A messaging channel is a place a customer writes to you: WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, TikTok, Telegram, LINE, email, SMS, the chat on your website, X or a Discord server. Each has its own app, its own rules about who may write first, and its own way of being connected.
Which API carries which
- The Inbox API: WhatsApp (through Meta's Cloud API or Twilio), Instagram, Facebook Messenger, TikTok, Telegram, LINE, email, SMS, your website chat and any channel of your own, all in one shared inbox.
- The WhatsApp API: your own WhatsApp number, linked the way WhatsApp Web is, read and written as the number itself.
- The X API: your own X account's direct messages, X Chat and posts, through your own X app's keys.
- The Discord API: the Discord servers your organization added the bot to.
All four come with the Top-Rated Team API plan and answer to the same API key as the LinkedIn API. They share one webhook system, one error shape and one MCP server, so a program or an AI agent that can do one channel can do the others.
WhatsApp appears twice on purpose. A linked number is quick to set up and is the number itself; the Cloud API through the inbox is Meta's business route, with its templates and its 24-hour window. Pick by how many people you write to and how.
Questions people ask
Do I need a separate plan for each channel?
No. Every channel API comes with the Top-Rated Team API plan. You pay per seat, and a seat is counted by whichever you have most of: LinkedIn accounts, WhatsApp numbers, X accounts or inbox accounts.
Does a platform charge for its own messages?
Where it does, yes, and it bills you directly: Meta, Twilio, Bandwidth and LINE for their messages, X for your X app's usage. Nothing of theirs is resold through us.