize the main text, but Facebook Messenger limits us from updating the text on the button. It will always display “Notify me.” It will also be presented in the subscriber's language in the Messenger thread.
Once the topic is set up, add the new OTN request to the flow at the appropriate places. Some scenarios where OTN may be useful include:
– When a subscriber requests an out-of-stock item
– When a subscriber wants updates about upcoming events (e.g., when tickets go on sale)
– When a subscriber expresses interest in future sales, promotions, or giveaways
– When a subscriber wants to receive specific content that is not yet ready for distribution
– Extending the delay between each message in a drip sequence beyond 24 hours. If your subscriber continues to agree to the next part of the sequence, you can continue sending
Send a one-time notification #
The process of sending messages using OTN is similar to adding message tags. On the first message of the flow, select “One-time notification topic” as the “Content type.”
This will list your existing OTN topics. Select the topic that corresponds to the message you want to send
Once applied, OTN works like any other message tag: it allows you to send messages outside the 24-hour window (to opted-in subscribers). However, consider an important note:When using OTN,You can only send one message block. To send any additional messages, the user must interact with your first message.
Therefore, make sure your OTN message:
1. Provides the content requested by the subscriber in the first message
2. Offers a compelling reason to interact with your brand and open the 24-hour window
More details about one-time notifications
In addition to how it works, there is also some other useful information about OTN.
Accumulated one-time notifications #
Although one-time notifications can only be used once (as the name suggests, this may mean once), you can accumulate multiple OTN for a single subscriber. It is important to note that each person must make requests separately. Therefore, if you want to send five different things to a subscriber, you will need to agree to each one separately.
The same applies if you want to remind subscribers about the same topic on multiple occasions—they will need to agree to each reminder. For example, if a subscriber wants to receive reminders about an upcoming sale one day before and one hour before, they must agree to each notification separately (but both notifications can use the same OTN topic in ManyChat).
Important note: Please be cautious about sending too many OTN requests to a single user in a short period of time. The behavior of this instant messaging chatbot is monitored by Facebook and is considered an abuse of OTN. If Facebook's algorithm detects an abnormal number of OTN requests sent in a short period of time, you risk losing access to the OTN feature.
One-time notification content #
The messages you send using OTN are limited to a single content block, but the types of content you send are not restricted. This means you can send text, images, cards, galleries, videos, audio, or files.
Within a 24-hour window #
For subscribers within a 24-hour window, ManyChat will automatically default to standard messaging. This means that if someone grants you OTN but receives that message within 24 hours of the last interaction, you will still retain that OTN for future use.
Preview OTN flow #
When you preview a flow using OTN with ManyChat's “preview” feature, OTN is not actually used. Instead, it is sent as a regular text block using buttons. We do this to avoid issues with Facebook's OTN abuse monitoring during extensive traffic testing, where you might naturally send a large number of OTNs to yourself in a short period of time.
More to remember from Facebook's March 4 update #
Now that you have all the information you need to start using one-time notifications, there are many other steps available to prepare your chat marketing strategy for upcoming updates. In ourFacebook Messenger 2020 Changes Guide,learn more about message tags, sponsored messages, and SMS + email on ManyChat.
