Customers message you on WhatsApp. Your team talks on Slack. A community asks questions on Discord or Telegram. Each of those inboxes wants an answer, and most of the answers follow the same few patterns: where is my order, when are you open, can you send the invoice again.
Channels puts your members on those accounts. You connect an account, choose who answers on it, decide who is allowed to message, and Upfyn takes the routine replies while you keep the decisions.
What you can connect
Channels supports WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat, Mattermost, Signal, SMS, IRC, Nextcloud Talk, Synology Chat and Zalo. Each one connects the way that service expects:
- Telegram, Discord and Zalo use a bot token.
- Slack uses a bot token and an app-level token.
- Microsoft Teams uses the app's client secret, application ID and directory ID.
- SMS uses your SMS account's details and the number messages come from.
- WhatsApp is an optional add-on: add it in its setup, then link your phone by scanning a QR code.
Open Channels in the left rail, pick a channel, and choose Connect an account. When it shows Connected, choose Start channels so Upfyn starts receiving and answering messages.
Messages on an account stay in the project you choose for it. That keeps a shop's WhatsApp conversations apart from your team's Slack, with their own files and context.
Choose who answers
By default, Upfyn answers. You can pick a member instead, per account. Your Inbox Triage member might answer the support WhatsApp, while a Weekly Sales member answers questions in the sales Slack channel.
Every channel has a bot, and every bot has its own:
- Instructions: how it should answer, what it should never promise, when to hand over to you.
- Permissions: Reply only, or Reply and look things up in the project and connected apps.
- How it answers: Analyst for everyday questions, Developer when the answers need the full project.
Write the instructions the way you would brief someone covering your phone for a week:
Answer for Fernhill Bakery. Take orders for collection only. Opening hours are in hours.pdf. Never promise delivery. If someone is upset or asks for a refund, say Priya will reply today and stop.
In a group chat, the bot answers when someone mentions it, which by default is "@upfyn", so it does not reply to every message in a busy channel.
When you step in
Read the conversations yourself in the first week. When a reply needs a judgement the bot should not make, take over the conversation and add a line to the instructions so it hands over earlier next time.
Decide who gets through
The most important setting is who is allowed to message the account. Upfyn does not answer the whole internet.
- People you add to People with access can message straight away. An owner gets project context and admin reports; others can be set to replies only, with no project access.
- A new sender receives a code and waits in Access requests until you approve or deny them.
- Anyone not on the list is ignored in silence: no reply, and no message telling them the number is automated.
Destructive actions are off by default, and stay off unless you turn on Allow destructive actions in the Channels settings. None of those actions can be undone, so leave the switch off unless a bot really needs it.
Campaigns: messages you send out
A campaign sends a message to the people who have already reached you, such as a renewal reminder or an opening-hours change. You pick the people, write the message and start it. Campaigns send at a measured pace, and anyone who opts out is marked so they are not messaged again unless you allow it.
Schedules on a channel
A channel can also run schedules: every hour, every four hours, every day or every week. A morning summary of new messages is a good first one. The result can arrive as a notification in Upfyn, an email, a desktop notification, or a message to you on the channel. Channel schedules run while Upfyn is open on your computer.
Keep an eye on it
The Channels page shows each account's state: Connected, Not running, or which member answers it. Use Test connection after changing a token, Pause an account when you want to answer yourself for a while, and Recheck if something looks stuck. Each account's settings keep the project, the people with access, the requests and its schedules in one place.
Start small. Connect one account, give the bot short instructions, approve a few people you know, and read every conversation for the first week. When the answers are consistently right, widen the access.
Ask Upfyn
Use this prompt in Upfyn Desktop to set up your first channel carefully:
Help me put a member on my business WhatsApp. Ask me what people usually message about, what the bot must never promise, and when it should hand over to me. Write the bot's instructions for my review, suggest whether it should reply only or also look things up, and list who I should approve first.