Channels Overview

Supported Channels

Alexa360 supports the following channels and the platform will continue to support more channels in the future.

Channels Summary

The table below summarizes on the connection difficulty level, the time needed, applicable cost and requirements for each channel.

Channels		Difficulty	Time Needed	Applicable Cost	Requirements
​Facebook Messenger​	​ ​	Easy	15 mins	-	Facebook Page
​WhatsApp​	​ ​	Advanced	3 to 5 working days*	​ ✔ ​	WhatsApp Business API
​Instagram​	​	Easy	15 mins	-	Instagram Business Account (1,000 to 100,000 followers)
​Website Chat​	​ ​	Moderate	15 mins	-	Live Website
​Google Business Messages​	​	Moderate	15 mins	-	Google Business Profile with verified location
​LINE​	​ ​	Moderate	30 mins	​ ✔ ​	LINE Official Account
​Telegram​	​ ​	Moderate	15 mins	-	Telegram Bot
​Viber​	​	Moderate	15 mins	​ ✔ ​	Viber Bot
​SMS​		Moderate	1 to 2 working days	​ ✔ ​	Phone number provisioned by our partners
​Twitter​	​	Advanced	1 to 2 working days	-	Twitter App
​WeChat​	​​	Advanced	3 to 5 working days	​ ✔ ​	WeChat Official Account
​Gmail​		Moderate	15 mins	-	Gmail or Gmail for Business account
​Other Email​	​	Moderate	15 mins	-	Email login credentials Access to Email Inbox Settings
​Custom Channel​	​​	Advanced	1 to 2 working days	-	Custom Integration Server to handle the incoming and outgoing message between Alexa360 and Messaging Service Provider

*Time needed includes account creation and verification by WhatsApp provider. Account creation varies from minutes to days depending on provider processing speed.

Channel Capabilities

The table below will give you a quick comparison between channels.

​	Quick Replies	Chat Link & QR Code	Broadcasts Support^	Contacts Import	Messaging Windowª	Unique Features˘	Channel Feesº
​Facebook Messenger​	✅	✅	✅	-	7 days	✅	-
​Gmail​	✅	✅	-	✅	-	-	-
​Other Email​	✅	✅	-	✅	-	✅	-
​Instagram​	✅	✅	-	-	7 days	-	-
​WhatsApp​	✅*	✅	✅	✅	24 hours	-	✅
​Website Chat​	✅	✅	-	-	-	-	-
​Google Business Messages​	✅	✅	-	-	30 days	-	-
​LINE​	✅	✅	✅	-	-	-	✅
​Telegram​	✅	✅	✅	-	-	-	-
​Viber​	✅	✅	✅	-	-	-	-
​SMS​	-	✅	✅	✅	-	-	✅
​Twitter​	✅	✅	✅	-	-	-	-
​WeChat​	✅*	✅	-	-	48 hrs	-	-
​Custom Channel (ID type = Phone Number)​	✅	-	✅	✅	-	-	º
​Custom Channel (ID type = Custom ID)​	✅	-	✅	-	-	-	º

* Channel does not support rich UI quick replies, uses numeric system instead.

^ Not all channel partners allow broadcasts.

ª Some channels have a messaging window; replies can only be sent within the messaging window.

˘ Some channels have channel-specific features, you can find out more on the channel page.

º Some channels have additional fees imposed by the channel providers. This might apply to your custom channels.

Message Status Availability

For some channels, we are able to find out the message status whether has it been sent, delivered, read or failed. Refer to the following table on which channel offers message status availability:

Messaging Channel	Sent	Delivered	Read	Failed
Facebook	✔	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​
Gmail	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​
Other Email	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​	-	​ ✔ ​
Instagram	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​
WhatsApp - Cloud API	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​
WhatsApp - Twilio	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​
WhatsApp - MessageBird	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​
WhatsApp - Vonage	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​
WhatsApp - Chat API	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​	-
WhatsApp - 360Dialog	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​
Website Chat	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​
Google Business Messages	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​
LINE	​ ✔ ​	-	-	-
Telegram	​ ✔ ​	-	-	-
Viber	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​
SMS - Twilio	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​	-	​ ✔ ​
SMS - MessageBird	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​	-	​ ✔ ​
SMS - Vonage	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​	-	​ ✔ ​
Twitter	​ ✔ ​	-	-	-
WeChat	​ ✔ ​	-	-	-
Custom Channel	✔	​✔	​ ✔ ​	​ ✔ ​

Messaging Window

Some messaging channels have a limited messaging window for the contact to receive a response. The messaging window refreshes every time a message is received from a contact. Refer to the following channel and their respective messaging window:

Channel	Messaging Window
WeChat	48 hours
Facebook Messenger	7 days
WhatsApp	24 hours
Instagram	7 days
Google Business Messages	30 days

For Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, they have a feature that allows users to send a message to the contacts beyond the messaging window.

To send a message to WhatsApp contacts after the messaging window, you can use WhatsApp Message Templates to do so. For more information on, look at WhatsApp Message Templates.

Broadcast

In Alexa360, you may broadcast content to your contacts if the channel is supported. However, there may be a few limitations that need to be considered when broadcasting with a supported channel.

Bear in mind that every channel has its own rate limit of how many requests/messages can be processed in a time interval. This may affect the deliverability of the broadcast content to your contact.

WhatsApp API Channels

If you wish to broadcast to contacts from WhatsApp API Channels (Twilio, MessageBird, Vonage, 360dialog), you will need to specify a WhatsApp Message Template as the broadcast content.

Before broadcasting to these contacts, please make sure your WhatsApp Message Template is submitted and approved by WhatsApp.

Rate Limits

A rate limit is the number of API calls an app or user can make within a given time period defined by the channel. For example, a rate limit of 30 requests per second means that in one second, any request that comes after the 30th request will be throttled and fail.

In the context of Alexa360, a request is when a message is being sent to a contact.

Messaging Channel	Applicable Rate Limit
Facebook	200 requests per hour
WhatsApp - Cloud API	80 requests per second
WhatsApp - Twilio	20 requests per second
WhatsApp - MessageBird	50 requests per second
WhatsApp - Vonage	20 requests per second
WhatsApp - Chat API	1 request per second with a limit of 6000 requests per day
WhatsApp - 360Dialog	20 requests per second
LINE	60 requests per hour
Telegram	30 requests per second
Viber	500 requests per 10 seconds
SMS - Twilio	Varies depending on the location of the recipient. Refer here for more information.
SMS - MessageBird	-
SMS - Vonage	30 requests per second
Custom Channel	20 requests per second