Messaging Channels

Setting up SMS, WhatsApp, Signal, and other text channels so your team can receive and respond to messages.

This guide covers Desktop, iOS, and Android. Where the experience differs, platform-specific instructions are noted.

Your hotline can receive messages over SMS, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, and RCS in addition to voice calls. Messages arrive in a unified Conversations view where your team can read and respond.

Setting up SMS

SMS uses the same telephony provider as your voice calls (Twilio, SignalWire, Vonage, or Plivo). To enable it:

1. Go to Settings and find the messaging section
2. Toggle SMS on
3. Configure a welcome message — this is the automatic reply sent when someone texts your number for the first time
4. Point your provider’s SMS webhook to your hotline’s SMS endpoint (shown in settings)

Setting up WhatsApp

WhatsApp requires a Meta Cloud API account. To enable it:

1. Toggle WhatsApp on in settings
2. Enter your Meta Cloud API credentials: access token, verify token, and phone number ID
3. Configure your WhatsApp webhook in the Meta dashboard to point to your hotline’s WhatsApp endpoint

WhatsApp has a 24-hour messaging window — you can only reply to someone within 24 hours of their last message. After that, you need to use a pre-approved template message to restart the conversation.

Setting up Signal

Signal is handled by the signal-notifier sidecar service. To enable it:

1. Set up the signal-notifier service (see the deploy documentation)
2. Toggle Signal on in settings and enter the shared bearer token
3. Configure the Signal bridge to forward messages to your hotline’s Signal webhook endpoint

Incoming Signal messages are end-to-end encrypted and arrive in the Conversations view like any other channel.

Setting up Telegram and RCS

Telegram and RCS (Google RBM) can be enabled similarly to WhatsApp. Contact your admin or see the provider setup guides for credentials and webhook configuration.

Responding to messages

All channels feed into the unified Conversations view. Incoming messages are assigned to users based on your routing rules.

Responding by platform

On Desktop: Open the Conversations section from the sidebar. Claimed conversations appear in your queue. Type your reply and press Enter or click Send.

On iOS: Open the Conversations tab. Tap a conversation to open it. Type your reply at the bottom of the screen.

On Android: Open the Conversations section. Tap a conversation to open the thread. Type and send your reply.

Message encryption

All incoming messages are encrypted as soon as they arrive on the server. The server processes the plaintext only long enough to encrypt it — the plaintext is never stored. Only users with access to the conversation can read the content.