Channels

Connect WhatsApp, SMS, email, Telegram, Messenger, Instagram, TikTok 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, your Facebook Page and Instagram account, or a TikTok Business Account. Connect them under Settings → Channels.

Only owners and admins can connect, test or disconnect channels. Members see the page read-only.

Who gets new chats

Who a new conversation is assigned to is set under Settings → Assignment, next to who gets new leads.

Connect a channel

Click Add channel, choose the channel and follow its setup. Connected accounts are listed under Connected, each with Test and Edit beside it. Open Connection details at the bottom of a card for its technical addresses; Disconnect is under the ⋯ menu beside Edit.

Every channel you have not connected yet is listed underneath, under Not connected, with one line on what connecting takes and a Connect button that opens the same setup. Email is never in that list — every practice has its built-in email sender from day one; connect your own domain under Sending domains.

Choose the guided WhatsApp setup to connect through Meta. If you already have a system-user token, choose Advanced setup in the WhatsApp dialog and enter:

Display number — the number patients see (filled in from Meta when left blank)
Phone number ID — from WhatsApp Manager → Phone numbers
WhatsApp Business Account ID — from WhatsApp Manager → Business settings
Access token — a system-user token with whatsapp_business_messaging and whatsapp_business_management on that account, generated for the Smileline Meta app (Business settings → System users → Generate token → select Smileline). A token minted for your own Meta app sends fine but can never deliver patient replies, so it is refused.

Smileline checks the token belongs to its Meta app and that the number belongs to the WhatsApp Business account you entered — if either check fails, the connection is not created and the dialog says why. The connection is then created and the account subscribed to Smileline's Meta app for you — nothing to paste into Meta. If Meta refuses the subscription, the card shows the reason in error; press Test, which subscribes the account again. Press Test at any time to re-check the subscription: the number is pinged first, and if the account subscription cannot be renewed the card stays active (sends keep working) with the reason shown, until a later Test succeeds.

A number whose display name Meta has declined, or that has no approved name yet while Meta reviews one, cannot send until the name is approved: the connection is created pending with that reason on its card. Set a new name in WhatsApp Manager (or wait for the review), then press Test — a healthy number is promoted to active. A number that already has an approved name keeps sending under it while Meta reviews a new one: it is created active, and Test notes the pending review on the card.

A connection created before the WhatsApp Business Account ID was required has no account to subscribe; Test says so. Add the ID under Edit, then press Test again.

If a send fails because Meta reports that the access token expired or was revoked, that a WhatsApp permission was removed from it, or that the account is restricted, unapproved or unpaid, the number stays connected so patient replies keep arriving, but the card shows Meta's reason and a notification is raised — reconnect it, or fix the account in WhatsApp Manager and press Test, which clears the reason once the number answers and can send: a number whose display name is declined, or still under review with no approved name yet, or that must be registered on the Cloud API again, fails the test with that reason instead (a rename under review on an approved name passes, with the review noted on the card). If Meta reports that the number is not registered on the Cloud API (or its certificate is invalid), press Connect with Facebook — it registers the number again even when the connection was already set up; until then Test keeps reporting the registration. Meta reports some account-level problems only after a message was accepted (in the delivery status); those are recorded on the number's card the same way. Patients who message from a WhatsApp username rather than a phone number still land in the inbox, shown under their WhatsApp profile name (the username itself never arrives), and replies go back the same way.

Choose Connect SMS to set up texting with Telnyx. You can use an eligible number already on Smileline or get a new texting number. An active Smileline subscription is required; the Voice add-on is optional. A number you already hold with another provider is ported in under Settings → Voice numbers first and then chosen here. Once the texting number is Ready, it can also become your WhatsApp number — see WhatsApp guided signup.

Choose your existing number, or Get an SMS number. Smileline checks that it supports sending and receiving SMS in your country.
Complete the registration for your number type. Details already saved for the practice are filled in where possible. Check them before continuing.
Review the fees and confirm your details and consent process. Registration continues when you close the dialog.
Use Continue setup to see carrier feedback, make requested corrections, or check progress. Once approved, activate the existing number or choose and order your new number.
When the number shows Ready, text it from another phone and reply in the inbox.

