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Other channels

Pranav Raj Jithin
By Pranav Raj and 1 other
• 10 articles

How to setup a Facebook channel?

If you are using a self-hosted Chatwoot installation, please setup your Facebook app as described in the this guide. For the cloud version of Chatwoot, please follow the steps below. Step 1. Go to Settings → Inboxes → “Add Inbox”. Step 2. Click on the "Messenger" icon. Step 3. Click the Facebook login button. It will open a new window for you to login. Step 4. Authenticate with Facebook and select the page you want to connect. Enable all permissions shown in the list. This will help Chatwoot to perform all the desired actions smoothly. Step 5. You can now select your Facebook page from the dropdown menu that appears on Chatwoot. Step 6. "Add agents" to your Facebook inbox. You have successfully created a Facebook inbox. Whenever a customer sends a message to your Facebook page, you will be able to see and reply to it in Chatwoot. Additional Inbox settings​ Your freshly configured Facebook inbox should now appear in your list of inboxes. To see this and to make additional settings in your Facebook inbox, go to Settings → Inboxes → click the gear icon on the associated Facebook inbox. You will see the following screen: Settings tab​ Enable channel greeting. Once you enable this, Chatwoot will send a greeting message to new conversations created through your Facebook inbox. Enable CSAT. Once you enable this, your Customer Satisfaction survey will be launched every time a ticket is resolved. The CSAT results can be viewed later in the Reports section. Reauthorize. Whenever you need to reconnect and reauthorize your Facebook page, do it from this button. Collaborators tab​ Click on the Collaborators tab. Here, you can add Agents to the Inbox or delete Agents who have been already added in the Inbox. You can also enable or disable the automatic assignment of new conversations to the agents added to this inbox. Click on Update to save the changes. Business Hours tab​ Click on the Business Hours tab. In this section, you can set the working hours of your team associated with the Facebook inbox. Click on the check box for Enable business availability for this inbox if you have well-defined business hours. Once the check box is ticked, the below section opens up. You can write your message to be displayed to the customer during OFF business hours. You can also select the available business hours for each day of the week, along with the proper time zone. Click on the Update Business Hour Setting Button.

Last updated on Mar 25, 2025

How to setup an Instagram channel?

If you are using a self-hosted Chatwoot installation, please set up your Instagram app as described in this guide. For the cloud version of Chatwoot, please follow this guide. Prerequisites Before bringing your Instagram inbox to Chatwoot, you need to make sure that you have a Business Instagram account. Step 1. Set up a Business Instagram account if you don't have one. This guide from Instagram will help you do the same. Step 2. Make sure your Facebook page is connected to this Instagram account. To connect Facebook and Instagram, follow these steps: 1. Go to https://www.facebook.com/pages/?category=your_pages. 2. Select Your Page. 3. Go to Settings. 4. Select “Instagram” and connect your business account as shown below: Now switch back to Chatwoot App. How to create an Instagram inbox in Chatwoot? Step 1. Go to Settings → Inboxes → “Add Inbox”. Step 2. Click on the "Messenger" icon. Step 3. Click on the Facebook login button. It will open a new window for you to log in. Step 4. Authenticate with Facebook, select an Instagram account and select the page you want to connect. Enable all permissions shown in the list. This will help Chatwoot to perform all the desired actions smoothly. Step 5. "Add agents" to your Instagram inbox. You have successfully created an Instagram inbox. Whenever a customer sends a message to your Instagram account, you will be able to see and reply to it in Chatwoot.

Last updated on Apr 10, 2024

How to setup a Twitter channel?

NOTE: Twitter integration has been temporarily discontinued as a result of modifications made by Twitter to its APIs. This includes limitations on the number of requests raised per minute, plus substantial pricing changes. With a Twitter inbox, you can manage both tweets mentioning you and your Twitter DMs from Chatwoot. If you are using a self-hosted Chatwoot installation, please set up your Twitter inbox as described in this guide. For the cloud version of Chatwoot, please follow the steps below. Step 1. Go to Settings → Inboxes → “Add Inbox”. Step 2. Click on the "Twitter" icon. Step 3. Click on the "Sign in with Twitter" button. Step 4. You will be redirected to Twitter. Click on the "Authorize app" button. Step 5. "Add agents" to your Twitter inbox. You have successfully created a Twitter inbox. You will now be able to manage Twitter DMs as well as tweets mentioning you from Chatwoot. Additional Inbox settings​ Your freshly configured Twitter inbox should now appear in your list of inboxes. To see this and to make additional settings in your Twitter inbox, go to Settings → Inboxes → click the gear icon on the associated Twitter inbox. You will see the following screen: You can make some fundamental changes here. Settings tab​ Enable channel greeting. Once you enable this, Chatwoot will send a greeting message to new conversations created through your Twitter inbox. Enable CSAT. Once you enable this, your Customer Satisfaction survey will be launched every time a ticket is resolved. The CSAT results can be viewed later in the Reports section. Collaborators tab​ Click on the Collaborators tab. Here, you can add Agents to the Inbox or delete Agents already added to the Inbox. You can also enable or disable the automatic assignment of new conversations to the agents added to this inbox. Click on Update to save the changes. Business Hours tab​ Click on the Business Hours tab. In this section, you can set the working hours of your team associated with the Twitter inbox. Click on the check box for Enable business availability for this inbox if you have well-defined business hours. Once the check box is ticked, the below section opens up. You can write your message to be displayed to the customer during OFF business hours. You can also select the available business hours for each day of the week and the proper time zone. Click on the Update Business Hour Setting Button.

