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Messages hub orientation — the tile map for every channel console

The Messages docs split coverage by surface — one page per channel under Channels, plus a long list of individual guides — because that is how the features shipped. Operators do not work that way. The question that brings someone to /messages is one sentence: where do I run a channel? This page answers it, collecting every tile on the Messages hub in the dashboard into one walkthrough. Every console below is a tenant-owned control — you set it for your workspace, and nothing applies until you turn it on. Each tile maps 1:1 to a route under /messages in the dashboard.

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Why the hub is a map

The Messages hub groups three kinds of surface: the channel consoles where you send and read traffic per channel (SMS, MMS, RCS, WhatsApp, email, fax, push, the social messengers, the owned channels), the cross-channel tables that hold one view over every channel at once (templates, batch, scheduled, delivery log, blocklist, landing pages, feedback), and the rail-level surfaces — Notify fan-out, commerce, and routing settings — that sit underneath the channel consoles and steer them. One question brings an operator here — where do I run a channel? — and the hub answers it in two rows: pick the channel console above, then manage the cross-cutting tables below it. Old /channels bookmarks still reach the same hub (see The bare /channels redirect).

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Channel consoles

Each channel console is the working surface for one channel: compose, send, inspect the delivery log filtered to that channel, and read its connection state. The hub card shows the channel’s rolling-24h Sent and Delivered counters and a status dot — Connected, Degraded, Down, Not configured, Pending verification (Email with a custom sending domain still finishing DNS checks), or Coming soon.

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SMS — /messages/sms

What it answers: how do I send, read, and count SMS over my registered sender identities? Open this first — every other channel console reuses its shape (compose box, log, KPI row, filter presets). The console surfaces 10DLC/toll-free sender state beside the compose flow, so a compliance gap shows before a send fails. First visit: with no sender registered the console routes you to the sender-onboarding flow before the compose box unlocks. Docs: SMS channel page; Send and receive messages; First SMS end to end; Two-way conversation.

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MMS — /messages/mms

What it answers: how do I send media-rich messages, and which of my sends carried attachments? Same console shape as SMS plus media handling. Skip when your traffic is text-only — SMS covers it. Docs: MMS channel page; MMS send and receive; MMS media-rich content.

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RCS — /messages/rcs (+ /brands, /builder, /setup)

What it answers: where do I run branded rich messaging — agents, rich cards, and the verification state of each brand? The console splits into the send surface and three sub-consoles: brands (register and track agent/brand verification), builder (compose rich cards visually), and setup (the agent provisioning wizard). First visit: until a brand passes carrier verification the rich surfaces stay preview-only — run the setup wizard first. Skip when you only need plain text — SMS carries it without brand onboarding. Docs: RCS channel page; RCS onboarding; RCS setup wizard; RCS brands console; RCS rich card builder.

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WhatsApp — /messages/whatsapp (+ /flows/[id]/edit)

What it answers: how do template messages, session replies, and WhatsApp Flows come together on one number? The console handles template sends and the delivery log; the flows/[id]/edit sub-route is the visual editor for interactive Flows attached to your WABA. First visit: until a WhatsApp Business sender is connected the console shows the connect flow. Skip when WhatsApp is not in your channel mix. Docs: WhatsApp channel page.

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Email — /messages/email (+ /builder)

What it answers: where do transactional and bulk email sends run, and where do I design the body without HTML? The console is the send + log surface; builder is the drag-and-drop visual editor that writes the template the send uses. First visit: a custom sending domain shows Pending verification until its DNS records pass — sends still work on the shared default domain meanwhile. Skip when you only send via SMTP relay — that surface has its own guide. Docs: Email channel page; Email lifecycle guide; Email visual builder; SMTP relay.

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Fax — /messages/fax

What it answers: how do I send and receive faxes over the same contact base? Console is the send surface plus the inbound fax log. Skip when fax is out of scope — nothing else depends on it. Docs: Fax channel page; Fax send workflow; Inbound fax workflow.

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Push — /messages/push (+ /manage/*)

What it answers: where do I send device push, and where do the device tokens, categories, Live Activities, and scheduled pushes live? The console is the composer; the manage sub-consoles cover device-tokens (register/prune the installed-device registry), live-activities (iOS Live Activity pushes), notification-categories (action buttons), and scheduled-pushes (queued push dispatch). First visit: with no device tokens registered the composer has nothing to target — integrate the SDK first. Skip when your product has no app surface. Docs: Push channel page; Push integration; Device tokens and scheduled sends; Live Activities; Notification categories.