UK mobile numbers. A UK mobile number needs its own carrier approval: the carrier ties each approval to one number type, so the calling verification itself cannot be attached to a texting number. A practice whose UK verification is approved fills in nothing — Smileline files the mobile approval from the documents and answers the carrier already approved (the dialog reads Using your approved UK verification) and moves straight to choosing a number while the carrier reviews it. A practice that is not verified yet completes the guided form instead; anything already submitted for UK verification is filled in, and only evidence the carrier declined, or that has expired, is asked for again. The registration's progress shows every submitted detail with the reviewer's verdict on it, here and on the UK mobile verification card under Settings → Phone numbers. An approved registration can cover further eligible numbers in the same practice. UK local landline numbers cannot use this two-way SMS flow; choose a mobile number instead — a mobile number bought on Settings → Phone numbers with the SMS badge joins this channel by itself when nothing texts yet.

US local numbers (10DLC). Register the practice as the business, choose the types of messages you send, describe how people agree to receive them, and provide sample messages, privacy and terms links. Calling your practice does not by itself establish consent for marketing texts. Sole proprietors also verify a US or Canadian mobile number with a code; use Resend code if needed. A sole proprietor campaign supports one texting number.

US toll-free numbers. An existing toll-free number uses its own verification form. Its verification covers that exact number. New numbers in this guided flow are US local numbers.

Carrier approval takes time. Registration approved means you can connect the number; Ready means its registration, messaging profile and any required campaign assignment are complete. Carrier feedback remains available in setup, each submitted document can be downloaded from its row, and the refresh button next to Update registration details resumes a saved operation that needs attention. While you update a UK mobile registration, each detail shows the carrier's verdict — Approved, Declined or Under review — and a document you already submitted shows its file name with a download button.

Fees. A standalone texting number costs £5/month for UK practices or $7/month for US practices. An existing Smileline number keeps its existing rental. The US registration quote lists the carrier's business-registration and campaign-review fees, plus the first three months of its monthly campaign fee. Carrier fees are invoiced separately in USD after the relevant carrier step is confirmed. A further carrier review needs a newly accepted quote. Texts you send are billed per SMS part after the 500 included each month — see Text messages. Applicable taxes are separate.

A US campaign renews even if you release its number. Open its setup and choose Stop campaign renewal when you no longer need it. Read and confirm the effect on every number using that campaign. Texting ends when the current carrier period expires; fees already incurred remain due. To end rental for a standalone SMS number, choose Release number and type RELEASE. Release is complete when the carrier confirms it.

A number already using a different Telnyx messaging profile needs its existing opt-outs preserved before it can move. Setup identifies this case for support; it does not silently reset anyone's STOP preference.

Advanced: Twilio. If you manage your own Twilio number, choose the advanced Twilio option. Enter the sending number, Account SID and auth token. Optional API key SID and secret must be entered together. Smileline checks ownership and configures the incoming-message webhook. Use Test after correcting provider settings. Disconnecting clears that webhook only while it still points to Smileline.

A patient who texts HELP or INFO receives the practice's contact details and opt-out instructions. A carrier STOP applies across that practice's messaging profile. Each practice has its own profile.

Email is built in — there is nothing to connect. Every practice has an Email connection from day one, and campaigns, automations, reminders and referral invites all send through it.

Mail leaves from the shared Smileline domain until you verify your own under Sending domains; once a domain verifies, email switches to it automatically. The connection card tells you which one is in force. By default the sender is hello@ on that domain — click Edit on the card to choose a different name, type the part before the @, and pick which verified domain it sends from.

The card also shows a Reply-to inbound address. Patient replies to your emails route through it back into the inbox automatically. The built-in connection cannot be disconnected.

Prefer reading and answering from your practice's own mailbox? Connect Gmail or Outlook as well — mailboxes join the inbox, while campaigns and automations keep sending through the built-in connection.

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.

Test asks Telegram how deliveries have been going and always re-registers the webhook (so a changed URL or secret is repaired): a delivery failure Telegram recorded since the webhook was last registered — at connect or by an earlier press — fails the test with Telegram's reason; a backlog of updates waiting to be delivered, or a failure older than that registration, is shown on the card as information while the connection stays active.

Connect Messenger, Instagram and comments

Smileline uses the same Meta app for EU and US practices. Incoming messages pass through shared intake storage in the EU before reaching your practice's region. If delivery is interrupted, the payload stays available for recovery. An account connected in conflicting regions is held for support review; contact Smileline support if its messages do not arrive after connecting.

