Simulate the Conversation

After you design part of a chatbot or the entire chatbot, you can test it in the Simulator tab. You can do the following:

• View the chatbot flow.
• Identify issues with the flow.
• Simulate possible conversations between the chatbot and the end user.
• Simulate information, such as location and destination, which is not hardcoded in the chatbot but is extracted from end user responses.
• Check the behavior of chatbot elements. You can view information such as values of attributes, which conditions were met, and whether the API call was successful.
• Use Expire Session to see how expired session dialogs are displayed to end users.

The sections on this page show additional things that you can do in the simulator.

When you start the simulation, you can see the chat logs on the right.

There may be differences between the simulator and the live environment. The behavior of the chatbot elements or the flow may also differ based on the channel.

To restart the simulation, click Restart Simulation.

When you finish testing and making any relevant changes, you can activate the chatbot.

Simulation Fail

If there are errors in the chatbot, the simulation fails. The error screen in the simulator shows the following information.

• A list of error descriptions, grouped by the tab in which the error is present. Example: List of errors in the Attributes tab and the Dialogs tab.
• Link to the location of the error. Example: Link to the Attributes section or link to the dialog in which the error is present.

Location of error messages

Error messages are also indicated by error icons and error messages in other locations in the chatbot. You can hover over the error icons to get more information about the error. Error icons and messages are displayed in the following locations.

• The tab in which the error is present. The following image shows that there are errors in the Dialogs and Attributes tabs.

  

• Within a tab, you can view the location and description of the errors.
  
  The following image shows the error in the Attributes tab.

  

• You can view the error messages in the dialog in which the error is present. Example: When you hover over the error icon in the Menu dialog, you can view the list of errors for this dialog.

  

• You can view the error messages in the chatbot element in which the error is present. Example: When you hover over the error icon in the Attribute element in the Menu dialog, you can view the list of errors.

  

• You can view the error messages in the chatbot element configuration.

  

Check Natural Language Processing

For AI chatbots, you can check how well NLP (Natural Language Processing) works. For more information, refer to the NLP section.

Check Intents

Check how well Answers recognizes the intents in your chatbot. For more information, refer to the Test intents and Troubleshooting > Incorrect intent is matched sections.

Simulate End User Interaction

Simulate what the conversation would look like when end users respond to your chatbots.

Simulate Incoming Files

Simulate receiving files from end users. In the message box, choose the type of file that you expect the end user to send during the conversation.

Simulate End User Location

Select a location to simulate how your chatbot communicates with end users based on their geography.

In the simulator, do one of the following.

Share the location pin

1. Click the attachment icon.
   
2. Choose Location.
   
3. In the Select how to get location field, choose Search for a location.
4. In the Location address or select on a map field, type the name of the location.
   
5. Choose the required location.
6. Click Send.

The attribute stores the location.

Share the latitude and longitude

1. Click the attachment icon.
   
2. Choose Location.
   
3. In the Select how to get location field, choose Enter longitude and latitude.
4. In the Latitude and Longitude fields, enter the coordinates of the location.
   
5. Click Send.

The attribute stores the location.

Simulate Image Caption Display

Simulate the caption displayed for images when you send messages to end users. Availability of image captions depends on the channel.

Simulate Chatbot Actions

Identify the actions taken by the chatbot at various stages of the conversation to understand what the customer journey looks like.

You can track the following to understand background actions:

• User Input: See which keywords from end user responses are registered as keyword match.
• Delay: Identify when delays occur during the chat.
• Close Session: See what happens when end users are given the option to close the session.
• New Dialog: Identify when the conversation enters a new dialog to understand the chatbot flow.
• Switch Dialog: Identify when the conversation moves from to another dialog to understand the chatbot flow.
• Transfer to Agent: Identify when end users are offered the option to transfer to an agent.
• Webhook: See webhook request and response data.
• CSAT: View details about CSAT

Differences between Simulator and Live Session

There may be differences between the simulator and a live session. These differences could be in any aspect such as the way an element is displayed, the way the chatbot works, the use of a field within an element, and connection to external applications or databases.

These differences may be specific to a channel.

The following table shows examples of the differences.

	Simulator	Live Session
Carousels	Cards are displayed one below the other.	Cards are displayed next to one another in the end user's device.
Quick reply buttons - images	Images are not displayed on the button.	Images are displayed on the button in the end user's device.
WhatsApp - Connection to Meta Catalog	Does not connect to the Meta catalog but uses the values that you specify in the chatbot elements. Example: Uses the product name from the 'Product name' field.	Connects to the Meta catalog and obtains information from the catalog. Example: Uses the product name from the Meta catalog.
Shortened URLs	Original URLs are displayed.	Shortened URLs are displayed in the end user's device.