Omni-Channel Messaging

CRM Factory provides a unified messaging experience across WhatsApp and SMS. Inbound messages are handled by an AI agent first, with seamless handoff to human agents when needed.

Conversations Inbox

The Conversations page is the central hub for all messaging threads. Each conversation shows:

• Channel — WhatsApp or SMS badge
• Status — active, waiting_reply, needs_human, completed, or expired
• Intent and summary — AI-generated context
• Message count and recency

Conversations auto-refresh every 10 seconds. Open a thread to see the full message history with distinct bubbles for customer, AI, and agent messages.

Replying as an Agent

Click any active thread to open the composer. Replies go out on the same channel the customer used — if they messaged via WhatsApp, your reply sends via WhatsApp. Type your message and press Enter or click Send.

You can also reply from a Contact record without leaving the contact detail page — the conversations panel is embedded directly on the contact view.

Channels

WhatsApp

WhatsApp conversations use Twilio's Messaging API with support for:

• Plain text messages with optional media attachments
• Template messages — Pre-approved templates for welcome menus, order confirmations, and part selection lists
• Interactive buttons — Quick-reply buttons and list pickers (up to 10 items)
• 24-hour session window — WhatsApp requires template messages outside the session window

Template messages are managed via Twilio Content SIDs. Default templates are built in; override them with TWILIO_TPL_* environment variables for account-specific templates.

SMS

SMS conversations use Twilio's REST API with support for:

• Plain text messages
• MMS attachments — Inbound images are processed with AI vision and merged into the conversation context
• 4-hour session window — Shorter than WhatsApp to reflect the synchronous nature of SMS
• Delivery status tracking — Real-time delivery receipts via Twilio status callbacks

Session Management

Each conversation creates a session that tracks channel, customer address, status, intent, order context, and assignment. Sessions expire based on channel-specific timeouts:

Expired sessions are closed automatically. New inbound messages create a fresh session.

AI Agent

Inbound messages are first handled by an AI conversation agent that can:

• Greet customers and understand intent
• Look up orders, pricing, and inventory from connected ERP systems
• Build order drafts interactively
• Escalate to human agents when confidence is low or the customer requests it

The AI agent runs within the session context, carrying forward the full conversation history, customer information, and any in-progress order draft.

Automation Integration

Messaging integrates with the workflow automation builder:

Triggers

Actions

There is no separate "send WhatsApp" step — use channel_notify with channel: "whatsapp" or channel: "originating" to reply on whatever channel the customer used.

API

List Conversations

GET /api/v1/conversations

Returns active conversation sessions for the authenticated org. Filter by sessionId or contactId.

Get Conversation Stats

GET /api/v1/conversations/stats

Returns aggregate metrics: total conversations, AI resolution ratio, averages by channel and intent.

Reply to a Conversation

POST /api/v1/conversations/reply
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "sessionId": "ses_abc123",
  "message": "Your order has shipped — tracking number is XYZ789."
}

The reply is sent on the same channel as the session and the session status updates to waiting_reply.

Message Templates

GET /api/v1/message-templates
POST /api/v1/message-templates

Manage org-level message templates with channel, body, variables, optional Twilio Content SID, and approval status.

Configuration

Set the following environment variables to enable messaging:

Configure the Twilio webhook URL to point at your deployment:

https://your-domain.com/api/v1/webhooks/telephony/sms

This single endpoint handles both SMS and WhatsApp inbound messages — the channel is detected automatically from the sender address format.