Choose a Bow Chat channel

Pick the channel by the job

Every channel in Bow Chat is an inbox. Contacts, conversations, assignment, notes, search, and reporting work across them, but the transport rules are different.

• WhatsApp Business Platform: Use approved templates, notifications, campaigns and higher-volume sending through the official API, with delivery events and quality controls. Meta approval, consent, category, quality and messaging rules apply.

• WhatsApp Web connection: Share existing business-number conversations for low-volume, consented operational work. The linked session can disconnect or be restricted; it has no bulk-send or delivery guarantee.

• Microsoft email: Share a licensed user mailbox through Microsoft OAuth, with mailbox import and replies. Tenant consent and IMAP/SMTP policy apply; separate Exchange shared-mailbox selection is not available.

• Instagram messages: Handle customer-initiated DMs to a professional account through direct Instagram consent and a shared agent inbox. Account eligibility, granted permissions and messaging-window rules apply.

• Facebook Messenger: Handle messages to a business Facebook Page through Page consent, a webhook and a shared inbox. General customer onboarding awaits separate Messenger approval and setup; confirm availability with Support.

• Telegram bot: Handle private one-to-one messages to a dedicated bot, using its token, one webhook destination and inbox collaborators. The person must start the bot; personal accounts and Telegram groups are not supported.

• Customer Rooms: Keep a long-running relationship's messages, files, status and next actions in a business-owned room. Customers enter through a private link and enable browser notifications separately.

You can combine them. The normal durable design is WhatsApp for discovery and short notifications, and a Customer Room for the relationship and documents that must still make sense months later.

WhatsApp Business Platform

Use the official API for planned outbound traffic, approved templates, campaign reporting, and delivery-state handling. A successful API response means the request was accepted; it does not by itself mean the message was delivered.

Meta prices delivered messages by recipient market and category. Bow Chat keeps Meta and provider charges visible rather than hiding them inside an unlimited promise.

WhatsApp Web connection

Connect the number the business already uses by scanning a QR code. Existing chats and groups sync into a shared inbox. This is useful for human-scale service work and established groups.

A linked Web session does not bypass WhatsApp policy. Do not use it for unsolicited or high-volume automated sending. Recipient reports, repeated unwanted contact, or detected automation can lead to limits or loss of the number. See Safe use of a WhatsApp Web connection.

Customer Rooms

Send one private link. The customer confirms once in the browser and reaches a branded room; there is no app-store download. They can add it to their home screen and separately enable notifications. Messages, photos, files, current status, and the next action stay together.

See Customer access and recovery.

A controlled fallback

A second channel should be a recovery path, not an automatic duplicate sender. Only retry after a terminal failure, keep one idempotency record for the business event, allow at most one approved fallback, and never fall back after an opt-out, block, policy failure, or consent failure.

The delivery and fallback guide defines the state machine.

Microsoft email

For a licensed user mailbox, follow Connect Microsoft 365 and its administrator checklist. If your address is an Exchange shared mailbox accessed by delegates, read Shared Microsoft 365 mailboxes before connecting. Sharing an inbox among Bow Chat teammates and connecting an Exchange shared mailbox are different operations.

Instagram, Messenger and Telegram

Follow Connect Instagram messages, Messenger setup and availability, or Connect a Telegram bot. Each guide covers channel prerequisites, the required inbox collaborator step and a real incoming-message/reply check. Instagram approval does not grant Messenger access, and Telegram bot setup does not connect a personal Telegram account.