3 min lesson
Agent channels: where your agents talk to other people
Link WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger to a Frontline agent. Debounce, file and image processing, idle, and channel settings.
An agent channel is a public messaging surface bound to a Studio agent. WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger.
This is not a Max channel. Max channels are how you talk to Max. Agent channels are how prospects and clients talk to an agent you configured: the qualifier, the support agent, the onboarding agent.
You connect the number, the Instagram account, or the Facebook page under Integrations → Agent channels. Connecting uses Meta’s flow in the product. Then you link that connection to one agent. Each number or page answers as exactly one agent.
Harrington’s WhatsApp Business number is linked to the qualifying agent. Instagram is linked to a lighter FAQ agent. The same person can write both places and get two different briefs, because the binding is per channel.
Where do I manage how the agent behaves on a channel?
On the agent, under that channel’s settings. Agent channels is the binding. The agent’s WhatsApp, Instagram, or Messenger settings are the behavior.
Open the agent → the channel → settings. That is where wait-before-reply, file handling, idle, and close behavior live.
What can the agent do with files and media?
WhatsApp can process documents and images. A signed IPS PDF or a passport photo becomes something the agent can read, when those toggles are on.
Instagram and Messenger process images. A screenshot of a statement or a photo of a form is usable in the thread.
Turn the toggles on when the use case needs them. Onboarding and collections often do. A simple FAQ agent can leave them off.
What is wait before reply?
On WhatsApp this is debounce. The agent waits a few seconds so a burst of messages becomes one turn.
James often sends three short WhatsApp bubbles: “Hi” then “I have about 12 million” then “Can we talk this week?” With wait before reply, the agent answers once, with all three lines in context.
You turn debounce on and set the wait in seconds. This is a WhatsApp setting on the agent.
What other channel settings matter?
Split messages breaks a long reply into smaller bubbles, with a character limit you set. WhatsApp reads better that way.
Idle starts a quiet timer. After five minutes, or whatever you set, the conversation can fire a workflow. That is how a gentle nudge goes out when James goes silent. Idle has to be on for the Conversation Idle trigger to exist.
Conversation close ends the thread after a period, automatically or never. You can send a close message, either a fixed line or one the model writes from an instruction.
Interrupt timeout is how long a human takeover stays in place before the agent can speak again. Auto reply on uninterrupt lets the agent pick the thread back up when that timer ends.
On WhatsApp you can also edit the business profile (about, website, email, category) from the connected number, and create WhatsApp buttons from Studio → Channels → WhatsApp on that integration.
How should Harrington set this up?
Link the Business number to the qualifying agent. On that agent’s WhatsApp settings, turn debounce on, turn document and image processing on, and set idle to a few minutes so a workflow can nudge. Keep Instagram on a separate agent with image processing and a shorter brief.
Send one test as James. Watch the conversation. If the agent replies three times to three bubbles, raise the wait. If a PDF is ignored, confirm document processing is on.