Help

FAQ: channels

The questions people ask about channels before they know which page to open, from which channels exist and what WhatsApp needs to how a handoff works and how to move or stop a channel.

Which channels can an agent answer on?

WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and Slack for messages; a Twilio phone number for calls; Zendesk, Zoho Desk and Intercom for tickets; and Genesys Cloud chat as a bot in a message flow, once the flow is pointed at the connection. Every channel starts from the customer: the agent answers what arrives and does not open a conversation on its own. Web chat and web calls need no channel; they are the playground behind Test. See Channels overview.

Can two agents share one channel?

No. A channel is one connected account bound to exactly one agent, and every conversation it carries is answered by that agent; to hand it to a different agent, open the row's menu and choose Assign to another agent. One agent can carry any number of channels, all with the same persona, model, voice, knowledge and tools. See Channels overview.

What do I need before I connect a WhatsApp number?

A WhatsApp Business Account with the number added to it in WhatsApp Manager, and a Facebook account that can manage that business. Until Meta approves EchoNova's app, that Facebook account also needs a role on EchoNova's Meta app. There is no separate webhook to set up: connecting a number subscribes its messages to EchoNova automatically. See WhatsApp prerequisites.

How do I choose which WhatsApp number gets connected?

Press here or Import another account, sign in with Meta and approve. A sign-in that grants one number connects it to the agent straight away. One that grants several opens Choose what to connect, where you tick every number you want; each becomes its own channel. See Connect WhatsApp.

Why did connecting WhatsApp end with an error?

Every message the connect can end with is listed with its next step on WhatsApp prerequisites. The one you are most likely to meet after signing in is We couldn't resolve that WhatsApp phone number. Please try again.; confirm the number is on a WhatsApp Business Account your Facebook account manages, then sign in again. A number already connected in another workspace has to be disconnected there first.

Why does my WhatsApp agent never reply?

Check three things in order: the number's access has not expired (the row reads Token expired. Reconnect. once it has), the workspace has credits (a message that arrives with none is recorded and gets no reply), and the message was text. If the number's access is about to lapse, the row reads Reconnect by <date>; reconnect it the same way you connected it, by importing the number again and ticking it. See Connect WhatsApp.

Does the agent answer photos, voice notes or WhatsApp calls?

No. On WhatsApp the agent receives text messages only: an image, voice note, document, location, sticker or reaction is not answered and does not appear on the conversation, a WhatsApp call to the number is not answered, and every reply is one plain text message with no buttons, media or files. Write the persona so the agent asks for details in words, and connect a Twilio number for calls. See WhatsApp limits.

How do I put the agent behind a Facebook Page or an Instagram account?

From the agent's Channels tab, press Add Channel and choose Messenger for a Page's inbox or Instagram for a professional account's direct messages; Instagram messaging runs through the Facebook Page the account is linked to, so you connect the account through that Page and the row shows the Page's name under Workspace. Both sign in with Meta: pick an already-imported Page or account from Credential, or import a new one, then tick what to connect if the sign-in grants more than one. Unlike WhatsApp, a connected Page's access does not expire. See Messenger and Instagram.

How do I get the agent to answer in Slack?

Connect Slack from the agent's Channels tab, approve the install on Slack, then choose the triggers in the Select Channels dialog: Direct Messages answers people who message the app directly, and Specific channel with a Channel ID answers mentions of the app in that one channel, in a thread under each mention. Response in all binds no channel, so with it selected the agent answers direct messages only. A private channel needs /invite @EchoNova typed in it once. See Slack.

How do I put an agent on a phone number?

Connect a Twilio number: press Add Channel, choose Twilio under Voice & Telephony, and enter the number with its Account SID and Auth Token. Connecting points the number's voice and messaging webhooks at EchoNova for you, replacing whatever they pointed at before, and the agent answers the next call in its default voice with its Greeting message. Each turn is charged at the voice rates, and Twilio bills your own account for the minutes. See Voice with Twilio.

Does the agent answer texts sent to my Twilio number?

No. A text sent to the connected number is received by Twilio, is not answered by the agent and does not appear in Conversations; for a two-way text conversation, connect WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Slack or a helpdesk. The text side of a Twilio connection is the Send SMS action, which sends one message from the connected number to any phone number, and there is no control in the portal today that adds it to an agent. See SMS with Twilio.

