A channel is the assistant’s presence on one messaging platform — the bot people
actually write to. Without one, an assistant has flows and contacts but no way to
hear from anyone.
The list
Each channel shows its platform, its bot (a link to it, once the provider has
registered the webhook), whether it is active, and when it was last updated. A channel whose webhook the provider
refused carries a Webhook not registered badge. Actions: Edit, Rotate webhook hash, Delete, and, on a
flagged channel, Register webhook again.
Connecting one
New Channel asks for the platform and its credentials:
Token — the bot token issued by the platform. This is what authorises the
assistant to send.
Secret token — used to verify that an incoming request genuinely came from
the provider and not from someone who guessed the URL. For Telegram this is the
value checked against the X-Telegram-Bot-Api-Secret-Token header.
Active — whether the channel is in service.
Channel settings — free-form key/value pairs for options a particular
platform needs beyond the two above.
In the new console the platform is chosen when the channel is created and cannot be changed afterwards.
Saving a channel contacts the provider and registers the webhook. Saving always
succeeds: if the provider refuses (a token that does not belong to a real bot,
for instance), the channel is stored and marked Webhook not registered in
the list (and, in the new console, on its page), and you are told so. Correct the token and save again,
or use Register webhook again.Until the provider accepts the registration, the channel does not receive
messages.
The webhook hash
Every channel gets a unique hash, which becomes part of the URL the provider
delivers to. It is not a display value: it is the credential that identifies
this channel, which is why it is shown only to those who may manage channels
(on the channel’s edit page).
Rotate webhook hash issues a new one. For Telegram the webhook is registered
again with the new hash automatically; for other platforms, update the address
with the provider. If the provider refuses, the hash is already changed (the old
one is revoked, which is the point of rotating) and the channel is marked
Webhook not registered until you register it again.
Rotating invalidates the URL the provider currently has. Where the webhook is
not registered again automatically, deliveries stop until you do it on the
provider side, and nothing warns you — messages simply arrive nowhere.Rotate when the hash may have leaked. Do not rotate to “refresh” a channel that
is misbehaving; that is not what it fixes.
Active and deleted
Deactivating stops the channel serving without discarding it: the token, the
hash, and the conversations that came through it all remain. Deleting removes the
channel itself.
Deactivating or deleting is never blocked by the provider: if it does not
confirm taking the webhook down, you are told, and the old webhook is harmless
because nothing is routed to it any more.
Prefer deactivating. A deleted channel takes its identity with it, and
reconnecting later means a new hash and a fresh registration with the provider.
Several channels, one assistant
An assistant can hold more than one channel — the same flows answering on
Telegram and WhatsApp, for instance. Contacts remain per channel: the same person
writing on two platforms is two contacts, because from the assistant’s side two
separate people started talking.