Agents

Channels overview

What a channel is, every channel an agent can answer on, what each one supports, and which one to launch first.

A channel is a place where customers already are, connected to one of your agents: a WhatsApp number, a Slack workspace, a Twilio phone number, a Zendesk account. Once a channel is connected, every message or call that arrives on it becomes a conversation with that agent, answered with the agent's persona, model, voice, knowledge and tools, and charged per turn like any other conversation. This page tells you what each channel can do, how the connection is made, and which channel to launch first.

A channel is one account, bound to one agent

A channel is one connected account: one phone number, one messaging account, one helpdesk. It lives on the agent's Channels tab, under the heading Connected Channels, and every conversation it carries is answered by that agent and nobody else.

Three rules follow from that:

  • One agent per channel. A connected account answers as exactly one agent. To hand it to a different agent, open the row's menu and choose Assign to another agent. The dialog reads Choose the agent that should receive the channel, warns Open conversations on this channel will be closed. History stays with this agent., and confirms with Assign. The next message on the channel opens a fresh conversation with the new agent. Genesys Cloud is the one exception: the row lives on one agent's tab, but the bot your flow calls decides which agent answers; see Genesys Cloud chat.
  • One connection per account. A phone number, a page or a helpdesk account can be connected once. Connecting it from another workspace is refused. Connecting it again in this workspace is refused, refreshed or offered as a move to the agent you started from, depending on the channel; each channel's page says which.
  • Many channels per agent. An agent can carry any number of channels, and all of them get the same persona, model, voice, knowledge and tools. There is no per-channel prompt; see How the prompt is assembled for the one note that helpdesk and Genesys chat conversations add.

Web chat and web calls need no channel. They are the playground, started from Test in the agent header, and they run the same agent a customer would reach. See Test your agent.

The channels

Add Channel on the Channels tab opens the catalogue, filtered by All, Voice & Telephony, Messaging and Support & Service. Every channel in it is listed here with what it carries, what reaches the agent today, whether the agent can hand a conversation to a person, and what connecting it asks of you. Each name links to the channel's own page.

Channel Carries What the agent answers Human handoff How you connect
WhatsApp Text Text messages to the number; the agent replies in text No Sign in with Meta, then tick what to connect
Messenger Text Messages to the Facebook Page; the agent replies in text No Sign in with Meta, then tick what to connect
Instagram Text Direct messages to the Instagram account, through its linked Page No Sign in with Meta, then tick what to connect
Slack Text A direct message to the app, or an @mention in the one channel you chose; the agent replies in place No Sign in with Slack, then pick the direct messages and channel it answers
Twilio, text Text None today. A text sent to the number is not answered, and no control in the portal adds the Send SMS action to an agent No A form: the number and your Twilio credentials
Twilio, voice Voice Every call to the number; the agent takes the call No The same Twilio connection
Genesys Cloud, chat Text Messages a Genesys flow passes to the bot, once the flow is pointed at the connection; the setup values and Sync bots are in the Connections view Yes A form: your region, client ID and client secret
Genesys Cloud, voice Voice None today. A call routed through a Genesys flow is not answered; put the agent on a Twilio number instead No The same Genesys connection
Zendesk Text A new ticket and each public reply from its requester; the agent answers on the ticket Yes A form: your subdomain, admin email and API token
Zoho Desk Text A new ticket and each incoming reply; the agent answers as an email reply on the ticket Yes Sign in with Zoho
Intercom Text A new conversation and each user reply, once you point your app's webhook at EchoNova; the agent replies as a teammate you choose Yes A form: your app's access token, client secret and admin ID

The catalogue groups them the same way: Twilio under Voice & Telephony; Slack, WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram under Messaging; Zendesk, Zoho Desk, Intercom and Genesys Cloud under Support & Service.

Every channel starts from the customer. The agent answers what arrives; it does not open a conversation on its own. The one action that sends rather than replies is Send SMS on a Twilio connection; SMS with Twilio says what the portal offers for it today.

Google Calendar is not a channel. It is an integration that gives the agent calendar tools, and it does not answer anyone. See Google Calendar and Tools overview.

What connecting looks like

There are two shapes of connection, and the table above says which one each channel uses.

  • Sign in with the provider. You approve the request on Meta's, Slack's or Zoho's own page and come back to the agent's Channels tab with the channel connected and a toast such as WhatsApp connected. If the sign-in grants several accounts at once, Meta's providers open Choose what to connect first, where you tick the ones to connect; each becomes its own channel. If an account is already connected to another agent in your workspace, the portal asks Move this channel? instead.
  • A form. You type a name for the row and paste credentials from the provider's console, then press Connect. The row appears at once with the toast Channel connected.

WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram sign in with Meta: pick an already-imported account from Credential, or import a new one, then name the row and press Connect.

Either way the channel is born bound to the agent whose Channels tab you started from. Each channel's own page walks through its form or sign-in, what to have ready before you start, and every message the connect can end with.

What a conversation on a channel is

Each customer on a channel gets one conversation at a time. On a text channel the conversation continues while messages keep arriving; a message that comes more than 24 hours after the last one starts a new conversation. The customer sees nothing of this; you see it as a new row on the agent's Conversations tab. A voice call is one conversation from pickup to hang-up.

Every conversation is charged per turn, on every channel, whether or not the agent is archived. A text message that arrives while the workspace has no credits is recorded and gets no reply. See What a turn costs.

Pausing an agent stops only the sessions you start from the portal. A channel bound to a paused agent keeps answering, and those turns are charged. To stop a channel, disconnect it or assign it to another agent. Agent status lists what archiving covers.

Human handoff

On Zendesk, Zoho Desk, Intercom and Genesys Cloud chat, the agent can hand a conversation to a person: on a helpdesk it tags the ticket, leaves your team a note and stops replying; on Genesys chat it returns the conversation to your flow with the intent escalate. On every other channel the agent answers every message for as long as the channel is connected, so the persona has to tell the customer how to reach a person instead. Both cases are covered in Human handoff.

Get it right

Launch one channel on one agent, and pick the channel you can test yourself, end to end, today. A channel you can message from your own phone shows you the whole loop, from the customer's screen to the row on the Conversations tab, before a customer ever does.

Recommended

  • Test the agent in the playground until the persona, knowledge and tools are right. Then connect one channel, send it a message from your own phone or account, and read the conversation the portal recorded.
  • Add the second channel only after the first one has answered real customers for a few days.

Less effective

  • Connecting every channel to one general-purpose agent on the first day, and reading the first real conversations from customers instead of from yourself.
  • Launching first on the channel whose conversations you cannot start yourself, such as a helpdesk you are not a customer of.

FAQ

Can two agents share one channel?

No. A channel answers as one agent. Connect a second number, page or account for the second agent, or move the channel with Assign to another agent.

Can one agent answer on several channels?

Yes, on as many as you connect, all with the same persona, model, voice, knowledge and tools.

Does pausing the agent stop its channels?

No. A channel bound to a paused agent keeps answering and charging. Disconnect the channel or assign it to another agent. See Agent status.

Where are web chat and web calls?

In the playground. Press Test in the agent header and choose Chat or Call. See Test your agent.

Can I connect the same number to two workspaces?

No. An account belongs to one workspace at a time. Connecting it from a second workspace is refused with a message that names the account as already connected elsewhere.

Which channels can hand a conversation to a person?

Zendesk, Zoho Desk, Intercom and Genesys Cloud chat. See Human handoff for what happens on each and what to do on the others.