General

How do I create a new Outbound message?

To create a Chat, Banner, Email, or Survey message:

1. Go to Dashboard → Outbound

2. Click New Message

3. Choose Chat, Banner, Email, Update, or Survey

4. Choose Start from scratch or select a template

5. Configure the available Content, Rules, and Frequency and scheduling sections

6. Click Set live, Schedule, or Send now, depending on the message type and audience

Which Outbound message types support images?

Chat, Banner, Update and Email message types support uploaded images in the message body.

Email subject lines do not support images. Survey pages do not use the same message-body image uploader, so use Surveys for questions and response collection rather than image-heavy announcements.

For best results:

• Keep most image uploads under 20 MB

• Use Email images that stay clear in a 640 px-wide email body

• Use Chat and Banner images that stay readable in smaller in-app surfaces

• Avoid using one large image as the full message body

• Add nearby text for any important context shown in the image

Message surfaces constrain images to fit the available space, so very wide, very tall, or text-heavy images can become hard to read after they scale down.

Data and exports

Can I export Outbound message data?

Featurebase does not provide a general CSV export for all Outbound message performance data.

You can review message stats in Outbound analytics. For Survey messages, export responses as a CSV from the Survey message's Responses view.

Survey response CSV exports include respondent details, submitted time, and answer columns for the questions included in the current filter.

Survey response CSV exports are capped at 10,000 responses per export. If an export is capped, narrow the timeframe or question filter and export the remaining responses separately.

Audiences

How can I check who matches an Outbound audience?

Use Preview audience in the Outbound builder.

The preview estimates how many people match the selected audience type and audience rules right now, and shows a sample of matching people. Use it to check whether your audience rules are too broad, too narrow, or pointed at the wrong type of person.

Audience preview does not check every delivery condition. It does not confirm:

• Page URL, time-on-page, or CSS selector triggers

• Start date, delivery window, frequency, match limit, or stop condition

• Email approval, email subscription, unsubscribe, suppression, or sending-limit checks

• Whether a specific person already received, dismissed, replied to, or responded to the message

If you are troubleshooting one person, use audience preview first, then check the delivery conditions for that message type.

Can I upload a CSV to filter an Outbound audience?

No. The Outbound builder does not support CSV audience upload or CSV audience filtering.

Build Outbound audiences from user and company attributes already stored in Featurebase. If you need to target a one-time group, add an identifying attribute to those records before creating the message, then target that attribute in the audience rules.

To review user data, go to Dashboard → Users.

If the group should stay fixed, use Lock audience at activation before the message goes live. A fixed audience is frozen when the message is activated, so people who match later are not added.

Delivery

Why didn't someone receive my Outbound message?

Start with the message state, audience rules, and schedule.

Check that:

• The message is Live, or Scheduled with a start date that has arrived

• The message is not Draft, Paused, Suspended, or already Sent as a completed one-time message

• The person belongs to the selected audience type

• The person matches the audience rules

• A fixed audience includes the person from the moment the message was activated

• A dynamic audience still includes the person when Featurebase evaluates delivery

• The message is inside its allowed delivery window

• The frequency, match limit, and stop condition still allow another send or display

For Chat, Banner, and Survey messages, also check the trigger rules:

• Current page URL

• Time on page

• CSS selector

If no trigger rules are configured, the trigger section runs for every visit. If trigger rules are configured, the person must match those trigger rules in addition to the audience rules.

Why didn't someone receive an Outbound Email?

Email delivery has extra checks after the audience matches.

Check that:

• The message is Live, or Scheduled with a start date that has arrived

• The recipient is a User, not a Visitor or Lead

• The recipient has a valid email address

• The recipient has not unsubscribed from all emails

• The recipient has not opted out of the selected subscription

• The recipient's email address is not suppressed because of a bounce, spam report, block, or invalid email

• The email is still within its sending limits, frequency settings, and stop condition

Outbound Emails do not use page URL, time-on-page, or CSS selector triggers. They send from the audience and scheduling settings only.

You can manage Outbound email subscriptions from Dashboard → Outbound → Subscriptions.

For usage-based email pricing, see Outbound emails pricing.

Why isn't my Chat, Banner, or Survey showing in the product?

For in-app messages, check both Featurebase settings and the page where the message should appear.

Check that:

• The Featurebase Messenger and/or Survey widget are installed and loading on the page

• The person is identified if your audience rules depend on user data

• The person matches the selected audience type and audience rules

• The message is Live and inside its schedule

• The current page URL rule matches the actual page

• The time-on-page rule has had enough time to pass

• The CSS selector exists on the page when Featurebase evaluates the trigger

• The person has not already reached the frequency, match limit, or stop condition

• Another eligible in-app message is not appearing first while you test

If you are testing quickly, use a narrow audience, a simple page URL rule, and no CSS selector rule. Once the message appears, add the stricter rules back one at a time.

Replies and conversations

Can I turn off replies for an Outbound message?

For Chat messages, yes. In the Chat message content settings, turn off Allow replies.

To turn off replies:

1. Go to Dashboard → Outbound

2. Open the Chat message

3. In Content, turn off Allow replies

4. Save your changes

When replies are off, the Chat message does not show the reply composer to the recipient. When replies are on, you can assign replies to a teammate or team, or let Fibi answer when someone replies.

Outbound Email replies route back to Inbox. Banner messages do not accept replies. Survey messages collect structured responses instead of free-form replies.

What does creating a conversation mean for Outbound messages?

A conversation is the Inbox thread connected to an Outbound message when the recipient can reply or when an email reply is received.

For Chat messages, the message is delivered through Messenger. If Allow replies is on, the recipient can reply in Messenger and the reply can be assigned in Inbox.

For Email messages, customer replies thread back into Inbox so your team can continue the conversation from Featurebase.

Banner views, Banner clicks, Survey views, Survey dismissals, and Survey responses are tracked as Outbound activity, but they do not create a free-form customer conversation just because someone saw or clicked the message.

A sent, viewed, opened, clicked, dismissed, or responded event is not the same thing as a customer reply. For more on Inbox conversation behavior, see Conversations FAQs.

Display behavior

Why did my Chat appear as a badge instead of opening fully?

Chat messages have a ‘Sent as’ setting.

If the message is set to ‘Badge’, the recipient sees it as a Messenger badge. If it is set to ‘Show the full message’, the full Chat message opens for the recipient.

To change this:

1. Go to Dashboard → Outbound

2. Open the Chat message

3. In Content, change Sent as to Badge or Show the full message

4. Save your changes

Why does my Banner keep showing?

A Banner can continue showing while the person still matches the audience and trigger rules.

If you want people to be able to close it, enable Dismiss button. If the Banner has an action button, you can also enable Dismiss on click so the Banner closes after the action is clicked.

To update Banner dismissal:

1. Go to Dashboard → Outbound

2. Open the Banner message

3. In Content, turn on Dismiss button

4. If the Banner has an action, turn on Dismiss on click when the action should close the Banner

5. Save your changes

If a Banner has no dismiss button and no dismissing action, people can continue to see it until the message is paused or they no longer match the audience criteria. For Banner-specific setup, use Create outbound Banner messages.