Pills are the small, tappable chips that appear inside your AI Shopping Assistant chat, giving shoppers something to click instead of staring at a blank message box. They make it easy for a shopper to start — and keep — a conversation with a single tap.
Pills come in two types
"Pills" is the umbrella name for these chips. In your assistant, they show up in two different ways, and it helps to know the difference:
- Conversation Starters — the pills a shopper sees before they've typed anything, when the chat is still empty. These suggest a good first question, such as "What are your bestsellers?" or "Help me find a gift." You set these up for your store.
- Quick Replies — the pills the assistant offers during a conversation to help the shopper take the next step. These are generated automatically by the assistant based on the chat, so there's nothing for you to configure.
In other words: Conversation Starters get a conversation going; Quick Replies keep it moving. Both are pills — they just appear at different moments and are controlled differently.
Conversation Starters (the ones you control)
When a shopper first opens the chat and hasn't typed anything yet, the assistant shows a few short, tappable Conversation Starters. Tapping one sends it as the shopper's first question, so they get straight to a helpful answer.
In this version, you can set 1 to 3 Conversation Starter chips for your store, each a short phrase. New installs come with sensible defaults already in place, so you can edit or replace them whenever you like.
One thing to know about this version: you can configure one set of Conversation Starters per store, and they show on an empty chat for all shoppers — page and visitor targeting isn't available yet. Richer setups are planned for later.
To edit, replace, or fine-tune your chips, see How do I edit my conversation starter chips?.
Quick Replies (the ones the assistant handles)
Once a conversation is underway, the assistant may show Quick Replies — tappable suggestions for what the shopper might want to ask or do next. You don't create or manage these; the assistant generates them on its own based on the conversation, to keep things flowing. Tapping a Quick Reply sends it as the shopper's next message, so they can keep going without typing.
Why pills help
A blank chat box can be intimidating. Pills give shoppers an easy first step, hint at what the assistant can actually help with, and make it more likely they'll start a conversation at all. Because tapping a pill sends a real question, shoppers move quickly from "I'm not sure what to ask" to a useful answer.
Pills vs. nudges
Pills are easy to confuse with nudges, but they're different: pills live inside the chat to help start or continue a conversation, while nudges appear outside the chat to invite shoppers in. See Pills vs Nudges — what's the difference?.
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