Last updated on Apr 10, 2024

How to setup a WhatsApp channel?

You can manage your WhatsApp business account conversations from Chatwoot. To set it up, you have two options to choose your provider: 1. WhatsApp Cloud API 2. Twilio We'll explain all the procedures in this guide. Prerequisites 1. You need a Meta Developer Account to setup WhatsApp API. If you dont have a developer account already click here to create one before proceeding 2. A valid phone number Using Whatsapp Cloud API WhatsApp Cloud API is available to all businesses and individual developers. Since it's hosted on Meta's cloud infrastructure, you no longer need to use third-party providers like Twilio, Zendesk, 360Dialog, or MessageBird (Business Solution Providers) to host your WhatsApp Business API. Set up your Business Profile Create a professional WhatsApp business profile with your company name, description, and contact information. A well-crafted profile helps customers recognise and trust your brand when they interact with you. Log into https://business.facebook.com and click the create portfolio button in the dropdown menu under Home Complete all required fields to set up your business portfolio. Once you have created your business portfolio, it's time to create your Facebook app. Setup your Facebook App Log into https://developers.facebook.com/ and click the Create App button. Complete the required fields Click "Other" from the options Choose "Business" as your app type Enter your contact email address and choose your business portfolio from the dropdown menu. Add Whatsapp to your app After creating your app, you'll be directed to the app dashboard. From there, click "Add Product" and choose WhatsApp from the available products list. Click the "Set up" button for WhatsApp Note: Before proceeding, verify your business with Meta. You'll need to submit documentation for verification, which is required for full API access. Set Up a Permanent WhatsApp Cloud API Access Token You'll need to create a System User and generate a permanent token to maintain secure, uninterrupted access. Log in to your Facebook developer account, select your WhatsApp app, and navigate to the Business settings page. Click on "System Users" and add a new system user with the role Admin Click the "Add Assets" button, select your app name, choose the "Full Control" option, and click "Assign assets." Return to the system users page, select your newly created system user from the list, and click the "Generate new token" button. Select your app from the dropdown menu Select these three permission levels for your token: - whatsapp_business_manage_events - whatsapp_business_management - whatsapp_business_messaging Copy and save your token Set Up WhatsApp Cloud API To create a new Meta business account, select "create a business account" from the dropdown menu. If you already have a business account, you can select it from the existing options. I'm selecting "create a business account". Click the continue button. Paste your permanent token here Add your production ready phone number Note: Meta requires a verified phone number for WhatsApp API setup. You can verify your number using an OTP (one-time password). Once you have added and verified your phone number, the next step is configuring a webhook to receive inbound messages. Connecting Your Chatwoot Account Let's connect your Chatwoot account with your WhatsApp Cloud API Copy your WhatsApp Phone Number ID and Business Account ID from this section Log into your Chatwoot account, go to Settings > Inbox, and select WhatsApp channel Enter your phone number, phone number ID, and business ID from your WhatsApp API setup Add team members to your WhatsApp inbox Copy the webhook URL and webhook verification token provided here Set Up Your Webhook We need to set up the WhatsApp webhook to receive incoming customer messages sent to your business number. Log into your Facebook developer account and navigate to WhatsApp > Configuration Paste your Chatwoot webhook URL and verification token here, then click "Verify and Save" Set up webhook permissions by subscribing to messages That's it—you're all done! You can now start sending WhatsApp messages through Chatwoot. FAQ’s How to configure multiple numbers under a single Facebook app? Facebook App allows configuring only a single Webhook endpoint. So create Inboxes in Chatwoot for all the numbers as required. You will need to configure the Webhook URL provided for only one of these inboxes in the Facebook app for all the other inboxes to work. What type of Whatsapp templates are supported by Chatwoot ? At the moment, Chatwoot only supports text-based templates. If your template has media headers or custom components like buttons, forms, etc, they won't be shown on the Chatwoot template selector. What are the supported media types?

