Messages

A message is a resource which can be either received or sent via an inbox. Messages are grouped by conversations.

A message can be either inbound (received) or outbound (sent). You can know if a message has been received or sent thanks to the boolean is_inbound.

Each message has a type depending on the channel it has been sent with:

Type	Description
email	Email message
tweet	Message from Twitter
tweet_dm	Direct Message from Twitter
googleplay	GooglePlay message
sms	SMS message
whatsapp	WhatsApp message
smooch	Message from Smooch
facebook	Message from Facebook
intercom	Message from Intercom
call	Phone call
custom	Custom Message
front_chat	Front Chat message

📘
Twitter notice
In order to comply with Twitter's API Terms & Conditions, Twitter content is not distributed through Front API.
The fields blurb, body, text as well as recipients' handle are replaced by the string [REDACTED] for messages of type tweet or tweet_dm only.
For those messages, the payload includes the field metadata.external_id containing the ID of the original Tweet or Twitter Direct Message that can be used to fetch its content from the Twitter API directly.

Opening a message in Front

To open a message in Front you need to open the URL https://app.frontapp.com/open/{message_id}. You can obtain the message ID from the self property in the _links object of the message object (example value msg_55c8c149 obtained from https://api2.frontapp.com/messages/msg_55c8c149). After extracting the ID, append it to the https://app.frontapp.com/open/ URL.

Note: You cannot open messages in a draft state. If you have a message in a draft state, use the ID of the parent conversation to open the conversation.

Example Message Object (Type: Email)

{
  "_links": {
    "self": "https://api2.frontapp.com/messages/msg_55c8c149",
    "related": {
      "conversation": "https://api2.frontapp.com/conversations/cnv_55c8c149",
      "message_replied_to": "https://api2.frontapp.com/messages/msg_1ab23cd4"
    }
  },
  "id": "msg_55c8c149",
  "type": "email",
  "is_inbound": true,
  "is_draft": false,
  "created_at": 1453770984.123,
  "blurb": "Anything less than immortality is a...",
  "author": {
    "_links": {
      "self": "https://api2.frontapp.com/teammates/tea_55c8c149",
      "related": {
        "inboxes": "https://api2.frontapp.com/teammates/tea_55c8c149/inboxes",
        "conversations": "https://api2.frontapp.com/teammates/tea_55c8c149/conversations"
      }
    },
    "id": "tea_55c8c149",
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "username": "leela",
    "first_name": "Leela",
    "last_name": "Turanga",
    "is_admin": true,
    "is_available": true,
    "is_blocked": false
  },
  "recipients": [
    {
      "_links": {
        "related": {
          "contact": "https://api2.frontapp.com/contacts/crd_55c8c149"
        }
      },
      "handle": "[email protected]",
      "role": "to"
    }
  ],
  "body": "Anything less than immortality is a complete waste of time.",
  "text": "Anything less than immortality is a complete waste of time.",
  "attachments": [
    {
      "filename": "attachment.jpg",
      "url": "https://api2.frontapp.com/download/fil_55c8c149",
      "content_type": "image/jpeg",
      "size": 10000,
      "metadata": {
        "is_inline": true,
        "cid": "123456789"
      }
    }
  ],
  "metadata": {}
}

Example Message Object (Type: Chat Message)

{
    "_links": {
        "self": "https://sean-test-3-30.api.frontapp.com/messages/msg_18ia6pce",
        "related": {
            "conversation": "https://sean-test-3-30.api.frontapp.com/conversations/cnv_nyulbny",
            "message_seen": "https://sean-test-3-30.api.frontapp.com/messages/msg_18ia6pce/seen"
        }
    },
    "id": "msg_18ia6pce",
    "type": "front_chat",
    "is_inbound": true,
    "created_at": 1661471266.594,
    "blurb": "triple send!",
    "body": "<div>triple send!</div>",
    "text": "triple send!",
    "error_type": null,
    "version": null,
    "draft_mode": null,
    "metadata": {
        "chat_visitor_url": "http://0.0.0.0:8080/?fcsp=54e9d2f3900fe9ecbe057a97568bbdbe&pusher-key=a29c79de7a1a99077623&namespace=cmckee"
    },
    "author": null,
    "recipients": [
        {
            "_links": {
                "related": {
                    "contact": "https://sean-test-3-30.api.frontapp.com/contacts/crd_2kg0xla"
                }
            },
            "name": "Navy Nautilus",
            "handle": "3326f7d3-8e97-475d-8305-25815c3fc7f9",
            "role": "from"
        },
        {
            "_links": {
                "related": {
                    "contact": null
                }
            },
            "name": null,
            "handle": "5b9b1474ab2bc85b6ea6",
            "role": "to"
        }
    ],
    "attachments": [],
    "signature": null,
    "is_draft": false
}

Example Message Object (Type: Chatbot Transcript)

