Messaging channels

Your customers write wherever they happen to be: on WhatsApp, by email, from your Facebook page messenger. Here you connect those channels to the app, and from then on every message lands in the same inbox, next to the customer's record and their open jobs.

You'll find this page under Settings›Integrations. It needs the manage_integrations permission.

The channels you can connect#

• WhatsApp Business — receive and reply in real time. It's the channel workshops use most.
• Email — your own SMTP server, for transactional email: customer reports, booking confirmations, receipts.
• Facebook Messenger — the conversations coming in from your Facebook business page.
• Instagram Direct — direct messages from your business profile (it needs a profile linked to a Facebook page).
• SMS — not available yet. The card only offers a button to register your interest.

Connecting a channel#

Each channel has its own card, with the status at the top (Connected, Not connected, Pending, Error) and the controls on the right.

1. Try the one-click connection first

   If the channel supports it, the card shows a Connect with button followed by the provider's name. It sends you to the provider, asks for your consent and brings you back: no credentials to paste. This is the recommended route.

2. Or open “Advanced” and enter the credentials by hand

   Manual setup is for when the one-click route isn't available. You generate the values yourself in the provider's own console — CrankPal cannot fetch them for you:

   • WhatsApp Business: Phone Number ID, Business Account ID, API Token. The Webhook URL field is read-only: you don't fill it in.
   • Email: SMTP host and port, username, password, sender name and sender email.
   • Facebook Messenger: Page ID, Page Access Token, App Secret.
   • Instagram Direct: Instagram Account ID, Access Token.

3. Name the account and enable the channel

   The account name is what you'll see in the inbox next to the messages: if you run two numbers, this is how you tell them apart. Then tick Enable this channel and save.

4. Test the connection

   The Test connection button really tries the saved credentials against the provider and updates the status at the top of the card. For email it connects to the SMTP server, negotiates the encrypted connection and logs in; for WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram it queries the account at Meta.

Credentials are stored encrypted and shown back to you masked: a secret field displayed as **** followed by a few digits is already saved. Leave it as it is to keep it, type over it to replace it.

A channel connected with one click is detached with Disconnect. While it stays disconnected, nothing arrives from that channel.

WhatsApp message templates#

WhatsApp only allows free text within 24 hours of the customer's last message. After that, you can only write using a template approved by Meta. That's why, once the WhatsApp channel is connected, a dedicated panel appears below the configuration.

The panel lists the templates CrankPal uses — bike ready, booking confirmed, maintenance reminder, extra work approval, quote ready, pickup reminder, payment link, review request and others — each with its status: To be created, In review, Approved or Rejected. If a template is rejected, the panel also shows the reason Meta gave.

Create / update templates creates the missing ones on your account; Refresh statuses re-reads from Meta where they stand. Approval is not instant: a freshly created template stays in review for a while.

Common problems#