Work with time pickers in bot conversations

Time pickers are bot replies that include a list of time slots. To interact with time pickers, your customers can through the available time slots and then select a time by clicking a button.

You can easily schedule or book appointments with customers using time pickers. You can also add more details about the events by providing relevant details such as a title, subtitle, image, and event address.

Note: For information about supported channel capabilities, bot support for media types, and knowledge support for touchpoints, see Channel, bot, and touchpoint capabilities feature comparison.

Bot and channel support

Currently supported bots:

  • Genesys Digital Bot Flows

Currently supported channels:

  • Genesys Web Messenger
  • Open Messaging
    Note: Before you can use this feature in Open Messaging, you must first create a configuration profile and select the appropriate Time picker message type. Then, assign it to your open messaging integration. For more information, see Create and assign a configuration profile.

Considerations for time picker implementation

Time zone handling

Bot flow authors configure time slots in Universal Coordinated Time (UTC). Genesys Cloud converts and presents the time slots on the customer’s device in their local time zone. This conversion allows your customers to easily select the time that works best for them. The customer’s selection is then stored in UTC. If you use this time slot later in the flow, you must find the customer’s time zone and convert the time slot to match that time zone.

To apply an hour offset, use the expression, AddHours(Slot.timeslot.dateTime, -5), where:

  • timeslot is the name of your timeslot variable
  • dateTime accesses the actual dateTime value
  • -5 adjusts the time (hour) to your desired time zone (for example, UTC -5)

Limitations

When you design and implement a time picker in your bot replies, consider these limitations:

  • You can implement up to 50 time slots in a single time picker message.