Channels

Connect with people across phone, email, web, Discord, Slack, and more.

Intermediate
3 min read

Channels

Channels are how people reach your workspace. Each channel connects a different communication platform to your AI agents, so conversations flow naturally wherever your users already are — and every conversation ends up in the same Chats interface for your team to monitor and manage.

The key insight: a phone call, a text message, a web chat, an email, and a Discord command all produce the same thing — a chat running through a workflow. The channel determines how the conversation starts and what medium it uses, but the AI follows the same workflow regardless.

Phone & Voice

AI-powered phone calls and SMS messaging through provisioned phone numbers.

  • Inbound and outbound voice calls with real-time AI responses
  • SMS conversations with automatic threading
  • Work modes: always on, forward off-hours, voicemail, or always forward
  • Call transcription, logging, and escalation to humans

Email & Inboxes

Centralized email management with AI-powered triage and response. Requires feature flag: email.

  • Shared inbox addresses for your workspace (e.g., support@workspace.mailrelay.io)
  • Incoming emails trigger workflows automatically
  • Email rules for filtering and routing
  • Reply directly from the inbox with proper threading

Sites

Customer-facing portals, help centers, and booking pages with built-in AI chat.

  • Embeddable chat widgets and full portal pages
  • Custom domains, themes, and access control
  • Public sites, member-only portals, and self-service signup
  • Web crawling to import existing documentation

Discord Bots

AI bots that operate directly in Discord servers. Requires feature flag: discord.

  • Custom slash commands mapped to workflows
  • Respond in channels, threads, and DMs
  • Account linking between Discord and workspace members
  • Response modes: mentions only, auto, or slash commands only

Slack Bots

AI bots that operate directly in Slack workspaces. Requires feature flag: slack.

  • @mention responses with streaming "Thinking..." indicators
  • Thread-based conversations with full context
  • Account linking for personalized responses
  • Auto mode with customizable decision criteria

Choosing the Right Channel

If your users...Use
Need immediate, real-time helpWeb Chat or Phone Voice
Prefer async communicationSMS, Email, or Slack
Are already in a community platformDiscord or Slack
Need a self-service portalSites with AI chat
Are in healthcare / high-touch verticalsPhone + SMS combo
Need formal correspondenceEmail Inboxes

Most workspaces use multiple channels. The same workflow handles all of them, so there's no extra configuration — just connect the channel and point it at your workflow.