> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.interaone.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Channels overview

> Compare InteraOne's widget, email, WhatsApp, Telegram, QR, and direct-link entry points.

Channels normalize customer messages into organization-scoped contacts, conversations, and messages. Once normalized, the same inbox, AI pipeline, tickets, routing, analytics, and human-handoff behavior can serve every source.

| Channel        | Inbound transport           | Outbound transport       | Identity key                                   |
| -------------- | --------------------------- | ------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------- |
| Web widget     | HTTPS + Socket.IO           | Socket.IO                | Stable/ephemeral visitor session               |
| Email          | AWS SES/SNS webhook         | Configured email adapter | Sender address/thread metadata                 |
| WhatsApp       | Twilio webhook              | Twilio Messages API      | `whatsapp-<phone>` session                     |
| Telegram       | Telegram webhook            | Bot API                  | `telegram-<chatId>` session                    |
| QR/direct link | Hosted `/c/:publicKey` page | Widget transport         | Widget visitor session plus source attribution |

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Web widget" icon="message-circle" href="/channels/web-widget">
    Iframe-isolated chat with configurable appearance, visibility, AI, and visitor fields.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Email" icon="mail" href="/channels/email">
    Domain-verified support addresses and inbound/outbound email.
  </Card>

  <Card title="WhatsApp" icon="message-square" href="/channels/whatsapp">
    Twilio-backed WhatsApp messages with signed inbound webhooks.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Telegram" icon="send" href="/channels/telegram">
    Bot token verification, webhook registration, and chat mapping.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Shared lifecycle

```mermaid theme={null}
flowchart LR
  Provider[Channel provider / browser] --> Verify[Verify token or webhook signature]
  Verify --> Normalize[Normalize sender and message]
  Normalize --> Contact[Upsert tenant contact]
  Contact --> Conversation[Find or create channel conversation]
  Conversation --> Persist[Persist message]
  Persist --> AI[AI job or human queue]
  AI --> Reply[Channel strategy sends reply]
```

Administrators manage channels; agents consume the resulting conversations. One organization can have one saved channel per type under the current unique index.

<Warning>
  Webhook routes are public by necessity. Treat provider signature verification, HTTPS, secret rotation, replay/idempotency controls, and minimal error responses as mandatory production controls.
</Warning>