Connect Messenger & Instagram opens Meta's own login, where you grant Smileline access to your Facebook Pages. Back in Smileline, Choose this practice's Facebook Pages opens: tick this practice's Pages and select Connect. Meta remembers every Page your Facebook login has ever granted Smileline, so if you manage several practices the list also shows theirs. Nothing you leave unticked is connected, and only you, the person who connected, see the list. Closing it connects nothing; connect again to choose. For every Page you tick, 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. Instagram surfaces need Meta's instagram_basic permission beside the messaging or comments one, and Instagram comments also need pages_read_engagement; a grant missing them connects the Facebook surfaces only and the connect reports partial, so reconnect, tick the Instagram account in Meta's dialog and allow Instagram messages. A Page with no linked Instagram account connects normally without Instagram surfaces.

Every Page you tick is connected, however many there are: with a very large grant the rest finish within the hour (the banner says they are connecting, and they appear on the channel list as they are connected). A Page can belong to one practice at a time: one another practice already connected is marked Connected to another practice, and if one is taken while you pick, it is skipped and the banner reads partial — disconnect it there first, then connect again here.

Meta's login can issue a short-lived token; Smileline trades it for Meta's 60-day token before storing anything, and the connection card shows when the grant expires (the earlier of the token's expiry and Meta's 90-day data-access window). Expires soon on the card means reconnect the Page in Meta's login before that date; Access expired means it has lapsed already.

Private replies to comments ride Meta's messaging permission (pages_messaging for a Facebook Page, instagram_manage_messages for Instagram). A grant without it still receives comments and posts public replies, but the composer offers no Private reply option on that connection — reconnect and grant messaging access to enable it. Instagram DMs are limited by Meta to 1,000 bytes of text (emoji and accented letters count for more than one), and Messenger messages, private replies to Facebook comments included, to 2,000 characters; the composer refuses a longer message before sending.

If a send fails because Meta reports that the Page token expired or was revoked, that a permission was removed, or that the Page is restricted, the connection stays active so inbound keeps arriving, but the card shows Meta's reason and a notification is raised — reconnect the Page, or fix it in Meta and press Test. If Meta could not confirm the Page's webhook subscription when the Page was connected, Smileline retries hourly; should those retries run out, the card says messages will not arrive until Test or a reconnect succeeds — pressing Test confirms the subscription and clears that reason (or fails with it and restarts the hourly retries).

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. If Meta cannot be reached at that moment, the Page token stays on the archived connection until the subscription change is confirmed (retried hourly); a change that never confirms is written on the archived (dimmed) card in the channel list. Removing Smileline from your Facebook account (Meta's app settings), or requesting data deletion through Meta, archives every Page, Instagram account and WhatsApp number that login granted, and the deletion request is tracked to completion on Meta's confirmation page.

Why a conversation shows a number instead of a name

Messenger and Instagram message notifications can contain only the sender's platform ID. Smileline asks Meta for the profile name after saving the message. If Meta does not provide it, the inbox shows the ID. This is a platform identifier, not necessarily a telephone number.

Profile access is separate from the connection test. A Ready connection does not prove that Meta has approved profile access or messaging for people outside the app's test roles. Contact Smileline support if names remain missing; reconnecting alone cannot grant an app feature that Meta has not approved.

Smileline tries the profile lookup again when another message arrives on a conversation that still has no name. Opening or refreshing an older conversation does not currently fetch its profile. Linking the conversation to an existing patient uses that patient's name.

Connect TikTok

Connect TikTok opens TikTok's own login for the Business Account whose direct messages you want in the inbox. Sign in with that account, tick every permission TikTok lists (the messaging permissions are required: a grant without them is refused on return and nothing is stored), and click Continue. You land back on this page with the connection created and named after the account. Only TikTok Business Accounts can be connected, and the account's direct-message privacy setting (TikTok app → Settings and privacy → Privacy → Direct messages) must allow messages from everyone, or patients cannot start a conversation.

TikTok does not deliver direct messages through its API for Business Accounts registered in the United Kingdom, the European Economic Area, Switzerland or the United States. An account from one of those regions connects successfully but receives and sends nothing until TikTok opens the market. Smileline shows this reminder beside the connect button.

