Channels
Where customers reach your agents: WhatsApp (quick start or the official Meta Cloud API), a website chat window, and the API.
A channel is where customers reach an agent. Open Channels and choose Add channel, or open an agent and add one there. Each channel is answered by one agent, and you can give a channel to another agent at any time from the list on the Channels page.
All channels share the same behaviour:
- Every answer uses your credits, and when credits run out the agent stops answering (see Plans, credits and billing).
- Every conversation shows under Conversations, and you can take over any of them (see Agents).
- The Answer on switch next to a channel pauses it. A paused channel does not answer.
- Each conversation is answered at most 6 times a minute and 150 times a day. Beyond that, messages are saved but not answered, and the channel shows a note.
| Channel | Good for | You need |
|---|---|---|
| WhatsApp, quick start | Trying it in a minute, with any number | A phone with WhatsApp |
| WhatsApp, official | Staying within WhatsApp's terms | A Meta Business account and a number registered for the platform |
| Website chat window | Customers on your site | Access to paste one line into your pages |
| API | Your own app, backend or form | A server that can make HTTPS requests |
Choose how to connect. You can switch later: disconnect one and connect the other.
If your plan does not include a WhatsApp number, the WhatsApp card says so and offers See plans. The number of WhatsApp numbers is set by your plan; the website chat window and the API do not count against it.
Quick start (scan a code)
Scan a code to link a number, like WhatsApp Web. It works for any number, including one that has never been verified as a business.
It is an unofficial link
WhatsApp can restrict numbers that send automated messages. Use a number you can afford to lose, not your only one.
On the agent's WhatsApp card, or under Channels, choose Quick start, then Connect a number.
On your phone open WhatsApp, then Settings, Linked devices, Link a device, and scan the code. You can link with a phone number instead: Kumoda shows a pairing code to enter. The code refreshes every few seconds, and the page notices when the scan works.
Send a message to your number from another phone. The reply, and the conversation, appear in the app.
What to know:
- It answers one-to-one chats only, never groups.
- If you type in a chat yourself, the agent stays quiet in that chat for eight hours, or until you hand the chat back.
- You can set the name, about line and photo customers see from the number's card. WhatsApp does not review these on a number linked this way.
- Change connection key replaces the secret in the address WhatsApp reports to. Use it if you think that address was seen by someone else. Messages keep arriving.
- Pause stops answering; Disconnect removes the link.
Official WhatsApp Business (your own Meta app)
This runs through your own Meta WhatsApp Business account, so your messages go through Meta's WhatsApp Business Platform under your account. It takes longer to set up: you need a Meta Business account and a number registered for the platform. Check Meta's current rules about using the same number in the WhatsApp phone app.
1. Connect in Kumoda. In your Meta app at developers.facebook.com, open WhatsApp, then API setup. In Kumoda choose Official WhatsApp Business and fill in:
| Field | Where to find it |
|---|---|
| Phone number ID | The long number under API setup, next to your phone number. Digits only. |
| Access token | A permanent token from a Meta system user with the whatsapp_business_messaging permission. A temporary token expires in a day. |
| App secret | In your Meta app, App settings, Basic. Kumoda uses it to check that a message really came from Meta. |
| WhatsApp Business Account ID (optional) | In WhatsApp Manager, next to your account name. Add it now, or later from a conversation, to send template messages after 24 hours. |
Choose Connect with Meta. Meta checks the details before anything is saved. The token and secret are encrypted and never shown again.
2. One more step, in your Meta app. Kumoda then shows a Callback URL and a Verify token:
In your app at developers.facebook.com, open WhatsApp, then Configuration.
Under Webhook choose Edit, and paste the Callback URL and the Verify token. Meta checks them as you save.
Subscribe to the messages field.
Send a message to your number from another phone. Replies appear in the app.
The verify token is shown only once. If you lose it, use New verify token to get another.
What to know:
- WhatsApp's 24-hour rule applies. You can write to a customer yourself within 24 hours of their last message. After that the conversation shows Template needed, and you can send an approved template message if you added your WhatsApp Business Account ID.
- Meta does not tell Kumoda when you reply from your own app, so the agent cannot step back by itself. Pause the channel when you want to take over, or take over in Conversations.
- The name and photo customers see are set in Meta's WhatsApp Manager, where Meta reviews them.
- If Meta stops accepting the token (it may have expired or been revoked), Kumoda says so. Disconnect, then connect again with a new permanent token.
Website chat window
A bubble on your website that opens a chat with the agent. It uses the same conversations, credits and handover as WhatsApp.
Under Channels, choose Add channel, then Website chat, and pick the agent.
Set how it looks and who may use it:
- Title (up to 40 characters), Colour, and the First message the visitor sees (up to 200 characters).
- Websites that may show it: one address per line, like
https://yourshop.com. Leave it empty to allow any site. Addresses must start withhttps://(plainhttp://is accepted only forlocalhost), and you can list up to 10. - Ask for the visitor's name first.
Choose Create the chat window, then copy the line Kumoda shows and paste it just before </body> on every page where the chat should appear. It looks like this, with your own key:
<script src="https://agents.kumoda.io/widget.js" data-key="YOUR_KEY" async></script>You can Save changed settings, Pause the window (it is hidden from visitors), or Remove it, which removes its conversations too.
The window remembers a random visitor id in the visitor's browser, so a visitor's conversation continues when they come back. A visitor can only reach the agent you chose.
API channel
Lets your own system (a website backend, an app, a form) send a customer's message to an agent and read the reply. It uses the same conversations, credits and handover as WhatsApp.
Under Channels, choose Add channel, then API, pick the agent, and choose Create the API connection.
Copy the Secret now. It is shown only once, and only a hash of it is kept. If you lose it, use New secret: the old one stops working at once.
Send messages to the Address shown, which looks like https://agents.kumoda.io/api/v1/agents/YOUR_KEY/messages, with the secret as a bearer token:
curl -X POST https://agents.kumoda.io/api/v1/agents/YOUR_KEY/messages \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_SECRET" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"contact":"customer-123","text":"Hi, are you open today?","name":"Ada","email":"ada@example.com"}'An agent has one API connection, and an account can have up to 10. A paused connection refuses messages. The API is for servers: browsers cannot call it directly. Every field, the replies and the limits are in the API reference.