Channels
A channel is a way customers reach you. Connect one and it becomes an inbox in Tola: messages arrive in the shared queue, agents reply from the same screen they use for everything else, and the history attaches to the customer's record regardless of which channel it came from. Tola serves businesses operating in Nepal, so calls and SMS run on NTC and Ncell rather than on foreign carriers.
What a channel is
Each connected channel is a separate inbox with its own settings, its own agents and its own automation — but all of them feed the same conversation list and the same contact records.
That separation is deliberate. A support WhatsApp number and a billing email address are different queues with different people and different rules, but when a customer uses both, you still want one history for that person.
Supported channels
- Name
WhatsApp- Type
- the number customers already save
- Description
Two-way messaging on the number your customers already save. Supports templates, media, interactive messages and — through the Cloud API — voice calls. Read more
- Name
Email- Type
- forwarding · Gmail · Microsoft · IMAP/SMTP
- Description
Turn a shared mailbox into a tracked queue, with threading, signatures and a custom reply-to domain. Read more
- Name
Website live chat- Type
- widget
- Description
A chat bubble on your site. Pre-chat forms, business hours, campaigns and full customisation. Read more
- Name
Voice- Type
- NTC · Ncell · WhatsApp calling
- Description
Inbound and outbound calls handled in the browser, logged against the contact like any other conversation. Read more
- Name
Instagram- Type
- DMs and story replies
- Description
Direct messages and replies to stories from your business profile. Read more
- Name
Facebook Messenger- Type
- page inbox
- Description
Messages sent to your Facebook page. Read more
- Name
Telegram- Type
- bot
- Description
A Telegram bot that routes into the shared inbox. Read more
- Name
TikTok- Type
- DMs
- Description
Direct messages from your TikTok business account. Read more
- Name
LINE- Type
- official account
- Description
LINE messaging for markets where it is the default. Read more
- Name
SMS- Type
- NTC · Ncell
- Description
Plain text messaging where that is what the customer has. Read more
- Name
X (Twitter)- Type
- DMs and mentions
- Description
Direct messages and mentions from your X profile. Read more
- Name
Custom channel- Type
- built for you
- Description
Somewhere your customers reach you that is not on this list — an in-app message centre, a kiosk, a marketplace. Tola can connect it, so those conversations join the same queue. Talk to us
Which to connect first
Connect the channel that already carries the most traffic, even if it is the messiest one. The point of Tola is to stop conversations happening in places nobody can see, and the biggest unmanaged channel is where the most value is.
In practice that ordering is usually:
- WhatsApp. In Nepal this is where most of the volume is, and it is the channel most likely to be running off someone's personal phone today.
- Facebook and Instagram, which for many Nepali businesses carry as much traffic as WhatsApp and are far more public when ignored.
- Email, because it is almost always already there and forwarding takes minutes.
- Live chat, once you have someone to answer it — an unstaffed chat widget is worse than none.
- Voice, last, because it changes how your team works more than the others do.
You can connect several channels of the same type. Two WhatsApp numbers, three email addresses and a chat widget is a completely normal setup — each is its own inbox with its own agents.
Settings every channel has
Whatever the channel, these are configured the same way under Channels → your channel → Settings:
- Name
Agents- Type
- access control
- Description
Who can see conversations from this channel. An agent who is not on the list will not see them at all.
- Name
Business hours- Type
- availability
- Description
Working hours per weekday, with a timezone and an out-of-hours message. Also feeds SLA calculations.
- Name
Auto-assignment- Type
- routing
- Description
Whether new conversations distribute automatically to available agents on this channel.
- Name
Greeting message- Type
- first impression
- Description
Sent automatically when a conversation starts.
- Name
CSAT survey- Type
- feedback
- Description
Ask for a rating when a conversation is resolved. Results land in the CSAT report.
- Name
Conversation continuity- Type
- threading
- Description
Keeps replies attached to the original thread instead of opening a new one.
What differs between channels
The workspace is identical, but the underlying networks are not. Three differences matter in daily use:
Messaging windows. WhatsApp only lets you message a customer freely for 24 hours after their last message. Outside that window you must send an approved template. Instagram and Facebook have their own limits. Tola surfaces this in the composer rather than letting a send fail quietly.
Rich content. Buttons, list pickers and interactive replies exist on WhatsApp; email has none of that but has real formatting and large attachments; SMS has neither. A macro that inserts a formatted reply will land differently depending on where it is used.
Identity. Email identifies people by address, WhatsApp by phone number, social by platform account. When the same person reaches you two ways, Tola holds two identities against one contact — see contacts and companies for how merging works.