Patients must write first: a TikTok conversation cannot be started from Smileline. Replies are allowed for 48 hours after the patient's last message and are text-only (see channel rules). TikTok issues a short-lived token that Smileline renews automatically while the connection is in use; if the renewal grant expires or is revoked, the card shows an error asking you to reconnect. Incoming messages keep arriving in the meantime.

Test checks the account with TikTok and re-registers the app's message webhook, so a changed address is repaired. Disconnecting removes Smileline's copy of the token; the grant itself stays in your TikTok account until you remove it there. A TikTok account can be connected to one practice at a time.

Choose Add channel → Connect WhatsApp. Select the option that matches your number:

Keep using my WhatsApp Business app keeps the app and connects its number to Smileline. In Meta's window, enter the number your WhatsApp Business app uses: Meta recognises it, shows the app's profile and asks you to scan a QR code in the app. If Meta asks for a text or call code instead, it has not recognised a WhatsApp Business app on that number, and finishing connects it as an API number without the app. New messages sent from the app appear in the inbox as outbound messages; they do not trigger automations, create unread notifications or open a WhatsApp reply window. Previous chats are not imported. Open the Business app at least once every 14 days to keep the connection available.
Use my Smileline texting number is available to UK and US practices. It reuses the number Smileline already texts from (see the SMS tab above). Choose the number if you have several and click Copy. In Meta's window choose to add a new number, enter that number and pick SMS for the code. Meta texts the code to your number; it appears in the Smileline dialog (and in the inbox as an ordinary text), so type it into Meta's window. If a delivery needs recovery, the code appears when the text is recovered; an older text does not replace a newer code. The number keeps texting exactly as before — WhatsApp and SMS share it. If no texting number is ready yet, Get a texting number opens the SMS setup. Meta's phone-call option only works for a voice number with texting enabled, because a standalone texting number cannot take calls.
Connect an existing WhatsApp API account lets you select the existing account. Meta explains any migration or verification requirements.

Have access to your Meta business portfolio and the phone number. Click Connect with Facebook, then follow Meta's steps to confirm your business details, select the account and grant access. If Facebook cannot load, allow it in your browser and click Retry. If guided connection is unavailable in your environment, contact Smileline support; Advanced setup remains available for existing credentials.

While Waiting for Meta… is shown, continue in the separate Facebook window. Check your browser windows if it is hidden. Clicking outside the Smileline dialog or pressing Esc does not close it while you wait. If no window opened, click Close, allow Facebook popups and try again. Cancelling in Meta lets you retry. Once you finish in Meta, the signup is saved even if you close the Smileline dialog straight away; the connection appears under Connected. Connecting… means Smileline is saving and verifying the completed signup.

As soon as Meta hands the signup back, Smileline saves it. If Meta does not answer while Smileline checks the account and number, the connection stays pending with the reason on its card — click Continue setup to finish with the saved signup instead of repeating Meta's steps. The same applies when verification, display-name approval or the account subscription is incomplete: complete the remaining action, then click Continue setup. Reconnect through Connect with Facebook when the grant has expired or access has been removed.

Meta can finish without saying which WhatsApp account or number you chose. Smileline then uses the account your signup granted and, when that account has exactly one number already on WhatsApp's API, that number. If you granted several accounts, or the account has several numbers, the dialog asks you to run the signup again and pick one in Meta's window — or to use Advanced setup. Smileline never registers a number you did not pick. Meta can also report a number that is not in the account you chose. A saved signup can recover that hint only when the account has exactly one number already on WhatsApp’s API. Otherwise, run signup again and choose the number explicitly. Continue setup keeps an existing connection’s number; it never switches that connection to a replacement number.

Connecting an existing WhatsApp API account also works when Meta only grants Smileline access to the account, or migrates an account a provider managed on your behalf: Smileline connects the number Meta reports, or — when Meta does not say — the account's only number, as above.

If the number has two-step verification and Meta reports a PIN mismatch, enter its six-digit PIN in Existing two-step verification PIN and click Continue setup. The field stays on the card until the PIN is accepted, and Smileline does not try again without it, because Meta limits registration attempts. Business App connections are registered by Meta during their own signup and do not use this registration step.

When the connection is ready, send a WhatsApp message to its number from another phone. Open the inbox and reply through Smileline to check both directions.