Last updated on Mar 26, 2025

How to setup an Email channel?

To manage your customer support/ticketing email from Chatwoot, you can create an Email inbox in Chatwoot. This is a complete guide to getting your Email channel up and running. This document is divided into three parts: 1. Creating an Email inbox 2. Settings for Gmail users 3. Creating a Microsoft Email inbox Feel free to jump to any section. Let's roll. How to create an Email inbox in Chatwoot? Step 1. Open your Chatwoot dashboard. Go to Settings → Inboxes → Add Inbox. Step 2. Click on the "Email" icon. Step 3. Enter the channel name (how you’d like to address this channel), and your support email, and click the "Create Email Channel" button. P.S. You will also see an option to select Microsoft as an Email provider. If you use an Outlook/Microsoft email, scroll to the "How to create a Microsoft Email channel?" section (last section) instead. Step 4. "Add agents" to your email inbox. You have successfully created an Email inbox. Step 5. Configure your email settings. Go to Settings → Inboxes → Email Inbox settings → Configuration tab. You will see three main settings here: 1. Forward to Email 2. Configure IMAP 3. Configure SMTP All three settings are explained in the following sections. How to forward emails to Chatwoot inbox? Step 1. Copy the "Forward to email address" from the Configuration tab under inbox Settings. Step 2. Configure the copied email address as the forwarding email address in the email inbox. P.S. Check the Gmail section below to learn how to add a forwarding address in Gmail. Step 3. Send a mail to the forwarding address added inbox and check the Chatwoot email inbox for the new email. How to configure IMAP for the Email channel? If you are using Gmail, scroll down to the IMAP section for Gmail below. Step 1. Go to Settings → Inboxes → Email Inbox settings → Configuration tab. Step 2. Select the checkbox Enable IMAP configuration for this inbox. You’ll be able to see the required fields as follows. 1. Address 2. Port 3. Email 4. Password P.S. If using a 2FA-enabled Gmail, scroll down to the "How to generate app password for Gmail?" section. If using a regular Gmail account, scroll down to the "How to allow less secure access to Gmail?" section. Step 3. Test if everything is working fine. Send an email to the IMAP-configured email in Chatwoot. Check Chatwoot inbox for the new email. Open the email conversation in Chatwoot and verify the email details. How to configure SMTP for the Email channel? Step 1. Go to Settings -> Inboxes -> Email Inbox settings page. Step 2. Select the "Configuration" tab. Step 3. To enable SMTP, select the checkbox "Enable SMTP configuration for this inbox". Fill in the fields below and click the "Update SMTP settings" button. 1. Address 2. Port 3. Email 4. Password P.S. If using a 2FA-enabled Gmail, scroll down to the "How to generate app password for Gmail?" section. If using a regular Gmail account, scroll down to the "How to allow less secure access to Gmail?" section. 5. Domain Step 4. Open an existing email Conversation in Chatwoot. Step 5. Type a reply message for the conversation and click the "Send" button. Verify that mail has been delivered. You can also check the recipient inbox for the delivered email. Settings for Gmail users How to enable IMAP for Gmail inbox? Step 1. Open your Gmail inbox and click the Settings icon in the top right corner. Click the "See all settings" button. Step 2. Select the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab on the Settings page. Step 3. Choose the "Enable IMAP" option under the IMAP access section and click the "Save Changes" button. How to allow less secure access to Gmail? Note: This option is unavailable for Gmail accounts with enabled 2-step verification or those managed by an organization. Step 1. Go to Google Account Security. Step 2. Click on "Turn on access" under the "Less secure app access" section on the Security page. Step 3. Toggle "Allow less secure apps" to "ON". Now you can use your Gmail account password to configure IMAP/SMTP. How to generate app password for Gmail? Note: This option is for Gmail accounts with enabled 2-step verification or those managed by an organization. Step 1. Go to Google Account Security. Step 2. Click "App passwords" under the "Signing in to Google" section on the Security page. Step 3. Select the Mail app, select a device, and click "GENERATE". Use the generated password to configure IMAP/SMTP. How to add a forwarding address for Gmail? Step 1. Open your Gmail inbox and click the Settings icon in the top right corner. Click the "See all settings" button. Step 2. Select the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab on the Settings page. Step 3. Click the "Add a forwarding address" button. It will ask for the forwarding email address. Enter the one from Chatwoot and click the "Next" button. Step 4. Confirm the forwarding address in the browser popup. The email inbox will send a verification code to the forwarding email address. Step 5. Copy the verification code from the Chatwoot email inbox. Step 6. Paste the verification code and click the "Verify" button. Step 7. Select the "Forward a copy of incoming mail" option. Choose the required action from the second dropdown and click the "Save Changes" button. How to create a Microsoft Email channel? Step 1. Open your Chatwoot dashboard. Go to Settings → Inboxes → Add Inbox. Step 2. Click on the "Email" icon. Step 3. Click on the "Microsoft" icon. Step 4. Add your Outlook/Microsoft email. Step 5. Enter your Microsoft/Outlook credentials. Step 6. Allow the "Chatwoot" app to read and reply to your email. Step 7. "Add agents" to your email inbox. You have successfully created a Microsoft email inbox. Step 5. Configure your email settings. Go to Settings → Inboxes → Email Inbox settings → Configuration tab. Note: Please do not change anything in Settings for now, as we have used the default values for IMAP and SMTP. We will be making these fields non-editable soon for Outlook accounts. We use default IMAP settings to fetch emails and SMTP to send; you don't need to set anything through configuration. Step 6. If your access token expires, you must re-authorize your Microsoft account by going to Settings -> Configuration.