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Social messengers — /messages/messenger, /messages/instagram, /messages/telegram, /messages/line, /messages/kakao, /messages/viber, /messages/wechat, /messages/zalo

What they answer: where do I run each social-channel conversation? Each is its own console with the same shape; each onboards through the channel’s provider connect flow (Messenger/Instagram via Meta, the APAC channels via their regional providers). First visit: each console routes to the channel’s onboarding guide until the sender is connected. Skip the consoles whose channels are not in your mix — nothing else depends on them. Docs: Messenger with onboarding; Instagram with onboarding; Telegram with onboarding; LINE with onboarding; KakaoTalk with production patterns; Viber with the upgrade guide; WeChat with onboarding; Zalo with onboarding. Regional rollups: Asia, LATAM, MENA, Europe.

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Apple Messages — /messages/apple

What it answers: where do Apple Messages for Business conversations and commerce checkouts run? The console carries the business-id agent and its message log. First visit: the console is empty until the Apple agent is registered. Skip when iOS-native messaging is not in scope. Docs: Apple Messages for Business onboarding; Apple Messages commerce checkout.

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In-App Messages — /messages/in-app

What it answers: where do I author the owned, zero-carrier-cost cards my web and React Native SDKs render? The console holds the channel’s master switch and the content-cards editor; SDKs pull the assembled feed from the SDK endpoint. First visit: the editor opens with the channel disabled — author cards, then flip the switch. Skip when your product has no embedded surface. (The tile lives in the hub’s Owned channels tools group, alongside Web Chat.) Docs: In-app channel messages.

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Cross-channel tables

These consoles sit one level above the per-channel pages: each holds one table over every channel at once. Use them after at least one channel console is live — until then they are empty lists.

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Templates — /messages/templates

What it answers: which reusable message bodies exist, in which languages, and what approval state are they in? Templates span SMS, WhatsApp, RCS, and Email with variable substitution. Docs: Outbound templates; Template analytics; RCS templates tab.

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Batch — /messages/batch (+ /batch/drafts)

What it answers: how do I send one message to an ad-hoc pasted list, and where are my unfinished batches? Paste, validate, dispatch — outside the campaign lifecycle. Drafts hold uploaded lists you have not dispatched yet. Docs: Batch send guide.

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Scheduled — /messages/scheduled

What it answers: which messages are waiting to dispatch, and can I reschedule, edit the body, or cancel them? The queued-send management surface. Docs: Message scheduling.

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Delivery log — /messages/delivery-log

What it answers: where did any message go, across every channel at once? Cross-channel search over sender, recipient, body text, and provider reference — the per-channel consoles only scope one channel each, so this is the lookup surface for support and reconciliation. Docs: Delivery logs guide; Delivery log console.

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Blocklist — /messages/blocklist

What it answers: which destinations are blocked from outbound sends on every channel? Self-service suppression for bad-actor numbers. Docs: Blocklist guide.

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Landing pages — /messages/landing-pages

What it answers: which hosted landing pages back my message links, and what do they convert? The page builder for the web destinations short links resolve to. Docs: Landing pages guide.

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Feedback — /messages/feedback

What it answers: how do conversion outcomes (confirmed / unconfirmed) come back into message records from an external attribution export? Bulk-import surface for up to 1000 messages at a time. Docs: Message feedback bulk import.

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Notify and cascades

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Notify — /messages/notify

What it answers: how do I reach one recipient on several channels at once — or walk them down an ordered fallback chain until one channel delivers? The composer fans a payload out across SMS, WhatsApp, RCS, email, push, and more, either all at once or as a waterfall cascade (for example RCS → WhatsApp → SMS) that stops at the first delivery. First visit: with no channels connected it composes nothing — run one channel console first. Docs: Multi-channel notify; Cascade failover; Track a cascade; Cascade cost model.

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Commerce

Six rails close the loop from a message to a payment. Each is a tenant-owned console under /messages/commerce; none applies until you configure it.

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Pay-by-link — /messages/commerce/pay-links

What it answers: how do I mint a tokenized hosted payment link, preview it per channel, drive its lifecycle, and reconcile the PSP capture? The payment-request center for in-conversation checkout. Docs: Commerce: DCB and pay links; Conversational commerce checkout.

