Adding rich content to answers in bot builder (Legacy)

Rich content elements can be added when you arecreating a new answer,adding a new step to an existing answer, or updating an existing step.


What's my plan?







All Suites

Team, Growth, Professional, Enterprise, or Enterprise Plus











This article describes functionality that moved into legacy
status on February 2, 2025. On December 31, 2026, this functionality will no longer
be available. For more information, see this announcement.

In bot builder, you can add rich content elements to some
of the steps in your AI agent’s answers. Rich content elements appear to
your customers in the Web Widget, mobile apps, social apps, and third-party
apps.
Rich content elements can be added when you are
creating a new answer,
adding a new step to an existing answer, or
updating an existing step.
This article describes the following rich content types:

Adding images and gifs
Adding emoji
Adding button links



Adding images and gifs

You can add an image or an animated gif to your answer flow, to provide an
engaging experience, add screenshots or other
visuals to illustrate answers, and present products and services in a way that best
represents your brand.
Images and gifs can be added to the following step types:

Send message
Add carousel

To be included in an answer step, the image or gif must:

Have a web address that can be accessed by your customers. Don't add image URLs from restricted
help centers, as these won't be displayed in the answer.
Be no larger than 10 MB
Be one of the following image formats:

bmp
gif
heic
heif
jfif
jpg
jpeg
png
svg+xml
tiff
tif
webp

To add an image or gif to a step

With the new or existing answer open in bot builder, click the
step type you want to add the image or gif to, or click the Add step
icon (
) and select the step type to
create a new step.
If you’re adding the image to a Send message step, click the
Insert image
icon (
).
Enter the image’s web address (required) and description
(optional), then click
Done.
Finish configuring the step, then click
Done
at the top
of bot builder.
The image or gif appears in the step preview.

The
image, as well as any other updates, will not appear to the customer
until you
publish the answer.






Adding emoji

You can use the emoji picker to add emoji to your answer flows.
Emoji can be added to the following answer step types:

Send message
Present options
Show help center articles
Transfer to agent

To add an emoji to a step


With the new or existing answer open in bot builder, click the
message step you want to add the emoji to. Alternatively, click the
Add
step icon (
) and select the step type you want
to create.
In the AI agent message box, enter or update any text as needed, and click the Emoji icon
( ) to open the picker.
Scroll or search for the emoji you want, then click it to add to the AI agent message.
Finish configuring the step, then click
Done
at the top of
bot builder.

The emoji appears in the step preview.

The emoji, as well as
any other updates, will not appear to the customer until you
publish the answer.




Adding button links

You can add buttons to steps in your answer flow. When a customer clicks a button,
they'll open an external link, such as a different knowledge base
or another page within the current website.
You can add button links to the following step types:

Send message
Add carousel

To add a button link to a Send message step


Open or create a new answer in bot builder, then click an existing
Send message step or create a new one.
Click Add button.
Enter the button’s web address and text, then click Add.
Finish configuring the step, then click Done at the top of bot
builder.

You can add up to 10 button links to each Send message step.
You can edit the button by clicking the Options icon ( ).
The button, as well as any other updates,
will not appear to the customer until you publish the AI agent.
To add a button link to an Add carousel step


Open or create a new answer in bot builder, then click an existing
Add carousel step or create a new one.
Click a carousel panel.
Click Add button and select Open link from the action
dropdown menu.
Where requested, enter the button’s web address and text, then click
Done.
Finish configuring the step, then click Done at the top of bot
builder.

You can edit the button by clicking the carousel panel's Options
icon ( ).
The button, as well as any other updates,
will not appear to the end user until you publish the AI agent.



Saving responses

You can add a button to save a variable and its value when a customer clicks a
carousel panel button. The variable and value can then be used downstream in bot
builder.
A carousel panel can include a maximum of three buttons. These buttons can be a
mixture of buttons to save a response and buttons to open a link, but only one
button to save a response is allowed.

To add a save response button
Open or create a new answer in bot builder, then click an existing
Add
carousel
step or create a new one.
Click a carousel panel.
Click
Add button
and select
Save response from the action
dropdown menu.
Enter a descriptive button text to display to the customer.
Enter a variable name and value to save. If you are using a dynamic
carousel, you can click the plus button to select a value from the
Make
API
call.


If, for example, you create a Send message step after the carousel, you can reference the
variable by clicking the plus button in AI agent message.


{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "TechArticle",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5133127616282",
"url": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5133127616282",
"headline": "Adding rich content to answers in bot builder (Legacy)",
"description": "You can add rich content such as images, gifs, emoji, and button links to steps in your AI agent's answers within the bot builder to enhance customer interactions across various platforms.",
"articleSection": "Using bot builder to create answers (Legacy)",
"datePublished": "2022-11-17T18:39:49+00:00",
"dateModified": "2026-05-12T16:31:52.703863+00:00",
"inLanguage": "en-US",
"mainEntityOfPage": {
"@type": "WebPage",
"@id": "https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5133127616282"