Last updated on Apr 10, 2024

How to create an API channel inbox?

To create and configure an API channel inbox in Chatwoot installations, follow the step described below. Setup the API channel Step 1. Go to Settings → Inboxes → “Add Inbox”. Step 2. Click on the "API" icon. Step 3. Provide a name for the channel and a callback URL. Here is an example: Step 4. "Add agents" to your API inbox. The inbox setup is complete. Send messages to the API channel To send messages to the API channel, ensure you understand the following models and nomenclature used in Chatwoot. 1. Channel: Channel defines the type of source of conversations. E.g., Facebook, Twitter, API, etc. 2. Inbox: You can create multiple sources of conversations of the same channel type. E.g., You can have more than one Facebook page connected to a Chatwoot account. Each page is called the inbox in Chatwoot. 3. Conversation: A Conversation is a collection of messages. 4. Contact: Each conversation has a real-life person associated with it, called a contact. 5. Contact Inboxes: This is the session for each contact in an inbox. A contact can have multiple sessions and multiple conversations in the same inbox. How to send a message in an API Channel? To send a message in an API channel, create a contact, initiate a conversation, and finally send the message. APIs require api_access_token in the request header. You can get this token by visiting your Profile settings → Access Token. 1. Create a contact Ref: API documentation Pass the inbox ID of the API channel along with other params specified. This would create a session for you automatically. A sample response would look like the one below. { "email": "string", "name": "string", "phone_number": "string", "thumbnail": "string", "additional_attributes": {}, "contact_inboxes": [ { "source_id": "string", "inbox": { "id": 0, "name": "string", "website_url": "string", "channel_type": "string", "avatar_url": "string", "widget_color": "string", "website_token": "string", "enable_auto_assignment": true, "web_widget_script": "string", "welcome_title": "string", "welcome_tagline": "string", "greeting_enabled": true, "greeting_message": "string" } } ], "id": 0, "availability_status": "string" } As you can see in the payload, you will be able to see the contact_inboxes and each contact_inbox will have a source_id. Source ID can be seen as the session identifier. You will use this source_id to create a new conversation as defined below. 2. Create a conversation Ref: API documentation Use the source_id received in the previous API call. You will receive a conversation ID which can be used to create a message. { "id": 0 } 3. Create a new message Ref: API documentation There are 2 types of messages. 1. Incoming: Messages sent by the end user is classified as an incoming message. 2. Outgoing: Messages sent by the agent is classified as an outgoing message. If you call the API with the correct content, you will receive a payload similar to this one: { "id": 0, "content": "This is a incoming message from API Channel", "inbox_id": 0, "conversation_id": 0, "message_type": 0, "content_type": null, "content_attributes": {}, "created_at": 0, "private": false, "sender": { "id": 0, "name": "Pranav", "type": "contact" } } If everything is successful, you will see the conversation on the dashboard as follows. You will be notified when a new message is created on the URL specified while creating the API channel. You can read about the message payload here. Receive messages using callback URL When a new message is created in the API channel, you will get a POST request to the Callback URL specified while creating the API channel. The payload would look like this. Find the full list of events supported by the webhook here. Event type: message_created { "id": 0, "content": "This is a incoming message from API Channel", "created_at": "2020-08-30T15:43:04.000Z", "message_type": "incoming", "content_type": null, "content_attributes": {}, "source_id": null, "sender": { "id": 0, "name": "contact-name", "avatar": "", "type": "contact" }, "inbox": { "id": 0, "name": "API Channel" }, "conversation": { "additional_attributes": null, "channel": "Channel::Api", "id": 0, "inbox_id": 0, "status": "open", "agent_last_seen_at": 0, "contact_last_seen_at": 0, "timestamp": 0 }, "account": { "id": 1, "name": "API testing" }, "event": "message_created" } Create Interfaces using client APIs Client APIs available for the API channel will help you build customer-facing interfaces for Chatwoot. These APIs are useful for cases like the ones listed below. 1. Use a custom chat interface instead of the Chatwoot chat widget. 2. Build conversational interfaces into your mobile apps. 3. Add Chatwoot to other platforms for which Chatwoot doesn't have an official SDK. Creating customer objects You can create and retrieve customer data objects using the inbox_identifier and customer_identifier. Inbox Identifier You can obtain the inbox_identifier from your API channel -> Settings -> Configuration. Customer Identifier The customer_identifier or the source_id can be obtained when creating the customer using the create API. You will need to store this identifier on your client-side to make further requests on behalf of the customer. This can be done in cookies, local storage etc. Available APIs The Available Client APIs are documented here. Some of the things you can do with the APIs are: - Create, View and Update Contact - Create and List Conversations - Create, List and Update Messages HMAC Authentication The Client APIs also support HMAC Authentication. The HMAC token for the Channel can be obtained via running the following on your rails console. # replace api_inbox_id with your inbox id Inbox.find(api_inbox_id).channel.hmac_token Connecting to the Chatwoot WebSockets To get real-time updates from the agent dashboard, connect to Chatwoot WebSockets using the following URL. <your installation url>/cable Authenticating your WebSocket connection After subscribing using the customer's pubsub_token, you will receive events directed toward your customer object. The pubsub_token is provided during the customer creation API call. Example const connection = new WebSocket('ws://localhost:3000/cable'); connection.send(JSON.stringify({ command:"subscribe", identifier: "{\\"channel\\":\\"RoomChannel\\",\\"pubsub_token\\":\\""+ customer_pubsub_token+"\\"}" })); Find the full list of events supported by WebSockets here. Implementation Here is an example chat interface build over the Client APIs.

