LiveChat Messaging Channels: WhatsApp, Messenger, SMS Setup

Which channels Text connects, and what each one costs

LiveChat, now sold to new customers as Text plans, puts website chat, a hosted chat page, in-app chat, forwarded email, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and SMS into one inbox next to tickets. WhatsApp costs nothing extra from Text, and SMS is billed by Twilio on your own Twilio account. Text names no plan for Instagram. The other channels are listed on Essential, $19 per user per month billed annually or $25 billed monthly ^[1]. The gaps are just as clear. Text is not a phone system, Apple Messages for Business stays on legacy LiveChat Business and Enterprise plans, and Telegram is not native.

Setup happens channel by channel from the All Channels section of Settings, and each channel brings its gatekeeper's rules. Meta sets the reply window on WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram. Twilio sets the SMS limits and bills the messages. Chat routing rules, which send a conversation to a team by channel, page or country, start on Growth, $79 per user per month billed annually or $99 billed monthly. The table shows what each channel needs before the first message arrives, and the limit that shapes daily work once it does.

Website, chat page, in-app and email: the channels you control

The website widget is where most teams start. You paste the code before the closing body tag or install one of Text's apps for Shopify, WordPress or Webflow; our website widget guide walks through each path, plus colors, greetings and the 48 widget languages. Two settings matter for channels. Trusted domains, an optional security setting, keep the widget off sites you did not list, so a copied snippet shows nothing elsewhere. The chat page gives you a hosted link and QR codes to share in email signatures, social bios or print, with no website at all.

For a mobile or web app, Text offers the Customer SDK and the Chat Widget JS API, with adapters for React, Vue and Angular. This path needs a developer. Once connected, in-app chats land in the same inbox as website chats and tickets, so one agent sees the whole customer. A VIP flag set on a customer profile follows that person across chat, email and tickets, which helps when the same buyer writes from the app on Monday and by email on Tuesday. Plan the in-app work as a small project, not a settings change.

Email works by forwarding, not by a mailbox connection. You forward mail from Gmail, Microsoft 365, Outlook or Yahoo (not free Yahoo Mail accounts) to a Text forwarding address, and every incoming message becomes a ticket. To reply from your own domain, you add CNAME and TXT DNS records that carry DKIM keys. Essential includes one forwarding address and Growth includes ten, so a team that wants a separate forwarding address for support, sales and billing needs Growth from the second address. Tickets created from email follow the same statuses as every other ticket, from Open through Pending and Solved to Closed.

WhatsApp: native since June 2026, with Meta's rules attached

WhatsApp became a native Text channel in June 2026, installed on every paid license, trial and new account with nothing extra to buy. Numbers are unlimited, and each connected number is free from Text ^[2]. To connect, you log in with Facebook, need a Meta Business Portfolio where you hold admin rights, and need a number that can receive an SMS or voice call for verification. No credit card is needed in Meta's wizard for a new number; the payment step can be skipped. Text recommends verifying your business with Meta first, because unverified accounts get messaging limits.

Two rules catch teams out. A number still active in the WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business phone app must be deleted there first, or registration fails. And a number connected to Text cannot send through the Meta API at the same time, which matters if another system sends order confirmations from it. Then comes the 24-hour window. Free-form replies are allowed only within 24 hours of the customer's last message; after that, a pre-approved message template reopens the conversation. Marketing messages outside the window are listed as coming soon. Do not plan campaigns on them yet.

A number already on another provider, such as Intercom, Gorgias, Zendesk or Twilio, can move to Text without changing; Text says it keeps working during the move, except that a move from Zendesk can cause brief unavailability at cutover, so pick a low-traffic window. Before moving, turn off two-step verification, get the Meta business verified and the display name approved, and add a payment method to the new WhatsApp Business Account, or the migration returns an error. The number, display name, quality rating and approved green-rated templates carry over. Conversation history does not, because WhatsApp does not transfer past messages between providers. Existing LiveChat customers get a different deal: their number moves to Text with its history and no downtime, provided they create a new WhatsApp Business Account in their own Meta portfolio. They should not cancel LiveChat before the move is confirmed.

Messenger, Instagram and SMS: three channels, three gatekeepers

Messenger connects through a Facebook login from an account with admin access to the pages you want. One Text account can hold several Facebook pages, and with Growth's routing rules each page can go to its own team. Meta limits business replies to 24 hours after the customer's last message, and a customer who blocked the page cannot be messaged. Only admins can reconnect a disconnected page, although any user can disconnect one. After a disconnect, chat history stays in the archive for the period your plan keeps: 60 days on Essential, unlimited on Growth.

Instagram arrived in October 2026 and connects with an Instagram login, with no Facebook Page required ^[3]. Only Business or Creator accounts work; a personal account is switched to Professional during setup. One license can connect as many Instagram accounts as you run. Direct messages and story replies both arrive as chats, marked with an Instagram icon. The same 24-hour reply window applies. When an account is restricted or disconnected, only an admin can fix the error, and agents simply see that an admin was notified. Give at least two people admin rights.

SMS runs only through your own Twilio account. You enter the Account SID and Auth Token from Twilio and connect at least one SMS-capable number; several numbers work ^[4]. Twilio bills the messages, and its suspensions and limits apply to you. Each message caps at 1,600 characters. Text recommends a paid Twilio account over a Twilio trial. New Twilio accounts can text only the home country verified at signup, so a business texting abroad must enable other countries in Twilio's SMS Geo Permissions first, or messages fail. Text says it is not a phone system.

Routing, the AI Agent and what Text leaves out

Routing is where the plan choice shows. Chat routing rules start on Growth and send a conversation to a team by page URL, domain, country or channel; Messenger routes by Facebook page and Twilio SMS by the number texted. Essential has no routing rules and one team. The step-up from Essential to Growth costs $60 per user per month billed annually, or $74 billed monthly. For a five-person team that is $300 a month on annual billing, by our arithmetic. Growth also adds working hours, supervision and multilingual agent groups, so the upgrade buys more than routing.

Text's AI Agent answers website chat, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and SMS from the same knowledge sources, and hands a conversation to a teammate when needed. Resolutions come from an allowance of 10 per account a month on Essential and 200 per account a month on Growth; extra packs cost $49.50 per 50 and unused resolutions do not carry over. Ten a month is one every three days. That goes fast. Our AI playbook explains what counts as a resolution. For contrast, Help Scout's Scout answers in Beacon and email only, not on Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp or SMS.

Three channels are missing from Text. Apple Messages for Business works only on legacy LiveChat Business and Enterprise plans, which existing LiveChat customers keep; it is not part of Text. Telegram exists only as third-party apps for the LiveChat app. And Text says it is not a phone system. Existing LiveChat customers should also know that on legacy plans, WhatsApp, SMS and Instagram run as Marketplace apps rather than built-in channels, so moving to Text changes how they connect. Their plan and price questions are covered in our pricing guide.

The bottom line

Text covers eight ways in, from the website widget to SMS, and lands them all in one inbox next to tickets. WhatsApp numbers cost nothing from Text, and SMS rides on your own Twilio bill. The real limits come from the gatekeepers: Meta's 24-hour reply window on WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram, and Twilio's country permissions and 1,600-character cap. Pick Essential if one team answers every channel. Pick Growth once channels need different teams or more than one forwarding address. Skip Text if you need a phone system, or Apple Messages for Business outside legacy LiveChat Business and Enterprise plans.