Channels
Connect WhatsApp, SMS, email, Telegram, Messenger, Instagram and comment accounts to the shared inbox.
By the end of this page your practice's messaging accounts will be connected, tested, and receiving patient replies into the shared inbox.
What a channel connection is
A channel connection is a send/receive account the inbox uses: a WhatsApp Business number, an SMS number, an email address, a Telegram bot, or your Facebook Page and Instagram account. Connect them under Settings → Channels.
Only owners and admins can connect, test or disconnect channels. Members see the page read-only.
Connect a channel
Click the button for the channel you want — Connect WhatsApp, Connect SMS, Connect Email, Connect Telegram or Connect Messenger & Instagram — and follow the dialog or the Meta login it opens. Every connection takes a Name (how it appears in the inbox composer, e.g. "Front-desk WhatsApp") plus provider-specific details:
WhatsApp connects through the WhatsApp Cloud API (a Meta app):
- Display number — the number patients see
- Phone number ID — from the Meta app dashboard
- Access token — a system-user token from the same dashboard
After connecting, point the Meta app's webhook at the Webhook URL shown on the connection card.
SMS connects through Twilio:
- Sending number — the number texts go out from
- Account SID and Auth token — leave both empty to use the SmileLine platform account, or fill in both to use your own Twilio account. SmileLine uses that account's auth token to verify its inbound and delivery callbacks.
After connecting, set the number's incoming-message webhook (in the Twilio console) to the Webhook URL shown on the connection card.
Email needs just one field:
- From address — the address your messages are sent from
After connecting, the card shows a Reply-to inbound address. Patient replies to your emails route through it back into the inbox automatically.
The From address is only honoured once its domain is verified under Sending domains — until then email leaves from the shared SmileLine domain. The connection card tells you which one is in force.
Prefer working from your practice's own mailbox? Connect Gmail or Outlook instead — no forwarding address needed.
Telegram connects through a bot your practice owns:
In Telegram, message @BotFather, send /newbot and follow the prompts. Give the bot your practice's name so patients recognise it.
Copy the bot token BotFather issues (it looks like 123456:ABC…).
Paste it into the Bot token field and connect. SmileLine validates the token with Telegram, fills in the bot's @username and registers the webhook automatically — there is nothing to paste into Telegram.
Patients who message the bot land in the inbox; replies go out as the bot. If Telegram was unreachable during connect, the connection shows an error — press Test to register the webhook again.
Connect Messenger, Instagram and comments
Connect Messenger & Instagram opens Meta's own login, where you pick the Facebook Pages to grant. For every Page you select, SmileLine creates the connections your app review currently allows: Messenger DMs, Facebook comments, and — when an Instagram professional account is linked to the Page — Instagram DMs and Instagram comments.
A Page can belong to one practice at a time. If another practice already connected a Page you selected, that Page is skipped and the banner reads partial — disconnect it there first, then connect again here.
Disconnecting a Meta connection shrinks the Page's webhook subscription to whatever still uses it (native lead ads keep working), and releases the Page for another practice once its last connection here is gone.
WhatsApp guided signup
When the guided signup is enabled for your deployment, the Connect WhatsApp dialog offers Connect with Facebook: a Meta popup that creates or selects your WhatsApp Business account and number, with no tokens to paste. If the popup is interrupted, press the button again — the setup resumes where it stopped. The manual fields below it remain the fallback.
Connect a Gmail or Outlook mailbox
Connect Gmail and Connect Outlook link a mailbox your practice already uses — the address patients already write to — instead of a forwarding address:
Click the button and sign in with the Google or Microsoft account for that mailbox, approving the requested access.
You land back on this page with the connection created. New mail starts flowing into the inbox from that moment — earlier mail is not imported.
Replies you send from SmileLine leave from the connected address and appear in the mailbox's own Sent folder, so the mailbox remains a complete record. Mail your team sends directly from Gmail or Outlook shows up in the conversation too, labelled as sent outside SmileLine.
Only mail written by a person becomes a conversation. Newsletters, no-reply notifications, auto-responders and delivery reports are left in the mailbox and skipped here — they are never deleted or moved, so nothing is lost. For Gmail mailboxes, a delivery-failure report also marks the message you sent as failed in the thread. Sync covers the inbox and sent mail; messages that rules file into other folders stay in the mailbox.
If the account's password changes or access is revoked, the connection shows an error — click its connect button again to re-authorise. A mailbox can be connected to one practice at a time.
The webhook URL and inbound address
Some providers need to know where to deliver incoming messages — that's what the copyable fields on each connection card are for:
- Webhook — the URL the provider must POST inbound events to (WhatsApp and SMS). Paste it into the Meta app or Twilio number configuration.
- Reply-to — the inbound email address patient replies route through (email connections).
Both are derived from a routing token minted when you connect, unique to the connection. Telegram needs neither: SmileLine registers the bot's webhook itself when you connect.
Credentials are write-only
Tokens and secrets you enter are encrypted at rest and never shown again — not in the app, not through the API. If a credential rotates on the provider's side, enter the new value; there is nothing to "reveal" or copy back out.
Test a connection
Click Test on a connection card. SmileLine pings the provider with the stored credentials and reports back:
- Success — "Connection is healthy." and the status badge turns active.
- Failure — the provider's error appears on the card and the badge turns error.
Run a test right after connecting, and again whenever messages stop flowing.
The status badge reflects the last known health: active, pending, error or disconnected.
Edit a connection
Click Edit on a connection card to change its Name and its number or From address. Credentials are not touched — to replace those, disconnect and connect again.
Changing an email connection's From address is how you switch onto your own domain once it has verified. The dialog shows which domain the address will actually send from as you type.
Disconnect
Click Disconnect on the card. Inbound messages to that connection are dropped and sends through it are rejected — but conversation history is kept in the inbox. Connecting the same account again later creates a fresh connection.