Conversations API - SenderActorId

Developer Support APIs & Integrations
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1

Hello,
We are using HubSpot as the foundation for our customer support.
The features offered by HubSpot regarding the customer portal are currently too limited, based on our discussions with customer support (such as having multiple forms depending on certain customer-related fields, among other things).

We therefore decided to create our own customer portal built on HubSpot.
The issue: customers can create a new ticket, access the details of a ticket (including conversations)… but they cannot reply to an Agent.

Indeed, the API call https://api.hubapi.com/conversations/v3/conversations/threads/{id}/messages requires a senderActorId of type Agent.

Result: everything works on our side, except for a customer’s ability to reply to an agent… which is basically the core of a customer portal!

If we pass anything other than an Agent (of type “A-xxx”), we get the following response:

{
 "status": "error",
 "message": "Actor type VISITOR is not supported for sending",
 "correlationId": "21d2c1a6-d725-47a4-969b-bf4e0896fd85",
 "context": {
 "actorType": [
 "VISITOR"
 ],
 "operation": [
 "sending"
 ]
 },
 "category": "VALIDATION_ERROR",
 "subCategory": "ConversationsApiError.UNSUPPORTED_ACTOR_TYPE"
}

How can we send something other than an Agent?

Thank you,

2

Hey @Pipolas - thanks so much for posting in the Community!
I’d like to tag in some experts here to see if they have any insight for us! @Teun, @stefen, and @ChrisoKlepke - is it possible to achieve allowing customers to reply to an Agent? Or do you have a recommendation that would allow @Pipolas to send something other than an Agent?
Shane, Community Manager

3

Hi @STierney ,

Thank you very much for your reply and for tagging in the experts – I really appreciate the support!

Just to reiterate the importance of this topic: being able to allow our customers to reply to an Agent from our custom-built customer portal is absolutely critical for our organization.

We initially explored using Custom Channels, but unfortunately this approach did not provide a workable solution. Our ultimate goal is quite simple: to be able to use the endpoint
https://api.hubapi.com/conversations/v3/conversations/threads/{id}/messages
to send a message from the customer side (i.e., not from an Agent), whether that be as a Visitor, Contact, or another supported actor type.

Currently, the API only accepts messages coming from an Agent (with an A-xxx senderActorId), which essentially blocks us from implementing two-way messaging in our portal.

@hubspot :Is there any workaround, ongoing roadmap item, or recommended approach that would allow sending a message via the API on behalf of the customer?

Thanks again for your help – this is a blocker for us, and we’d be very happy to provide more context or collaborate on a solution.

Best regards,
Nicolas