# Message blocks

The building blocks an agent can put on screen: text, quick replies, buttons, cards, carousels, forms and more.

Source: https://docs.omazy.ai/widget/message-blocks/

A message is not a string. It is an envelope containing an ordered list of
blocks, each of which knows how to draw itself. Think of it less as a letter and
more as a tray: several things arrive together, and each one has its own shape.

This matters because it is why an agent can answer "do you have this in blue"
with a picture, a price and a button, rather than a paragraph describing all
three.

## The blocks

| Block | What it renders |
|---|---|
| `text` | Markdown. The workhorse. |
| `quick_replies` | Tappable suggested answers. |
| `buttons` | Explicit actions. See below. |
| `card` | One item: image, title, body, actions. |
| `carousel` | Several cards, swipeable. |
| `media` | An image, video or file on its own. |
| `form` | Several fields collected in one go. |
| `input_request` | A single value, asked for inline. |
| `live_tracker` | Live status for an order, shipment or ticket. |
| `divider` | A labelled break in the thread. |
| `typing` | The three dots. |

## Button kinds

Buttons are typed rather than free-form, so the widget knows what a tap means
without guessing.

| Kind | Does |
|---|---|
| `url` | Opens a link, in a new tab or the same one. |
| `postback` | Sends a payload back to the agent as if the visitor had said it. |
| `escalate` | Asks for a human. |
| `auth` | Starts sign-in. |
| `phone` | Dials a number. |
| `open_product` | Opens a catalog item in the widget. |

The distinction between `url` and `postback` is worth internalising. A `url`
button ends the conversation and starts a page load. A `postback` keeps the
person exactly where they are and moves the conversation forward. When in
doubt, prefer the one that does not throw away the context you just built.

## Quick replies

Quick replies are the widget's way of asking a closed question without closing
the door. They render as tappable chips, and the visitor can still ignore them
and type whatever they like. They are suggestions, not a menu, and an agent that
treats them as a menu will frustrate the one person who wanted something else.

## Sources

An assistant message can carry `sources`, each with a title and a URL. If the
answer came from your knowledge base, this is what lets the widget show its
working. Citations are cheap to display and expensive to omit: an answer nobody
can verify is an answer somebody will escalate.