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Bot Framework markdown support by channel

When developing your Bot Framework bot you want to be sure exactly how your messages are rendering on the different channels that you enable.  Plain text messages can look pretty boring, so you might decide to use markdown to create richer text messages. If you are new to markdown, have a quick read here, then the rest of this article will make more sense.  Below is an extract taken from the BotBuilder documentation which describes the markdown supported by the Bot Framework itself, however it's important to note that not all channels themselves support markdown:

Bot Framework markdown support

Style       Example
Italic *Italic*
Bold **Bold**
Header1-5 #H1
Strikethrough ~~text~~
Hr
Unordered list * text
Ordered list 1. text
Pre `text`
Block quote > text
Link [bing](https://bing.com)
image link ![duck](https://aka.ms/Fo983c)

Sample Bot message

So how does each channel render the text then?  Let's consider the following message using markdown:

# Markdown test
**The** *quick* ~~brown~~ fox `jumped`

1.over

2.the

* lazy
* dogs.

A hyperlink for good measure: [Link](https://bing.com)
and now a random picture of a duck ![duck](https://aka.ms/Fo983c)

Channel markdown findings to date:

Channel    Markdown support    Screenshot
Email Y Email
Facebook Messenger N Messenger
GroupMe N GroupMe
Kik N kik
Skype Y Skype
Slack Y Slack
Telegram Y Telegram
Twilio N Twilio
Web Chat Y webchat

 

Channel markdown screenshots:

And now see how that message gets rendered on ALL of the current Bot Framework supported channels:

[caption id="attachment_735" align="alignnone" width="169"]Email Email[/caption]


[caption id="attachment_675" align="alignnone" width="169"]Messenger Facebook Messenger[/caption]


[caption id="attachment_675" align="alignnone" width="169"]GroupMe GroupMe[/caption]


[caption id="attachment_685" align="alignnone" width="169"]Kik Kik[/caption]


[caption id="attachment_705" align="alignnone" width="193"]Skype Skype[/caption]


[caption id="attachment_715" align="alignnone" width="169"]Slack Slack[/caption]


[caption id="attachment_716" align="alignnone" width="169"]Telegram Telegram[/caption]


[caption id="attachment_716" align="alignnone" width="169"]Twilio Twilio[/caption]


[caption id="attachment_735" align="alignnone" width="180"]Web Chat Web Chat[/caption]

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 29, 2017
    Any plans to support Viber Channel ?
  • Anonymous
    September 14, 2017
    what about facebook today? article date is since last year
  • Anonymous
    October 23, 2017
    Is there any markdwon for embedded video (youtube or the linke)
    • Anonymous
      October 26, 2017
      For markdown you could can link to the video: message.Text = @"[![Introducing the new Surface Book 2](https://img.youtube.com/vi/HCYCvREMcCM/0.jpg)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCYCvREMcCM 'Click to open')";You can also checkout the VideoCard here: https://docs.botframework.com/en-us/node/builder/chat-reference/classes/_botbuilder_d_.videocard.html eg: var vc = new VideoCard() { Image = new ThumbnailUrl("https://img.youtube.com/vi/HCYCvREMcCM/0.jpg"), Media = new List() { new MediaUrl("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCYCvREMcCM") } }; message.Attachments = new List { vc.ToAttachment() };