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Direct Carrier Billing — /messages/commerce/dcb

What it answers: how do operator-billed checkouts (EMEA/MENA digital goods) onboard, charge, refund, and reconcile settlement? Docs: Commerce: DCB and pay links.

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Subscriptions — /messages/commerce/subscriptions

What it answers: how do recurring orders start off an existing cart, and where do pauses, resumes, and next-renewal dates live? Docs: Subscriptions, storefront, and mandates.

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Agentic storefront — /messages/commerce/storefront

What it answers: what does a third-party AI shopping agent see when it discovers my catalog — and is the public storefront published? Docs: Subscriptions, storefront, and mandates.

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Agent payment mandates — /messages/commerce/agent-mandate

What it answers: which scoped, spend-capped, revocable consents let an AI agent transact on a customer’s behalf — and can I verify and revoke them? Docs: Subscriptions, storefront, and mandates.

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Settings

Three controls steer routing rather than messages themselves.

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Inbound routes — /messages/settings/inbound-routes

What it answers: where does inbound SMS land — webhook, queue, inbox, or team — matched by number, sender, keyword, or regex? Rules run in priority order, the messaging analogue of inbound email routing. Docs: Routing rules.

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Route quality — /messages/settings/route-quality

What it answers: which outbound route is degrading, and when does the circuit breaker fail traffic over to the next one? The route-health runbook surface. Docs: Route quality circuit-breaker runbook; Routing rules.

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Sender pools — /settings/channels/sms/sender-pools

What it answers: how do sends distribute across my pool of sender identities, and which pool member carries what share? Lives under SMS channel settings in the dashboard. Docs: Sender pools.

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Role gating

The hub itself renders for owner, admin, and developer seats; viewers and agents do not see /messages in the sidebar.

• Channel consoles (read) — list and detail views accept an authenticated dashboard session, or an API key with messages:read.
• Channel consoles (write) — compose, send, reschedule, cancel, and template management require a workspace role with send permission, or an API key with messages:write; a key minted with only messages:read is rejected with a 403 on send endpoints regardless of the key’s other permissions. The exact scope each endpoint checks is listed per operation in the API reference.
• Inbound routes and route quality — configuration changes follow dashboard workspace-role rules; reads accept authenticated sessions.
• Tenant isolation — every console here is tenant-owned: templates, logs, blocklists, routes, mandates, and pools live in your workspace only, nothing crosses tenant boundaries, and nothing applies until you create it.

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Suggested walkthrough order

Take the consoles in this order when you stand the surfaces up for the first time:

1. One channel console — SMS if your traffic is plain text, WhatsApp if it is not, Email if you are transactional-only. That is the working surface every other console’s shape reuses. Skip when: a connected channel already exists — start at step 2.
2. Templates — define the reusable bodies for the channel you just stood up. Skip when: sends are all ad-hoc.
3. Batch and Scheduled — move from single sends to lists and queued dispatch. Skip when: your traffic is all API-driven.
4. Delivery log + Blocklist — wire the reconciliation and suppression loops, then run support lookups there, not in the per-channel pages.
5. Notify — only if more than one channel is live; a cascade with one channel is a send with extra steps.
6. Commerce — only if checkout-in-message is in scope for the quarter.
7. Settings (inbound routes, route quality, sender pools) — last, once real traffic exists to route and measure.

Steps 1–4 unblock day-to-day operation. Steps 5–7 are the rail-level work you add once the basics are boring.

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The bare /channels redirect

The bare /channels path holds no page of its own and always resolves to /messages — the canonical hub. It exists so older bookmarks and links from outside the dashboard land somewhere instead of 404ing; the redirect is a pass-through, not a placeholder. Bookmark the console you actually use, not the bare path.

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Hub tiles at a glance

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Where the in-depth docs live

• Channels — the per-channel pages under the Channels group are the detailed reference for each console’s provider contract.
• Send and receive messages — the end-to-end send/read pipeline, channel-neutral.
• Guides — the granular walkthroughs linked per console above; the Guides nav groups them by task rather than by hub tile.

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See also

• Marketing hub console map — the same console-map treatment for wallet passes, loyalty, and referrals.
• Developer hub overview — the API-side orientation page.
• Inbox settings map — the console map for the Inbox settings surfaces.
• Audience hub orientation — the hub map for contacts and audiences.
• Dashboard home walkthrough — the triage surface that links into this hub.