What does a Genesys Cloud connection do today?

Connecting saves your region, client ID and client secret. A Genesys message flow can then call your agents as bots through a Bot Connector integration. The agent's Connections view (add ?tab=connections to the agent's address, press the more button on the Genesys Cloud row and open How to connect) shows the Handle Utterance URI, the Header name and the Header value (bot token), with Generate token for a new token, and a Bot Connector integration ID field with Sync bots. A call routed through the Audio Connector trigger is still not answered by the agent, although the same view shows the Base Connection URI and Set up voice for the API Key and Client Secret. To put an agent on the phone, connect a Twilio number instead. See Genesys Cloud chat and Genesys Cloud voice.

How do I connect Zendesk, Zoho Desk or Intercom?

From the agent's Channels tab, under Support & Service. Zendesk takes your subdomain, an administrator's email and an API token, and creates a webhook and two triggers in your account for you; Zoho Desk is a sign-in with Zoho on the region your organization lives in; Intercom takes your own app's access token, client secret and the Admin ID of the teammate the agent replies as, and you point the app's webhook at EchoNova yourself. On each one, give the agent a user or teammate of its own, so a reply from a person on your team is recognised as a person stepping in. See Zendesk, Zoho Desk and Intercom.

Which channels can hand a conversation to a person?

Zendesk, Zoho Desk, Intercom and Genesys Cloud chat. On a helpdesk the agent tags the ticket echonova_escalated, leaves your team a note and stops replying; on Genesys chat it returns the conversation to your flow with the intent escalate. You write when to hand over into Personality, in plain words; the channel adds the instruction that tells the agent how, and the customer sees only the agent's last reply. See Human handoff.

What do I do on a channel with no handoff?

On WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Slack, a Twilio number and Genesys Cloud voice the agent answers every message and every call while the channel is connected, and a person writing from the same account does not stop it. Put the route to a person in Personality, a phone number, an email address or a link with the hours it is staffed, and tell the agent to give it and stop; on a call, turn on End conversation so the agent can end the call once the customer has it. To stop the agent on a channel for good, disconnect the channel or assign it to another agent. See Human handoff.

How do I give a ticket back to the agent?

Remove the echonova_escalated tag from it, and the agent answers the customer's next message. On Intercom, a reply from any teammate other than the one the agent posts as stops the agent on that conversation for good, so the customer's next new conversation is the first the agent answers again. The tag name is the same on every helpdesk connection and cannot be renamed, so build your views and rules on it. See Human handoff.

Does the agent send its greeting first on a channel?

Only on a phone call, where the Greeting message is spoken in the agent's default voice when the call is answered. On every text channel the customer writes first and the agent's first message is its answer; the greeting is not sent as a message of its own. Put anything the customer must be told at the start into Personality instead. See Voice with Twilio and Connect WhatsApp.

Why is there a second conversation row for the same customer?

More than 24 hours passed between two of their messages. On every text channel a conversation continues while messages keep arriving, and the first message more than 24 hours after the last one closes the earlier conversation and opens a new row on the agent's Conversations tab; the customer sees one chat, and on a helpdesk the new conversation is on the same ticket with no memory of the earlier exchange (see Zendesk). A voice call is one conversation from pickup to hang-up. See Channels overview.

Is Google Calendar a channel?

No. Nobody talks to the agent through it; it is an integration that gives your workspace four calendar tools, to check availability, create an event, list events and list calendars, which an agent calls while it talks to a customer somewhere else. Connect the Google account from the agent's Connections view, reached by adding ?tab=connections to the agent's address, and put the calendar, the time zone and the booking rules in Personality; there is no control in the portal today that creates the four tools from the connection. See Google Calendar.

How do I move a channel to another agent, or stop it?

Open the row's menu on the Channels tab. Assign to another agent keeps the connection and binds it to the agent you pick; open conversations on the channel are closed, and the next message opens a new one with the new agent. Disconnect permanently deletes the channel and its saved credential, closes its open conversations and stops it answering at once, while the conversations already recorded stay on the agent. Those are the two controls that stop a channel: Pause Channel on the channel page does not stop the channel today, and pausing the agent leaves its channels answering and charging. See Channels overview and Agent status.