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Connect a channel

A channel is where your agent talks to people. Connecting one creates a binding between this agent and that channel, which the agent answers on as soon as the binding is active.

This document describes connecting a channel and managing the binding afterwards. To decide which channel to connect, see Choose a channel.

Before you begin

  • Have the business details the channel asks for: legal name, website, contact email, and the brand assets it requires. RCS needs a logo at specific dimensions and a banner image.
  • For an unmanaged binding, have your provider credentials ready.
  • Decide whether Anychat runs the provider account or you do. See Managed and unmanaged bindings.

Connect the channel

  1. Open the agent and go to Build ยท Channels.
  2. In the Available section, find the channel and click Connect.
  3. Choose the setup mode, then fill in the form. Fields marked From agent are pre-filled from your agent's identity. Fields marked Locked after submit cannot be changed later without contacting support, so check them twice.
  4. Click Continue to review, check the summary, and Submit.
  5. Read the result page. Either the channel is already Active, or provisioning has started and the page says how long it usually takes.

Follow provisioning

Every binding shows a status pill, and its detail page keeps a full history of changes.

Status What it means Who acts next
Requested Your managed setup request was received. Anychat
Provisioning Registration and verification are in flight with the carrier or platform. Anychat and the platform
Action required Something needs you. The note on the binding says what, such as verifying your domain. You
Active Live. The agent answers on this channel. Nobody
Failed Setup hit a terminal problem, and the note explains it. You or Anychat support
Disabled Turned off by you or by Anychat. Re-enable it from the detail page. You

Managed setups involve real-world verification and take time: RCS typically three to seven business days, WhatsApp one to two weeks, SMS 10DLC registration one to three weeks, and Apple Messages several weeks. Unmanaged bindings are active immediately.

Verify the connection

A channel can read Active and still be unable to send or receive, because the credentials were stored and nobody checked whether they work. The emulator cannot tell you either, since it uses a simulated transport and never touches your provider.

Test connection, on the channel's detail page, asks the provider to prove the credentials work. Nothing is sent to anyone. Read the checks top to bottom:

  • Stored credentials are well-formed. The local check: keys that parse, and no value in the wrong field.
  • The provider accepts our credentials. A real authenticated call. The provider's own error text is shown when it fails.
  • This number can receive messages. Only when you supply a phone number.

Some providers can prove their credentials only by asking about a specific handset, so add the phone number you are testing from to run the live checks. Without one they come back as skipped rather than failed. A channel whose provider has no test yet says so.

Run it right after connecting a channel, and first whenever an agent has gone quiet on one.

When messages don't reach the agent

Test connection checks the credentials Anychat uses to send. Messages coming in are checked separately: your provider signs each webhook it delivers, and Anychat rejects any webhook whose signature doesn't match the secret saved on the channel. From the provider's side the message was delivered, but the agent never sees it.

When that happens, the channel's detail page opens with a red banner, Messages sent to this agent are not reaching it. The banner names the credential to fix and says when the rejections started, and Update credentials opens the form to replace it. The Channels list flags the channel too. Its status stays Active throughout, because the problem is the credentials, not the channel. The banner clears as soon as a webhook is accepted, and saving new credentials clears it straight away.

Under the webhook receiver URL, the detail page also shows when the last webhook was accepted. If a test message produces neither a banner nor a new accepted time, the provider is not calling Anychat at all. Check the webhook URL in your provider's dashboard.

On a channel that isn't launched yet, a message from a number that isn't on the early-access list is dropped without a reply. The detail page then shows the last four digits of the most recent such number, so you can tell which phone to add.

Manage the binding

Click any connected channel to open its detail page.

Disable and Enable take the agent off a channel and put it back without losing the setup. Remove drops the binding entirely.

Message pacing, under Delivery, sets a minimum delay of 0.25 to 3 seconds between consecutive messages to one person on this channel. Turn it on so a multi-message reply arrives one bubble after another rather than all at once, or to keep messages in order on a provider that does not guarantee delivery ordering. It is off by default.

Opt-out and compliance, on RCS and SMS bindings, sets the compliance messages. They are on by default, with standard wording, so most channels need nothing here.

  • Replies to STOP, START and HELP says who answers those words. On Google RBM it's always Anychat, and on Twilio always Twilio. On Vonage and Webex Connect you choose; choose the provider only if it answers them itself, such as Vonage with Opt-Out Assist on.
  • First-message notice turns the notice on or off and sets its wording. Turn it off if your opening message already says how to stop and get help.
  • Edit on each reply Anychat sends changes its wording. A preview fills in your agent's name and contact details, and Reset to default restores the standard text. When the provider replies, these rows show the suggested wording to give your provider instead.

Whatever you set here, a person who replies STOP receives nothing more until they reply START.

Rotate credentials, on unmanaged bindings, opens the form prefilled with the binding's current configuration, so changing one value does not mean retyping the rest. Secrets are the exception: keys and tokens are never shown back, so their fields start blank and marked Currently set. Leave one blank to keep it, or paste a new value to replace it.

History lists every status change, when it happened, and who made it.

Launch it

A channel is connected before it is launched. Until you launch it, only the numbers on its early-access list reach the agent there. See Early access and launch.

What's next