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Unexpected Behavior of Receive Node Triggered by Typing Indicator

Dmytro Benda
Spotlight
Spotlight

Hello everyone,

I'm currently building a chat flow in Webex Connect Standalone and have encountered an unexpected behavior related to the Receive node.

Normally, the Receive node should capture and process actual messages typed by the user in the chat window. However, during testing, I observed that when I start typing a response (even without sending it), the Receive node immediately exits on the "successful" path — with a message content of "typing indicator". This seems to happen specifically when I press the spacebar while typing.

This behavior is causing issues with the flow logic. In my design, the Receive node is placed inside a loop, and after receiving a valid message, the flow routes back to a Scripted AI Agent node. But since the Receive node is triggered by a "typing indicator" event, the flow proceeds incorrectly. The AI agent receives the message "typing indicator", which it is obviously not trained to handle, and replies with a fallback message like "Sorry, I am unable to understand your message..."

DmytroBenda_0-1753364959431.png

DmytroBenda_1-1753365168174.png

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My Questions:
- Is this behavior expected in Webex Connect Standalone?
- If so, is there a way to prevent the Receive node from reacting to typing indicators?
- Is there any configuration or workaround to filter or suppress these non-message events from triggering the flow?

Any insights or suggestions would be highly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

5 Replies 5

Connect - Tanuj
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

Hi @Dmytro Benda - Have you considered adding a branch or evaluate node after the receive node to check whether the message content says typing indicator? If it does, you can choose to loop back to the Receive Node instead of sending this message to the AI Agent. This would be one of ways to address this.

Tanuj Goyal
Webex Connect

Yes, I’ve implemented a loop that returns back to the same Receive node — and that does solve the issue with the typing indicator. However, I noticed that the Flow Builder doesn’t allow you to connect the Success path of a node directly back to the same previous node, most likely due to a built-in loop prevention mechanism.

To work around this, I added an intermediate node — in my case, a simple Evaluate node containing a minimal JavaScript expression. This acts as a pass-through and allows the loop to complete without any logic disruption.

DmytroBenda_0-1753389175429.pngDmytroBenda_1-1753389192977.png

However, it would be good to know, if there is another way to resolve it. 

Hi @Connect - Tanuj

Yes, this is what I was thinking of too. However, it will be good to know if other ways to solve this problem exist. 

Arindam Dhar
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

Hi @Dmytro Benda ,

At present, the typing indicator is received as an incoming message, hence for this particular scenario, I'd recommend to remove typing indicators from your widget. 

Hi @Arindam Dhar ,

Thank you for your reply. How can I remove typing indicator from my widget? The widget is created in Webex Engage. So we have standalone Connect + Engage. Which setting in Engage should I look for?