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A channel is a way customers reach your agent. Wiredesk has four: Website chat, Phone, Email and WhatsApp. They all reach the same agent, with the same knowledge, instructions and actions. You don’t build a separate agent for each channel. You turn channels on for the agent you already have. Manage them under Agents → your agent → Channels. It opens on the first channel that is on: Website chat, then Phone, then Email, then WhatsApp (Website chat if none are). Tabs across the top switch between them and show each one’s state: Live, Needs setup, Demo line or Off. Each channel’s page holds all of that channel’s settings.

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The four channels

For setup, see website chat, phone, email and WhatsApp.

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Turning a channel on and off

Each channel’s tab starts with its on/off switch: Answer chats on your website, Answer phone calls, Answer email or Answer WhatsApp messages. Switching a channel off keeps its setup, so you can switch it back on without losing anything:
  • Website chat off: the widget stops answering. The snippet can stay on your site.
  • Phone off: calls to the number go unanswered. You keep the number.
  • Email off: mail sent to the address is ignored. The address stays yours.
  • WhatsApp off: messages to the number are ignored. The number stays connected.
Which channels start switched on depends on how you created the agent. An agent built from your website starts with the channels you ticked under Where should it answer?. A blank agent starts with chat, phone and email switched on. Its phone channel does nothing until it has a number. WhatsApp starts off, and connecting a number switches it on. The Overview page shows each channel as a tile marked Live, Needs setup, Demo line or Off, with the snippet’s status, the number, or the address.
To stop the agent answering everywhere without deleting it, switch its channels off. See delete an agent.

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What the channels share

These settings apply to every channel:
  • Instructions, under Instructions. Each channel can replace them with its own wording (see below).
  • Name, under Settings.
  • Knowledge. Every channel searches the same pages, notes and files.
  • Remember callers, under Instructions, lets the agent keep notes about a person from one conversation to the next. See remember callers.
  • Actions. Each action has Channels checkboxes (Voice, Chat, Email). By default an action is available on all three. WhatsApp uses the actions ticked for Chat.
  • Handoff. How the agent brings in a person, on a call and in chat, email and WhatsApp, is set in one place under Handoff. See handoff.
  • Conversations. Every channel’s conversations appear together in Conversations.

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What’s different on each channel

Style. Wiredesk adapts how the agent writes to the channel. On the phone it’s short and spoken, with no lists or symbols. In chat it uses short replies, bold for key details, simple lists and links. By email it writes a full plain-text email with a greeting and a sign-off. You don’t need to write instructions for any of this. Phone only, in the Voice & greeting card on Channels › Phone:
  • Voice: the voice the agent speaks in on phone calls and Preview calls. There are ten to choose from, each with a sample. See choose a voice.
  • Phone greeting: the first thing the agent says, word for word, when it picks up a phone call or a Preview call. See name and greeting.
  • Say it’s an AI and the call may be recorded: off by default. When it’s on, the agent says “Quick heads-up: you’re speaking with an AI assistant, and this call may be recorded.” before the greeting. See AI and recording notice.
The number a live transfer rings isn’t here. It’s in Transfer calls to a person on Handoff. Website chat only: the look of the launcher and panel, the chat’s Opening message, and suggested questions. These are on the Widget tab of Channels › Website chat. Chat never uses the phone greeting: if the opening message is empty, the chat opens with “Hi! How can I help you today?”. See widget appearance. Email only: the sender name and reply-to address. See email. WhatsApp only: the connected number and its webhook. WhatsApp also lets your team reply only within 24 hours of the customer’s last message. See WhatsApp.

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Wording for one channel

Each channel’s page has an Instructions card at its foot. By default, Sync with the agent’s instructions is on, and the channel uses the instructions under Instructions. Give a channel its own instructions when it needs to say something different, for example “on the phone, always offer to book an appointment”. A channel’s own instructions replace the agent’s instructions on that channel. They don’t add to them. Once a channel has its own, changes under Instructions no longer reach it. Wiredesk’s own rules on honesty and style still apply. See wording per channel.

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Browser voice

Browser voice also appears in Conversations. It isn’t a channel customers use. It’s the call you make yourself from the Call tab of Preview, and you can’t switch it on or off. See test your agent.