Within a few minutes of the connection becoming active, Smileline submits your WhatsApp templates to Meta for approval — the standard reminder set every practice starts with, and any WhatsApp template you have written under Settings → Templates — and imports any template you already created in WhatsApp Manager. The token needs the whatsapp_business_management permission for this; without it the templates show Needs attention with the reason, and reconnecting with that permission clears it. See Message templates for the approval statuses.

Smileline waits for Meta to confirm the number before it counts as connected. If you remove Smileline's access in Meta, the connection becomes pending and raises a notification. For an API account or a Smileline texting number, press Connect with Facebook to reconnect; every connect and Continue setup renews the account's webhook subscription, so incoming messages resume. If renewing it fails on a connection that was already working, the card keeps working and shows the reason — click Continue setup to try again. A Meta reconnection notice alone does not make the connection ready; finish setup so Smileline can check it.

Disconnecting a WhatsApp connection stops Smileline receiving its messages. Smileline also removes the number from WhatsApp's API only when Smileline registered it during signup; a number set up through Advanced setup or shared from another provider stays registered, so WhatsApp keeps working wherever else you use it. To disconnect a Business App connection fully, also open WhatsApp Business → Settings → Account → Business Platform and disconnect Smileline there. Your conversation history in Smileline is kept.

Report qualified leads to Meta appears on an active WhatsApp card for practices in the UK and the EU. Turn it on to let your team mark chats from click-to-WhatsApp ads as qualified leads for Meta (see WhatsApp qualified leads). Turning it on checks that the WhatsApp connection allows it — reconnect WhatsApp if the card asks — and sets up the account's reporting with Meta. Turning it off stops new reports straight away. Connecting the number to a different WhatsApp account turns it off; turn it on again for the new account.

WhatsApp marketing templates and Meta's Marketing Messages API

From 13 October 2027, Meta delivers WhatsApp templates in its marketing category only through its Marketing Messages API. Utility and authentication templates, and replies inside the 24-hour window, are not affected.

Smileline already sends every template Meta files as marketing through that API. Until your number upgrades, Meta passes those messages on through its standard route, so nothing changes for patients. When Meta moves a template from utility to marketing, Smileline follows Meta's new category automatically.

Each active WhatsApp number shows Meta Marketing Messages API on its card, checked with Meta each time you open Settings → Channels:

Upgraded — nothing to do.
Not upgraded yet — an admin of your Meta business portfolio opens WhatsApp Manager → Overview and accepts the Marketing Messages terms under Alerts. Open WhatsApp Manager goes straight to your account.
Meta says this WhatsApp account can't use its Marketing Messages API yet — Meta decides eligibility. It lists restricted or inactive accounts, accounts in a country it does not support yet, and numbers also used in the WhatsApp Business app.
Reconnect this number — the number was connected without its WhatsApp Business account, or Meta refused Smileline's access. Reconnect it through Connect with Facebook; until you do, its campaign and automation marketing templates use the standard route, which Meta closes on 13 October 2027.

Once a number upgrades, Meta by default receives each marketing message's delivered, read and clicked events to tune its delivery. Your practice can turn this off in your WhatsApp Business account settings in Meta. Meta does not offer the API's delivery optimisation or click reporting for patients in the UK or the European Economic Area, and delivers no marketing templates to United States numbers on any route.

Move channels from another inbox

Connect the same business accounts under Settings → Channels. Connecting an account does not import the previous inbox's contacts, conversation history, workflows or assignments. Keep access to that history and arrange any required import separately.

Messenger and Instagram: select the existing Facebook Page and linked Instagram account. Confirm that Meta has approved the required app access. Check Meta's conversation routing so new conversations are assigned to Smileline, then verify an incoming message and a reply using a staff test account.
WhatsApp: choose Connect an existing WhatsApp API account to keep the same number. Use the business portfolio that owns it and follow Meta's migration and verification steps. Do not disconnect or deregister the number before the replacement connection is ready. If guided setup is unavailable, contact Smileline support before removing the old connection.
Telegram: use the existing bot's token. Connecting it registers Smileline as the bot's webhook destination, redirecting new bot messages from the previous inbox. Do this when your team is ready to handle those messages in Smileline.
TikTok: sign in with the existing Business Account. Confirm its registered region and messaging eligibility; an account can appear connected while TikTok prevents API messaging. The region restriction above still applies when moving from another inbox.

Use Test to check each connection, then verify an incoming message and a reply before retiring its previous inbox connection. A successful connection test alone does not verify the full message journey.

