Message channels are the individual configurations (like WhatsApp phone numbers, mobile numbers, Facebook or Instagram pages) from which you are sending messages.

At Superchat we support:

Email
Facebook
Instagram
SMS (text)
Telegram
WhatsApp
Live Chat

Channel specific characteristics

Each message channel comes with a number of characteristics that are important to keep in mind when sending via those channels.

Conversation time windows

In particular, there are message sending limits on WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram. All of those channels have defined conversation time windows in which you can send outbound messages to contacts.

Channel	Conversation window
Facebook	- window opened and extended on inbound message - window open for 7 days
Instagram	- window opened and extended on inbound message - window open for 7 days
WhatsApp	- window opened and extended on inbound message - window open for 24 hours - pre-approved message templates can be sent outside the conversation window

Message templates

There are generic and WhatsApp-specific message templates.

Generic templates on the Superchat platform can be sent to any channel during open conversation windows. Those play a more important role in the web UI than for the API integration.

WhatsApp-specific templates are pre-approved templates that may contain variables, images or other media files. WhatsApp templates can be created via the API and in the Superchat UI. Once approved, those templates can be sent to any WhatsApp contact no matter the status of the conversation time window.

WhatsApp template categories

WhatsApp templates come in three categories, marketing, utility and authentication. Although we don't support authentication templates at the moment.

The category specifies the amount charged by Meta once a template is sent. Marketing templates are priced higher than utility and authentication templates. Categories are defined by the user on template creation but can be overridden by Meta during the template review. Find more information here.