Channel Setup

Channels are how a loop reaches the professional: the fill link goes out as a WhatsApp message, an email, or a text (SMS). They are managed once per account on Settings → Integrations (/settings/integrations, Settings in the sidebar) and used by every project. This page covers what is common to all channels; each channel then has its own guide.

Loops sent through the Secure Link Loop API and by voice-agent tools always go out on WhatsApp; email and text are used by sends from the app (Playground and Templates test sends, resends from the Responses page).

Enabled vs credentials

Every channel has two independent switches:

• Enabled — whether the channel can send at all. WhatsApp is on for every new account; email and text are off until you enable them. At least one channel must stay enabled, and a send over a disabled channel fails with "channel is disabled" (the Secure Link Loop API answers 400).

• Credentials — whose account the message actually goes out from:

  • System credentials are VocaLoop's own provider accounts, configured

  on the server (WHATSAPP_*, AWS_SES_* / SMTP_* in the root .env). WhatsApp and email run on them with nothing for you to configure. Bringing your own credentials for these channels is coming soon.

  • Your own credentials are stored on your account. Text (SMS) works

  this way only: saving your Twilio config enables the channel in one step, and removing it switches the channel off (system-managed SMS is coming soon).

Turning a channel on or off

1. Open Settings → Integrations. The three channel cards are listed in the order WhatsApp, Email, Text.

2. Use the card's toggle to enable or disable the channel. For Text, fill in the Twilio fields and save instead — that enables it.

3. Disabling a channel never deletes anything; re-enable it any time.

How secrets are handled

• Your own configs are encrypted at rest with Fernet, keyed by ENCRYPTION_KEY in the root .env (see Getting Started).

• After saving, secret fields (passwords, tokens) are shown masked (••••abcd). When editing a card later, leave the masked value untouched to keep the stored secret — only paste a new value when rotating it.

• Removing your credentials deletes the stored config entirely and switches the channel off.

Testing a channel

Every enabled card has a test send: enter a recipient (your own email or phone) and VocaLoop sends a real message through the credentials currently in effect — system or your own. Provider errors are surfaced verbatim, so a wrong token or an unverified number shows up immediately. Template-level test sends (from a project's Templates tab) and the Playground's Send a test resolve credentials the same way; their fill page carries a test-only notice.

Usage and billing

Every provider call is counted per channel and per credential source (system vs your own). The account Usage page shows the split; calls on system credentials are what count against your credits.

Next

• WhatsApp setup — what the system channel does for you, and how to prepare your own Meta Cloud API access for when bring-your-own arrives.

• Email setup — enabling the channel, what recipients see, and the server-side SES / SMTP configuration for self-hosted deployments.

• Twilio SMS setup — creating the Twilio account, number and geo permissions, and pasting the credentials in.