There are two scenarios where you want to send messages:

• You don't have a conversation yet with the recipient(s), so you create a new chat and send the first message using the Start a Chat from Inbox endpoint.
• You already have a conversation with the recipient(s), so you send a message in an existing chat using the Send a Message endpoint.

👍

Recommendations

Incorporate realistic delays between messages to mimic human behavior, ensuring intervals of at least 10-20 seconds between messages to align with natural conversation patterns.

Start a new conversation

Start an individual chat

To start a conversation with another user, first select the Inbox where the chat will begin. For LinkedIn Recruiter, the correct Inbox to initiate a conversation is RECRUITER_PRIMARY.

📘

Note about Inboxes

• The List all Inboxes endpoint provides a summary of all the available Inboxes for your account.
• Only the Primary Inbox of a specific product is allowed to initiate a chat.

Then use the Start a Chat from Inbox endpoint, specifying the chosen Inbox and the recipient’s User ID. When using linkedin_recruiter options, ensure that both subject and signature are provided.

LinkedIn generally allows only one individual chat per user, but multiple conversations can occur under specific conditions, such as when multiple InMails are sent at different times.

Typically, starting a chat with a user who already has an existing conversation will add a new message to that ongoing chat. However, if the recipient hasn’t accepted the communication yet, you must wait at least 24 hours after the initial message before sending a follow-up message.

const { data } = await messagingApi.startChatFromInbox({
  path: {
    account_id: "acc_123456789",
    inbox_id: "RECRUITER_PRIMARY",
  },
  body: {
    users_ids: ['AEMA1B2C3D4E5F6g7Hi8J9K1L2m3NOpqRSTUvWxYZ'],
    text: 'This is the first message in the chat',
    options: {
      linkedin: {
        recruiter: {
          signature: 'John Doe',
          subject: 'Open to work ?'
        }
      }
    }
  },
});

chat = messaging_api.start_chat_from_inbox(
    "RECRUITER_PRIMARY",
    "acc_123456789",
    {
        "users_ids": ["AEMA1B2C3D4E5F6g7Hi8J9K1L2m3NOpqRSTUvWxYZ"],
        "text": "This is the first message in the chat",
        "options": {
            "linkedin": {
                "recruiter": {
                    "signature": "John Doe",
                    "subject": "Open to work ?",
                }
            }
        },
    },
)

Start a chat with a candidate

To initiate a conversation with a candidate or a job applicant within a Project, you must first select the Inbox where the chat will begin. In this context, the correct Inbox is RECRUITER_{project_id}_PRIMARY, where project_id is the ID of the Project where the chat should be started.

The process follows a similar pattern as described in Start an individual chat .

Depending on the use case, you may need to provide the channel_type field, which refers to the Talent pool channel from which you want the message to be sent. For example, if the recipient is a job applicant, you should select JOB_POSTING.

const { data } = await messagingApi.startChatFromInbox({
  path: {
    account_id: "acc_123456789",
    inbox_id: "RECRUITER_1234567890_PRIMARY",
  },
  body: {
    users_ids: ['AEMA1B2C3D4E5F6g7Hi8J9K1L2m3NOpqRSTUvWxYZ'],
    text: 'This is the first message in the chat',
    options: {
      linkedin: {
        recruiter: {
          signature: 'John Doe',
          subject: 'Open to work ?',
          channel_type: 'JOB_POSTING'
        }
      }
    },
  },
});

Send a message in a conversation

To send a message in an existing chat, use the Send a Message endpoint, providing the ID of the Chat to send the message in. You can find the IDs of the chats by consulting the Retrieve chats & messages endpoint.

const { data } = await messagingApi.sendMessage({
  path: {
    account_id: "acc_123456789",
    chat_id: "chat_id",
  },
  body: {
    text: 'Hello, world!',
  },
});

message = messaging_api.send_message(
    "chat_id",
    "acc_123456789",
    {"text": "Hello, world!"},
)

curl --request POST \
     --url https://api.unipile.com/v2/account_id/chats/chat_id/messages/send \
     --header 'accept: application/json' \
     --header 'content-type: application/json' \
     --data '
{
  "text": "Hello, World!"
}
'

About text messages

LinkedIn Recruiter supports advanced formatting of messages. To take advantage of this feature, you will need to structure the content of your message with HTML tags.

The authorized tags are :

• <strong> for bold characters
• <em> for italic characters
• <ol> for numbered lists
• <ul> for bulleted lists
• <li> for list items
• <a href="some-url"> for hyperlinks

Send attachments

On LinkedIn Recruiter, you can send multiple attachments of any type in a single message, along with text content, as long as the combined size of all attachments does not exceed 20 MB.

To send files, use the Send a Message or Start a Chat from Inbox endpoint and include your files in the attachments array.

const pictureFile = await readFile('picture.jpg');
const documentFile = await readFile('document.pdf');

const { data } = await messagingApi.sendMessage({
  path: {
    account_id: "acc_123456789",
    chat_id: "chat_id",
  },
  body: {
    text: 'Here is an image and a document.',
    attachments: [
      {
        content: pictureFile.toString('base64'),
        content_type: 'image/jpeg',
        filename: 'picture.jpg',
      },
{
        content: documentFile.toString('base64'),
        content_type: 'application/pdf',
        filename: 'document.pdf',
      },
    ],
  },
});

curl --request POST \
     --url https://api.unipile.com/v2/account_id/chats/chat_id/messages/send \
     --header 'accept: application/json' \
     --header 'content-type: application/json' \
     --data '
{
  "attachments": [
    {
      "content": "base64",
      "content_type": "application/pdf",
      "filename": "document.pdf",
    }
  ]
}
'