Channels

Bring your own channels#

OmniMessage does not rent you numbers or accounts. You connect senders that you own: a WhatsApp Business number, a Telegram bot, an SMS number, a Facebook Page, an Instagram or TikTok business account. Your brand, your number and your provider relationship stay yours.

The OmniMessage fee is charged per outbound message. Fees charged by the provider itself, such as WhatsApp conversation fees or carrier fees for SMS, remain between you and that provider and are not part of your OmniMessage balance.

Channel types#

The channel object#

{
  "id": "ch_7Hq2mN5vB8cX1zL0pK3j",
  "object": "channel",
  "mode": "live",
  "type": "whatsapp",
  "name": "Support line",
  "identifier": "+971800123456",
  "status": "active",
  "connection_status": "connected",
  "capabilities": [
    "text",
    "attachments",
    "template",
    "button",
    "list",
    "cta_url",
    "location",
    "contacts",
    "flow",
    "product",
    "product_list",
    "catalog",
    "carousel",
    "location_request"
  ],
  "created_at": "2026-10-01T08:00:00.000Z"
}

Connect a channel#

In the console, open Channels, choose Connect channel and pick a type. The type decides how the sender is authorised:

Messenger, Instagram and TikTok are authorised by a person signing in to the provider and granting access in a pop-up window, so they cannot be created with an API key. The sign-in window is opened by the console; allow pop-ups for it if your browser blocks the window.

curl https://api.omnimessage.co/v1/channels \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer om_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "whatsapp",
    "name": "Support line",
    "identifier": "+971800123456",
    "credentials": {
      "wab_account_id": "104857600123456",
      "phone_number_id": "209715200654321",
      "access_token": "EAAG..."
    }
  }'

{
  "id": "ch_7Hq2mN5vB8cX1zL0pK3j",
  "object": "channel",
  "mode": "live",
  "type": "whatsapp",
  "name": "Support line",
  "identifier": "+971800123456",
  "status": "active",
  "connection_status": "pending",
  "capabilities": [
    "text",
    "attachments",
    "template",
    "button",
    "list",
    "cta_url",
    "location",
    "contacts",
    "flow",
    "product",
    "product_list",
    "catalog",
    "carousel",
    "location_request"
  ],
  "created_at": "2026-10-01T08:00:00.000Z"
}

• A new channel is pending and becomes connected when the provider confirms the link, usually within seconds. The console shows this while you wait.
• Tokens, authorisation codes and credentials are passed to the delivery layer once. They are not stored by the API or returned by any endpoint.
• An identifier can be connected once per channel type. A second attempt fails with 409 channel_identifier_taken.
• If the provider refuses the credentials, the request fails with 422 upstream_rejected and the provider reason in message.
• To renew an expired token or changed permissions, open the channel in the console and choose Reconnect. It repeats the same sign-in or credential step and keeps the channel ID.

Connection status#

Sending on a channel that is not connected fails with 422 channel_not_connected and nothing is charged. Subscribe to channel.connected and channel.disconnected to follow changes without polling.

Capabilities#

Each channel type supports a set of message types. The support matrix shows the common ones; the channel object lists them all.

Sandbox channels#

In test mode you do not connect anything. Every account has a sandbox channel per type with the ID ch_test_<type>, for example ch_test_whatsapp. See Test mode.

Rename or delete#

PATCH /v1/channels/{id} changes the display name. DELETE /v1/channels/{id} disconnects the sender and removes the channel; messages already sent remain retrievable.