Connect your first channel

Wassla supports six inbound channels: WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger (Facebook Page), Twilio SMS, Twilio Voice, and an embeddable web widget. The fastest path to a working AI agent is to open the Channels page, pick the one channel your customers already use most, and connect it — the other five can wait. This guide explains which channel to start with and links to the per-channel setup walkthroughs.

Open the Channels page

Sign into your workspace and click Channels in the left navigation. You will land on the Inbound tab, which shows a grid of six tiles — one per channel — each with a brand glyph, a one-line description, a connection chip, and either a Connect or Manage button.

Only workspace owners and admins can connect channels. If you see a disabled Connect button with the hint "Ask an admin to connect this," ask a workspace owner to either grant you the admin role or run the connect flow for you. The Outbound tab next to Inbound is for campaigns, not channel setup — stay on Inbound for everything below.

The order of the tiles is fixed and is not a priority hint. Pick whichever channel matches where your real customers reach you today.

Pick the right channel to start with

Wassla is built for messaging-first customer teams worldwide, where WhatsApp tends to carry the highest inbound volume. For most teams the right first move is WhatsApp; teams whose volume sits elsewhere should pick whichever channel matches their actual inbound mix. Use the guidance below to confirm.

If you take most enquiries on WhatsApp

Start with WhatsApp. It uses Meta's Cloud API through an embedded signup flow — three clicks inside a Meta-hosted popup, no third-party gateway, and your existing verified business number stays yours. Wassla stores the access token and phone_number_id and registers the webhook for you. See Connect WhatsApp to Wassla.

If your audience lives on Instagram

Start with Instagram. Wassla answers DMs, story replies, and mentions. You need an Instagram Business or Creator account linked to a Facebook Page first; the link takes a few minutes inside the Instagram app and the Facebook Page settings. See Connect Instagram DMs to Wassla.

If you run a busy Facebook Page

Start with Messenger. Wassla handles Page messages through the same Meta OAuth flow as WhatsApp and Instagram. The tile is labelled "Messenger" inside the product, but the underlying connection is to a Facebook Page (the API is the Messenger Platform). See Connect a Facebook Page to Wassla.

If your customers call or text a phone number

Start with Twilio. Both SMS and Twilio Voice are delivered through the Twilio Setup card at the bottom of the Channels page. You buy a number in the Twilio console, point its inbound SMS and Voice webhooks at the Wassla edge functions shown on screen, paste the number into Wassla, and you are live. The same Twilio number can carry both SMS and voice. See Connect Twilio SMS and Voice.

If you want chat on your own website

Start with the web widget. It is a single script tag that drops an AI-powered chat bubble on any page. The Web widget tile always shows as Connected because the widget is workspace-native, but you cannot copy the embed snippet until you create a widget key under Settings, Developers, Widget keys. The key carries the allowed-origins list that locks the widget to your real domains. See Embed the Wassla web widget.

Still unsure?

If your business is brand new and you do not yet have an established channel, start with the web widget. It works with any site, requires no third-party account, and gives you a complete end-to-end test of an AI agent answering a real visitor.

Walk through a typical connection

The exact clicks depend on the channel, but every connection follows the same four-step pattern.

  1. Click Connect on the channel tile. WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger redirect you into Meta's OAuth flow. SMS and Voice smooth-scroll the page down to the Twilio Setup card. The Web widget tile opens a modal with the embed snippet (or a link to create a widget key if you do not have one yet).
  2. Approve permissions or paste credentials. For Meta channels, sign in to Facebook and pick the business, page, or number you want to grant. Wassla only requests permissions inside the WhatsApp, Instagram, or Page surface — no ads, no profile, no Page management beyond messaging. For Twilio, paste the phone number in international format (Wassla normalises to E.164). For the widget, copy the script tag.
  3. Verify delivery. Open the channel's Manage sheet and click Test connection. The button runs a "ping" through the text-chat pipeline and confirms the AI is responding end-to-end. Then send a real test message — DM your Instagram account from a teammate, text your Twilio number from your mobile, or click the chat bubble on your own site — and confirm it lands in the Inbox.
  4. Assign an agent. Inside the Manage sheet, pick which AI agent should answer under the Agent assignment dropdown. Until you assign an agent, inbound messages are received and stored but no reply is sent.

If a connection fails with the banner "Your current plan doesn't include {{channel}}," your billing plan does not yet cover that surface and you will see a See plans CTA. See Change your billing plan to upgrade. For any other connection error, the banner shows the underlying error code and a Try connecting again button; see Channel troubleshooting for the diagnostic checklist.

What happens after you connect

Once a channel is live, three things start working automatically:

  • The unified inbox. Every conversation — WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, SMS, voice transcript, and web chat — lands in one queue, sorted by recency, with full search and filters.
  • The AI agent. The agent you assigned answers grounded in your knowledge base, in the customer's language, and hands off to a human teammate when the conversation needs escalation.
  • Audit and billing. Every inbound message and AI reply is logged. Spend is metered in credits and visible on the Billing page in real time. New workspaces start in the free pre-live (infra_only) billing mode where AI replies are off by default — flip the workspace to demo or live mode in Settings, Billing when you are ready to let the agent reply to real customers.

If you connected WhatsApp, you will also see a WhatsApp Call card appear below the channel grid. That card lets you reuse the same WhatsApp business number to answer voice calls with a voice agent, on top of chat. It is optional and you can configure it later.

Add more channels later

You do not need to connect all six channels. Most teams start with one or two, train the agent against real conversations for a few days, and only add the next channel once they are happy with the answers. The Channels page is always available, every channel shares the same agents and knowledge base, and switching on a second channel later does not require any data migration.

When you are ready, walk through the per-channel guide for the next one in the list above.