{
  "type": "front_chat",
  "path": "622b145724f15c9e276fef197ac0db4d-1-1689272472836-2861-1029",
  "headers": {
    "front_chat_conversation_id": "ff79c8fd-3858-4d30-8c8c-640f3351f7c1",
    "front_chat_page_url": "<chat_url>",
    "unverified": true,
    "decision_tree_responses": [
      {
        "timestamp": 1689272457222,
        "nodeId": "83b60472-e384-423f-acba-1865db396d07",
        "nodeData": {
          "type": "message",
          "message": "Hi! We're here to help!"
        },
        "responseData": {
          "nodeType": "message"
        }
      },
      {
        "timestamp": 1689272459545,
        "nodeId": "4e7531f5-b079-483c-8ab8-f43b983240e8",
        "nodeData": {
          "type": "multi_choice",
          "message": "hello",
          "options": [
            {
              "sourceHandle": "c10063a5-7767-4503-b7ef-cbd00ca67e93",
              "value": "1"
            },
            {
              "sourceHandle": "b7e9b29b-c13d-4ca2-8f72-7d18d9d7d3b8",
              "value": "2"
            }
          ]
        },
        "responseData": {
          "nodeType": "multi_choice",
          "response": "1",
          "responseLabel": "1"
        }
      },
      {
        "timestamp": 1689272465080,
        "nodeId": "b0f75d70-8206-441e-80f7-6f245ace468e",
        "nodeData": {
          "type": "prompt",
          "message": "woof woof"
        },
        "responseData": {
          "nodeType": "prompt",
          "response": "hallo thar sir!"
        }
      },
      {
        "timestamp": 1689272471716,
        "nodeId": "ea938ea9-c9d7-467a-83da-c33f05533a05",
        "nodeData": {
          "type": "custom_fields",
          "customFields": [
            {
              "customFieldId": -1,
              "fieldName": "Name",
              "fieldType": "string",
              "isRequired": false,
              "resourceType": "card"
            },
            {
              "customFieldId": -2,
              "fieldName": "Email",
              "fieldType": "email",
              "isRequired": false,
              "resourceType": "card"
            }
          ]
        },
        "responseData": {
          "nodeType": "custom_fields",
          "customFieldResponses": [
            {
              "customFieldId": -1,
              "fieldName": "Name",
              "fieldType": "string",
              "isRequired": false,
              "resourceType": "card",
              "response": "bruce"
            },
            {
              "customFieldId": -2,
              "fieldName": "Email",
              "fieldType": "email",
              "isRequired": false,
              "resourceType": "card",
              "response": "[email protected]"
            }
          ]
        }
      },
      {
        "timestamp": 1689272471717,
        "nodeId": "2",
        "nodeData": {
          "type": "end"
        },
        "responseData": {
          "nodeType": "end"
        }
      }
    ]
  },
  "subject": "",
  "text": "Hi! We're here to help!\n\nhello\n1\n\nwoof woof\nhallo thar sir!\n\nName: bruce\nEmail: [email protected]",
  "json": {
    "attachments": [],
    "sender": {
      "handle": "39fe4d09-a31f-4faa-b91e-ab13b62ad374",
      "customFields": {},
      "contact": {
        "name": "bruce",
        "email": "[email protected]"
      }
    },
    "id": "6086cd02-f486-495b-b29b-cea95cf6291a",
    "text": "",
    "front_chat_conversation_id": "ff79c8fd-3858-4d30-8c8c-640f3351f7c1",
    "date": 1689272471718,
    "is_inbound": false,
    "sent": true,
    "front_chat_page_url": "<chat_url>",
    "type": "front_chat",
    "decision_tree_responses": [
      {
        "timestamp": 1689272457222,
        "nodeId": "83b60472-e384-423f-acba-1865db396d07",
        "nodeData": {
          "type": "message",
          "message": "Hi! We're here to help!"
        },
        "responseData": {
          "nodeType": "message"
        }
      },
      {
        "timestamp": 1689272459545,
        "nodeId": "4e7531f5-b079-483c-8ab8-f43b983240e8",
        "nodeData": {
          "type": "multi_choice",
          "message": "hello",
          "options": [
            {
              "sourceHandle": "c10063a5-7767-4503-b7ef-cbd00ca67e93",
              "value": "1"
            },
            {
              "sourceHandle": "b7e9b29b-c13d-4ca2-8f72-7d18d9d7d3b8",
              "value": "2"
            }
          ]
        },
        "responseData": {
          "nodeType": "multi_choice",
          "response": "1",
          "responseLabel": "1"
        }
      },
      {
        "timestamp": 1689272465080,
        "nodeId": "b0f75d70-8206-441e-80f7-6f245ace468e",
        "nodeData": {
          "type": "prompt",
          "message": "woof woof"
        },
        "responseData": {
          "nodeType": "prompt",
          "response": "hallo thar sir!"
        }
      },
      {
        "timestamp": 1689272471716,
        "nodeId": "ea938ea9-c9d7-467a-83da-c33f05533a05",
        "nodeData": {
          "type": "custom_fields",
          "customFields": [
            {
              "customFieldId": -1,
              "fieldName": "Name",
              "fieldType": "string",
              "isRequired": false,
              "resourceType": "card"
            },
            {
              "customFieldId": -2,
              "fieldName": "Email",
              "fieldType": "email",
              "isRequired": false,
              "resourceType": "card"
            }
          ]
        },
        "responseData": {
          "nodeType": "custom_fields",
          "customFieldResponses": [
            {
              "customFieldId": -1,
              "fieldName": "Name",
              "fieldType": "string",
              "isRequired": false,
              "resourceType": "card",
              "response": "bruce"
            },
            {
              "customFieldId": -2,
              "fieldName": "Email",
              "fieldType": "email",
              "isRequired": false,
              "resourceType": "card",
              "response": "[email protected]"
            }
          ]
        }
      },
      {
        "timestamp": 1689272471717,
        "nodeId": "2",
        "nodeData": {
          "type": "end"
        },
        "responseData": {
          "nodeType": "end"
        }
      }
    ],
    "userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/114.0.0.0 Safari/537.36"
  },
  "default_font_style": "",
  "main_style": "",
  "variable_values": [],
  "calendar_events": [],
  "history_paths": [],
  "raw_incoming_path": "024079322600db4c8f9998fe7738b1a8/frontChat/137",
  "email_rfc822_path": null,
  "signature_id": null,
  "handle_times": {}
}

📘Twitter notice

Opening a message in Front

Example Message Object (Type: Email)

Example Message Object (Type: Chat Message)

Example Message Object (Type: Chatbot Transcript)

📘
Twitter notice