Picking a channel
Where an agent can go live: a phone number and a campaign for voice agents, a messaging platform for text agents, and a web widget or share link for either.
An agent you have tested in the browser reaches people through a channel. Which channels are open to it depends on its modalityModalityVoice or text. Fixed when an agent is created.See the glossary, fixed at creation: voice agents take calls, text agents answer messages, and both can live on a web page.
| Channel | Agents | What you set up | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phone, outbound | Voice | A phone number, a contact list and an outbound campaign | Phone Numbers, Contacts, Launch AI Voice |
| Phone, inbound | Voice | A phone number and an inbound campaign that answers it | Phone Numbers, Launch AI Voice |
| Slack, Telegram, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, Discord | Text | A deployment per platform, plus the credentials the platform issues | Launch AI Text, or the agent’s Deployments section |
| Web widget | Voice and text | A styled widget and one script tag on your site | The agent’s Widget section |
| Share link | Voice and text | A public link to a hosted page for the agent | Share agent in the agent workspace header |
Decide by who starts the conversation
- You call them. An outbound campaign dials a filtered list of contacts from one of your numbers, inside calling hours, with retries. Start at Create an outbound campaign.
- They call you. An inbound campaign binds an agent to a number so every call to that number is answered by the agent, optionally through a queue. See Create an inbound campaign.
- They message you. A text agent is deployed to the platform your users are on. Each deployment is one agent on one platform; the same agent can have several. See Bot deployments.
- They are on your website. The widget floats on any page and opens a chat, with a call button when the agent has a voice. See Widget designer. For a link you can send in an email or a QR code, use the share link.
What a phone channel needs first
Voice channels need a number. Callab AI does not sell numbers; you connect one of your own in one of 3 ways: a SIP trunkSIP trunkA carrier connection that brings your own phone numbers to Callab AI.See the glossary from your carrier or PBX, a Twilio number you already own, or a Go Auto Dial extension. The phone numbers overview compares them.
Outbound campaigns also need contacts. Import a file or add them one at a time under Contacts, and give them a Source, a Category and a Tag: the campaign wizard filters on those three. See Contacts.