Channels

Connect SMS, email, live chat, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Instagram to Pluspoint so every customer conversation lands in one shared inbox.

A channel connects Pluspoint to one of the places your customers message you: an SMS gateway, an SMTP mailbox, a WhatsApp number, a Facebook Page, an Instagram account, or your website’s live chat widget. Once it is connected, its conversations appear in the shared Inbox. Outbound channels also become selectable when you send campaigns and surveys.

Before you start

You need to be the account Owner, or belong to a team with full settings access. Other users do not see the Channels tab at all.

At least one Team with messaging access must already exist — every channel has to be assigned to one. Create teams first in Teams.

Your subscription must be active and within its location and user limits. Otherwise the Channels and Integrations tabs are greyed out.

Where to find it

Settings (left sidebar, footer area) → Channels tab, or go to https://app.pluspoint.io/account-settings/channels.

Channel types

Channel type	Inbound conversations	Outbound sending	Requires
SMS	Only with Twilio and an empty Sender ID	Yes	Your own account with Twilio, TurboSMS, Lifecell or SMS.to
Email	Only when Receive emails in inbox (IMAP) is on	Yes	Your own SMTP mailbox, plus IMAP for inbound
WhatsApp (Beta)	Yes	Yes	A phone with WhatsApp, paired by QR code
WhatsApp Business	Yes	Yes, within the 24-hour window or by template	An active WhatsApp integration (Meta Cloud API)
Live-chat	Yes	Only when missed-conversation notifications are on	Nothing extra — you paste a snippet on your website
Facebook Messenger	Yes	No	An active Facebook integration and a Page linked to a location
Instagram	Yes	No	An active Facebook integration and a professional Instagram account

“Outbound sending” means starting the contact: campaigns, survey invitations and new conversations. Agents can always reply inside a conversation a customer has already opened, on every channel type. Facebook Messenger and Instagram are inbound only, so you cannot open a thread there from Pluspoint. A live-chat channel appears in the new-conversation picker only when Notify customers about missed conversations is switched on for it.

There is no limit on how many channels an account can have, and you can connect several channels of the same type.

Every channel belongs to a team

Team ownership controls who sees a channel’s conversations in the Inbox. Members of the owning team see them. The account Owner and anyone with full settings access see everything.

Team is required in every channel form, and the dropdown lists only teams that hold messaging access.
Changing a channel’s team moves its conversations to the new team in a single step. Conversations that were manually escalated to a different team stay where they are. If an open conversation’s assignee has no access to the new team, it goes back to the queue; a resolved one keeps its assignee. Every moved conversation records the change in its activity history.
You cannot delete a team that owns channels, or take away its messaging access, until you reassign those channels.

The Link this channel to a location or brand toggle is a separate, optional setting (live chat always asks for one). It decides which location or brand a conversation is counted against. It grants nobody access. Pick either a location or a brand, never both. On single-location accounts the toggle is hidden, and the channel is linked to that location automatically.

Add a channel

Go to Settings → Channels and select Add new channel.
Choose the channel type and select Continue. Types whose integration is missing are greyed out.
Fill in the type-specific form. Channel name and Team are required in every one of them.
Select Done. Live-chat and WhatsApp (Beta) have further steps after the form.

Back clears everything you typed on the form step, so use Cancel if you only want to close the wizard.

Edit or delete a channel

Select the pencil icon on a channel card to open the edit modal; Delete sits in the same modal.

A few fields are fixed once the channel exists: the Facebook or Instagram page, the WhatsApp Business phone number, and the WhatsApp (Beta) number. Everything else — name, team, location or brand link, credentials, live-chat settings — stays editable.

Deleting a channel marks its unfinished campaigns as failed and closes all of its conversations. Those conversations remain readable in the Inbox under the Archived channel filter. You cannot delete a channel while running or scheduled campaigns target it, while an automation step uses it, or while a live-chat channel relies on it for missed-conversation notifications.

Articles in this section

Live chat channel — build the pre-chat form, set business hours, position the widget and install the snippet.
Facebook Messenger channel — attach a Facebook Page so Messenger threads reach your inbox.
Instagram channel — receive Instagram direct messages and story mentions.
WhatsApp Business channel — bind a Cloud API phone number and work inside the 24-hour service window.
WhatsApp (Beta) channel — pair an ordinary WhatsApp number by QR code, within its daily sending limits.
SMS channel — connect Twilio, TurboSMS, Lifecell or SMS.to, and enable two-way replies.
Email channel — configure SMTP for sending and IMAP for receiving.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
No Channels tab in Settings	You are not the Owner and none of your teams holds full settings access.	Ask an administrator to grant your team full settings access — see Users and permissions.
Channels tab greyed out, “There was an issue with your subscription…”	The subscription has expired, or the account is over its location or user limit.	Review Billing and plans.
”Unauthorized access” when saving	Your permission tier does not allow channel changes.	Have an Owner or a full-settings user make the change.
WhatsApp Business, Facebook Messenger or Instagram greyed out in the picker	The matching integration is not connected on the account.	Connect it under Integrations.
Card shows Disconnected	Credentials failed, or the underlying integration was revoked or removed.	Re-enter the credentials and select Save changes, or reconnect the integration.
”Couldn’t delete” on an SMS or email channel	A live-chat channel uses it for missed-conversation notifications.	Change that live-chat channel’s notification channels first, then delete.