How Channels Work
One bot serves every channel it is connected to. Connect a bot to WhatsApp and it is the same bot that answers on your website: same knowledge base, same personality, same workflows, same leads table.
The Four Channels#
| Channel | How it connects |
|---|---|
| Website snippet | A code snippet you paste on your site |
| WordPress | The official plugin |
| Your WhatsApp Business account, authorised through Meta | |
| Your Instagram Professional account, for DMs |
The first two are served directly and are yours to install. WhatsApp and Instagram are authorised through Meta and need Growth or above, which is where channel connections start.
Connected, and Active#
Every channel card shows whether the channel is connected. WhatsApp and Instagram also have a switch.
Connected means Chatleadr has seen the channel working. The website card reads Connected once the widget has loaded on your site, and the WordPress card once the plugin has connected with its secret key. For WhatsApp and Instagram it means Meta has authorised the account, and the card shows the number or the handle the bot answers on.
Active is the switch on the WhatsApp and Instagram cards. Switching one off stops the bot answering there while leaving the connection in place, so restoring it later does not require going through Meta's authorisation again. The website and WordPress cards have no switch. To take the widget down, remove the snippet from the page or deactivate the plugin, or archive the bot.
What Carries Across, and What Does Not#
Everything that defines the bot carries: the knowledge base, the persona, the goal, the workflows and their descriptions.
What changes is rendering. A workflow message is transformed into what the destination channel can display, and anything it cannot display is converted rather than dropped. See what differs per channel.
To say something different on one channel, branch on the channel variable in a Decision node.
Where Leads From Each Channel Land#
Every channel writes to the same leads table, and each row shows the channel of the conversation it came from, so new leads arrive in one place. A lead with no conversation attached to it shows as web.
Common Questions#
Do I Need a Separate Bot for WhatsApp?#
No. Connect the channel to the bot you already have. A second bot means a second knowledge base to keep in step with the first.
If I Change the Knowledge Base, Does WhatsApp Get It?#
Immediately. There is one knowledge base per bot and every channel reads it.
Can Two Bots Share One WhatsApp Number?#
No. A connection binds a channel account to one bot. One number serving two jobs is one bot with two workflows.
Does a Conversation on WhatsApp Cost the Same as One on the Website?#
Yes. A conversation is counted the same way on every channel. See what counts as a conversation for how thread length affects the count.