Channels

Users can use your chat bot via a channel. The channel you choose for your bot depends on where its users will most likely look for help or hang out.

For example, if you are building an internal HR bot, we think it's best to put it on the company HR portal using a web widget, or perhaps on Facebook Workplace. However, if you're building a bot that targets a young(er) demographic, Facebook Messenger might be a better channel.

Publishing your bot on a channel is quite easy if you follow our channel guides:

pageFacebook MessengerpageWhatsApp Business APIpageGoogle Assistantpage🚨Web V1 [Deprecated soon]pageVoicepageWorkplace from FacebookpageWebhook channelpageSinch Conversation API

Multi-channel

Chatlayer.ai allows you to connect one bot to multiple channels at the same time.

If you want your users to follow a different flow based on the channel they are using, you can use our multi-channel functionality. To do this, add a Go To to the point in your flow where you wish to diverge, based on the channel.

Within this 'Go To', guide the user based on the internal.channel variable, which contains the channel variable. In the image below you can see a bot that is connected to Facebook Messenger and Web chat; in order to offer the best experience in each channel, it diverts the users to the channel-specific flow by creating a condition: if internal.channel variable equals "facebook", create a 'Go To' to the Facebook flow; if not (else if), create a 'Go To' to the Web flow:

The values for internal.channel correspond to the channel names:

Channel namevalues for internal.channel

All channels managed through the Sinch Conversation API (SMS, RCS, WhatsApp, Viber, Instagram, Telegram, LINE)

sinchConversationAPI

Amazon

amazon

App integration channel (at the moment: Freshdesk Messaging webchat)

AppIntegrationChannel

Chat widget

web

Facebook Messenger

facebook

Facebook Workplace

facebookWorkplace

Google Home

googleHome

Intercom

intercom

Phone (through legacy CM.com)

cmPhone

Sinch Contact Pro

SinchInboxBotChannel

Sinch Voice

SinchVoiceBotChannel

Sparkcentral

SparkcentralBotChannel

Voice (through legacy CM.com)

voice

Webhook

webHook

Whatsapp (through legacy CM WhatsApp)

whatsapp

WhatsApp through ACL

ACLWhatsappBotChannel

WhatsApp through Wavy

WavyWhatsappBotChannel

Zendesk

ZendeskChatBotChannel

Channel comparison

The table below gives an overview of which features are available in which channels. If a feature is not listed below, it's available for all channels.

Web widget

FB Messenger (native) & FB Workplace

Sinch Conversation API channels

Wavy WhatsApp

ACL WhatsApp

Webhook

Voice

Text message

Media

Button

Quick reply

Carousel (generic template)

List (web)

File

Rich text

Voice message

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