> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://manuals.dialox.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://manuals.dialox.ai/smart-receptionist/channels/channel-differences.md).
# Channel differences
How the Smart Receptionist behaves on the phone, in web chat and on WhatsApp, and what you set up for each.
All channels share the same **company details, departments, colleagues, topics, spam and emergency settings**. You configure the receptionist once. What changes per channel is **how the conversation starts, how a caller or visitor is handed to a person, and what happens when nobody is available**.
## At a glance
| | Telephony | Web chat (Chat widget / PWA) | WhatsApp |
| ----------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Operator add-on** | Included in Smart App – Professional | **Chat kanaal** | **Whatsapp Kanaal** |
| **Switched on in** | Active by default on the ordered extension | Channels → Chat widget (website domains) or PWA (`bsqd.me` or own domain) | Channels → Whatsapp → **Enable**, after connecting the licence to **360dialog** |
| **Start of the conversation** | **Greeting** + **AI disclosure** (spoken), then **Opening question** | **Chat: opening line** + **Chat: AI disclosure** (sent with the first reply) | **Chat: opening line** + **Chat: AI disclosure** |
| **Hand-over to a person** | Live transfer to a queue, call group or colleague. Presence is checked at call time. | Live hand-over in the website chat when a colleague is online in the inbox. The visitor sees a waiting indicator. | **Handed to the inbox.** A colleague replies later, in WhatsApp. |
| **Nobody available** | A message is taken, or the caller is offered another channel ([call deflection](/smart-receptionist/channels/call-deflection-and-chat-handover.md)) | The visitor can keep waiting. After 3 minutes the conversation stays in the inbox, and the reply comes later in the chat and by SMS or email. | The conversation waits in the inbox for a colleague. |
| **Keypad (DTMF) menu** | Yes (7. Keypad) | No | No |
| **Voice settings** | Voice, speech recognition, background sound, barge-in, voice lexicon | No | No (voice messages are turned into text) |
| **Files, photos, locations** | No | Supported by the chat channels; the link goes with the message that's taken | Yes; voice messages that can be transcribed are answered like typed ones |
| **Dashboard counter** | Voice | Web chat | WhatsApp |
{% hint style="info" %}
**Phrases come in channel versions.** In **Content → 11. Phrases**, lines that start with **Chat:** are used on the chat channels (web widget, app and WhatsApp), and lines that start with **WhatsApp:** or **Deflection:** are spoken on the phone when a caller is moved to WhatsApp or a chat link. All other lines apply to calls, and to chat where they make sense. Some, like the spam decline sentence, are explicitly *used in chat too*. Don't mention the telephone in those.
{% endhint %}
## Telephony
The phone channel is the core of the receptionist and is connected automatically to the extension you ordered (**Channels → Telephony**, *Provisioned via Extension order …*).
**What only the phone channel has:**
* **Keypad menu** (7. Keypad). Press 1–9 for departments and 0 for the front desk. It's also read out as a fallback when the AI is unavailable.
* **Voice lexicon** (13. Voice lexicon). Pronunciation fixes, for example `&` → *and*.
* **Speech settings** (Channels → Telephony → **Speech**):
* **Voice** per language
* **Recognition** engine (Reson8, Google Speech, Speechmatics, Deepgram, ElevenLabs, Azure OpenAI Live Transcribe), and *Recognize all configured languages instead of just the current*
* **Background sound**, for example office ambience
* **Barge-in**, which decides what happens when the caller talks while the receptionist is speaking: **Pause**, **Duck** (keep talking more quietly) or **Off**, plus how long to wait for the interruption to be confirmed
* **Phone channel settings** (Channels → Telephony → **Settings**): the public number or extension, and *Forward traffic to staging bot*.
* **Call deflection** (Settings → Call deflection): when nobody can be reached, offer the caller a WhatsApp conversation or a chat link instead of taking a message. See [Call deflection and chat hand-over](/smart-receptionist/channels/call-deflection-and-chat-handover.md).
Channels → Telephony → Speech
Channels → Telephony → Settings
{% hint style="info" %}
**Caller ID helps messages.** On the phone, the caller's number is usually known. In **12. Message templates** you decide per field whether a known value is used, confirmed with the caller, or asked again.
{% endhint %}
## Web chat
There are two web chat channels:
* **Chat widget.** A chat bubble on the customer's own website. Add the domains where it may run, paste the JavaScript snippet just before `
`, and style it on the **Design** tab.
* **PWA (Progressive Web App).** A stand-alone chat page hosted on `bsqd.me` or a custom domain. Call deflection uses this channel for the *chat with you* option.