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. Tick every permission: a grant that allows reading but not sending (or the reverse) is refused on return with a message asking you to connect again, and nothing is stored.

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. Each skip is counted on the connection's card — 12 emails skipped under its status line, shown only once the count is above zero; hover it for the reminder that Newsletters, notifications, auto-replies, spam and oversized messages stay in the mailbox — they are kept out of the inbox by design. The count includes mail Gmail has labelled spam or trash and any message over the 25 MiB limit, and because every skip is recorded, that mail can be brought in later if the rules change. 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; Smileline stops syncing that mailbox until you do. If access was restored on the provider's side instead (an administrator re-approved the app, for example), press Test — a successful test resumes syncing without a reconnect. If syncing stops after repeated failures, the card says the sync is parked: press Test — a successful test resumes it — or reconnect. Mail that arrives while the connection is in error is kept and delivered once it is active again. A mailbox can be connected to one practice at a time.

Google and Microsoft keep a change log for a limited time. If a mailbox goes unsynced for longer than that log covers, the card shows Sync fell behind — recovering mail since followed by the date of the last sync: Smileline lists the mailbox from that date and brings the missing mail into the inbox over the next syncs, alongside new mail, and the message clears when the recovery finishes. Nothing is lost in the mailbox itself either way.

Both providers push new mail to Smileline as it arrives; if that push cannot be renewed, the card says so and mail keeps arriving on the regular 15-minute check while Smileline retries daily. Disconnecting a mailbox stops the push and discards Smileline's copy of the access token; the grant itself stays in your Google or Microsoft account until you remove it there.

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 in Connection details — the URL the Twilio number POSTs inbound events to (SMS). Smileline sets it on the number for you when you connect; it is shown for reference.
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. WhatsApp and Telegram show neither: Smileline subscribes the WhatsApp Business account and 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 ready connection card. Use Continue setup for WhatsApp connections whose setup has not finished. Smileline pings the provider with the stored credentials and reports back:

Success — "Connection is healthy." and the status badge turns Ready (a WhatsApp number whose guided signup has not finished stays pending until Continue setup completes it).
Meta not answering — on a WhatsApp connection, a test that cannot reach Meta says so and leaves the status unchanged; try again later.
Failure — the provider's error appears on the card and the badge turns error. A WhatsApp number that answers but cannot send — display name declined, or under review with no approved name yet, or registration on the Cloud API required — fails for that reason rather than reporting a healthy connection. A Messenger, Instagram or comments connection whose Page webhook subscription could not be confirmed at connect time has it confirmed by Test: a successful test writes the subscription and clears the reason; if Meta still cannot confirm it, the test fails with that reason and the hourly retries start again.

Run a test right after connecting, and again whenever messages stop flowing. On a Gmail or Outlook mailbox, Test checks that the stored grant still opens the right mailbox; a successful test also resumes a sync that was paused after repeated failures. It does not re-run a recovery or import older mail.

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 — and, on a WhatsApp connection created before the account ID was required, its WhatsApp Business Account ID (it can be added once, never swapped for another account: moving a number to a different WhatsApp Business account goes through disconnect and connect again, which re-checks that the account owns the number). Credentials are not touched — to replace those, disconnect and connect again.

Email switches onto your own domain by itself once it has verified. On the built-in email connection the From address is guided: type the part before the @ and choose the domain from your verified sending domains — with a single verified domain it is simply shown after the @. Until a domain verifies, the field takes a full address and the dialog reminds you that email keeps sending from the shared Smileline domain.

A practice with more than one location also sees a Location field. Leave it on All locations and the connection serves every site. Assign a location and follow-ups and booking messages send from it for patients and appointments at that site, falling back to the All locations connection for everyone else. The assigned location shows on the connection card.

Disconnect

Open the ⋯ menu on the card and click Disconnect. Sends through it stop, and later inbound events are held for review — but conversation history is kept in the inbox. Connecting the same account again later creates a fresh connection.

Disconnecting a WhatsApp API-only number detaches Smileline from the WhatsApp Business account (unless another connected number shares it) and deregisters the number from the Cloud API. A Business App connection is not deregistered: finish disconnecting it from the Business App as described above. As with Meta Pages, the token stays on the archived connection until Meta confirms, and a change that never confirms is shown on the archived card.

Channels

On this page