Tephlo supports WhatsApp Business, Telegram and an embeddable web widget. All three answer from the same knowledge base and land in the same escalation queue.
A channel is how a customer reaches you. Every workspace can run more than one, and the channels use the same workspace configuration and conversation tools. Credentials, media support, delivery restrictions and shared-channel policy can differ by channel.
Where the deployment publishes shared sandbox channels, eligible workspaces can use them without connecting their own credentials. Customers send a short routing command — your routing tag — and the shared bot routes the conversation to your workspace. That is what the console’s Demo links page builds its links and QR codes from.
| Shared sandbox | Your own channel | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup needed | A routing tag | Provider credentials, verified |
| Number or bot shown to customers | The platform’s | Yours |
| Customer must send a routing command first | Yes | No |
| Answers from your knowledge base | Yes | Yes |
| Escalates into your queue | Yes | Yes |
| Intended for | Trials, demos, internal testing | Production |
Everything you configure — knowledge, goals, never-say phrases, escalation recipients — applies to both. Moving from the sandbox to your own number changes who the message comes from, not how the assistant behaves.
Connect your number in Settings → Channels & routing. When available, use the Meta connection flow and follow its completion status. The supported manual path uses credentials for your WhatsApp Business Account: the phone number ID, the WhatsApp Business Account ID and an access token. The console masks saved secrets.
Each channel row shows its current health, lets you re-run the provider check on demand, and keeps an audit history of every credential and configuration change — who changed what, when, and the reason they gave for disconnecting.
Create a bot with BotFather, then paste the token into the same channel wizard. Tephlo derives the bot identity from the token itself and starts receiving updates, so there is nothing else to type. Verification and auto-disable work exactly as they do for WhatsApp.
Telegram has no 24-hour window, so a workspace on Telegram can be followed up in cases where a WhatsApp conversation cannot.
The same assistant on your own site, from a one-line snippet in Settings → Web widget. No Meta account, no bot token.
https://your-site.com, or http://localhost:3000 while you are developing. The widget cannot be enabled until at least one origin exists, which is what stops an embed key from working on somebody else’s site.If the embed key is ever exposed, regenerate it from the same screen and paste the updated snippet — the old key stops working immediately, so plan the swap.
On your site the chat fits phone screens, shows that a reply is on its way, and opens links in replies in a new tab. Visitors each keep their own conversation, and it appears in your Queue like any other channel.
Two settings decide who can reach you and how.
Customers can send more than text. Handling depends on the channel, workspace preferences and the processing capabilities enabled by the platform.
Rapid consecutive messages from one customer can be aggregated into a single turn, so somebody typing three short lines gets one considered answer rather than three overlapping ones.