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Canned Responses

Canned responses let you save messages you send often as reusable templates. When you need one in a conversation, type / followed by its shortcode and the reply drops into the editor. They are perfect for answers to frequently asked questions, cutting response time and keeping your team's wording consistent. Every canned response is shared across all agents on the account.

Creating a canned response

Any agent or admin can create or change a canned response.

  1. From the sidebar, go to Settings → Canned Responses → Add canned response.
  2. Fill in the two fields:
  3. Short Code — a memorable identifier you'll type to insert the reply. It must be at least 2 characters and unique.
  4. Content — the message you want to save.
  5. Click Submit. A confirmation appears when it is saved.

Editing or deleting one

  1. Open Settings → Canned Responses and find the one you want.
  2. Click the pencil icon to edit, or the red cross icon to delete.
  3. When editing, change the shortcode or content in the dialog and click Submit, or Cancel to discard your changes.

Using one in a conversation

While chatting with a customer, type / in the editor to bring up the list of canned responses. Pick one from the list, or type its shortcode if you know it, then press Enter. The editor fills with the saved reply, ready to send or tweak.

Template variables

Canned responses support placeholders that auto-fill from the conversation. Wrap each one in double curly braces.

Contact variables

  • {{contact.id}}, {{contact.name}}, {{contact.first_name}}, {{contact.last_name}}, {{contact.email}}, {{contact.phone}}

Agent variables (the person sending, you)

  • {{agent.name}}, {{agent.first_name}}, {{agent.last_name}}, {{agent.email}}

Inbox and conversation variables

  • {{inbox.name}}, {{inbox.id}}, {{conversation.id}}

Custom attribute variables

  • {{contact.custom_attribute.<key>}} — any contact custom attribute by key
  • {{conversation.custom_attribute.<key>}} — any conversation custom attribute by key

Example template

Hi {{contact.first_name}},

Thanks for reaching out about your {{contact.custom_attribute.plan}} plan.

I'm {{agent.first_name}} from the {{inbox.name}} team, I'll take a look
and get back to you within the hour.

Best,
{{agent.first_name}}

Note

If a variable has no value on record, for instance the contact has no first name, the placeholder is replaced with a blank. Write your templates so they still read well when a value is missing.

Common questions

Can I edit the inserted text before sending? Yes. A canned response just fills the reply box, edit, append, or delete anything before you send.

Can I include images? Inline images aren't part of the canned response itself, but you can attach images to the reply after the text fills in. If you regularly need images, a macro is a better fit.

Do they work across all channels? Yes, the same response works everywhere. How markdown renders depends on the channel, rich formatting on website and email, plain text on SMS.