Overview of Multi-application support for Digital Messaging

In the traditional single application implementation of Digital Messaging, organizations face a significant architectural constraint: only one application per environment can integrate with Digital Messaging services. Even if your environment contains multiple applications, potentially including both UI Kit and Constellation versions, only one of those applications use Digital Messaging features at any given time.

Key benefits of the single application approach include:

• Shared credentials across the environment,
• Simplified configuration with a single set of Manager ID and Manager Key,
• Requirement that the messaging-enabled application is positioned at the top of the application stack in the System Runtime Context.

Positioning the application at the top ensures that messaging features function correctly, but it also creates dependencies that limit flexibility in how organizations structure their application portfolios.

Example:

Scenario: A global retailer has one Customer Service application for all regions, as shown in the following diagram.

• Setup: Digital Messaging is enabled only for this single application. All chat channels (WhatsApp, Web Messaging, Facebook Messenger) route through the same credentials and queues.
• Implication: If the retailer wants to separate operations by region (for example, Americas, EMEA, and APAC), they cannot do so without creating a new environment.
  

The multi-application implementation introduced in Pega Customer Service release 25.1.1 represents a fundamental shift in how organizations can deploy Digital Messaging. They can now implement Digital Messaging across multiple applications in the same environment, which helps improve operational efficiency and supports more sophisticated communication strategies.

This new approach requires several important configuration changes:

• Each application must use unique Digital Messaging credentials, including distinct Manager ID and Manager Key sets. This isolation prevents routing service and channel connection errors that occur if credentials are shared.
• Application-specific scoping for features such as personal queues, which are now created and managed in specific application contexts rather than globally.

Feature configurations in multi-application environments behave differently based on their scope. Some features update only in the current application, while others update globally across all applications using Digital Messaging. This scope awareness becomes crucial for managing configuration changes and predicting their impact across the multi-application environment.

The multi-application implementation also introduces specific requirements for:

• Application stack setup,
• Job schedulers
• Web embed configuration
• Service Packages.

Organizations must enable multi-application support through dynamic system settings (EnableMultiAppSupport and MessagingAppsAccessGroups) and might need to run the czUpdateQueuesAppContext activity to ensure seamless queue updates.

Example:

Scenario: A bank runs separate Customer Service applications for Retail Banking and Wealth Management in the same environment, as shown in the following diagram.

• Setup: Each application has its own Digital Messaging configuration:
  • The Retail Banking application uses WhatsApp and Web Messaging with its own Manager ID/Key.
  • The Wealth Management application uses Facebook Messenger and Apple Messages with separate credentials.
• Implication: Both applications share the same Constellation Messaging Service but maintain isolation for routing, queues, and credentials.