Last updated on Apr 10, 2024

How to Set Up a WhatsApp Channel with Twilio?

Manage your WhatsApp business account conversations through Chatwoot. You have two provider options: 1. WhatsApp Cloud API (preferred way) 2. Twilio This guide will walk you through the setup process. Prerequisites 1. A valid phone number 2. A Twilio account. If you don't have one, create it here: https://www.twilio.com/en-us/messaging/channels/whatsapp Using Twilio API There are two ways to use Twilio with Chatwoot: 1. Regular way without messaging service 2. With messaging service Setting Up Twilio Without Messaging Service Log into your Twilio account and click on "Create New Account" Complete all required fields and finish the account creation process Copy your Account SID, Auth Token, and phone number. If you haven't added a phone number to your Twilio account yet, do so before proceeding. Log into your Chatwoot account, click on Settings > Inbox > Add Inbox and select Whatsapp Enter your Account SID, Auth Token, and WhatsApp number here Add agents to manage your WhatsApp inbox Go to Settings > Inbox, select your inbox, click on Configuration, and copy your webhook URL Return to your Twilio dashboard, navigate to Integrations, paste your webhook URL, and click Save. That's it! You're all set to start sending WhatsApp messages through Chatwoot. Setting Up Twilio with a Messaging Service Setting up Twilio with a messaging service requires additional steps compared to the regular setup. Navigate to Messaging > Services and click "Create Messaging Service" button. Fill in all the required fields in the subsequent steps till you reach here. Copy your messaging service ID and click “Save”. Log into your Chatwoot account. When creating an inbox, check the "Use Twilio Message Service" box. Then copy and paste your Account ID, Message Service ID, and Token into the appropriate fields. Go to your Twilio dashboard, navigate to Phone Numbers > Manage > Active Numbers, and paste your webhook URL here. That's it—you're all set! You can now start sending WhatsApp messages through Chatwoot. FAQ’s What types of WhatsApp templates does Chatwoot support when using Twilio? Currently, Chatwoot does not support templates with Twilio. I'm using Twilio Studio. Are there additional steps needed to make it work? If you use Twilio Studio for a custom conversation flow, updating the webhook URL directly will break your existing integration. Follow these steps instead: 1. Identify the step in your flow where you want the “agent handoff” to happen. 2. Add a “make http request widget” as shown below with the given values. 3. Ensure your flow can handle user responses to agent replies.

Last updated on Mar 25, 2025