Messaging channels

Let people reach your app over WhatsApp or Slack.

Your app doesn't have to live behind a login screen. A messaging channel lets people reach it where they already are — send a WhatsApp message or a Slack DM, get an answer back. Pikku Studio Cloud wires up the whole app side; you bring the account the messages come from.

Two platforms are supported today: WhatsApp Business and Slack.

Annotated screenshot of the gateway card in the builder chat: a card titled "Connect WhatsApp" showing the generated webhook URL with a Copy button, the registration steps beneath it, and an "Open Meta dashboard" button. Callout: "Ask for a channel and the builder hands you the URL to paste."

What you get

When you add a channel, incoming messages arrive in your app as ordinary events your functions can act on, and whatever your handler returns goes back out to the sender on that platform. Pikku Studio Cloud generates the connection point, answers the platform's verification challenge automatically, and links each sender to a user in your app — so a conversation is just another way into the same product.

What only you can provide

Both platforms tie credentials to an account that belongs to your business, not to Pikku Studio Cloud, so this part can't be provisioned for you.

For WhatsApp Business (Meta's Cloud API):

  • A Meta app with the WhatsApp product added — free to create at developers.facebook.com.
  • A phone number. Meta gives you a free test number to start, and you connect your own business number when you go live.
  • An access token, a phone number ID, and a verify token you choose.

For Slack:

  • A Slack app in your workspace, created at api.slack.com/apps.
  • Its credentials, and the bot scopes for the events you want to receive.

Everything else — the routing, the reply-out, linking senders to users — Pikku Studio Cloud handles.

Setting it up

  1. Ask the builder for the channel. Say you want your app reachable over WhatsApp (or Slack) in Chat. It installs the addon, writes the handler that receives messages, and wires the connection point.
  2. Store your credentials. The addon declares its credentials as a wired secret — WHATSAPP_CREDENTIALS or SLACK_CREDENTIALS — which means it shows up automatically in your project's secrets as blocked until set, and holds the deploy until you fill it in. You don't have to remember which fields it wants; the dashboard lists them.
  3. Take the webhook URL from the card. Rather than spelling out a URL in prose, the builder posts a connection card in the chat with the exact webhook address for your workspace, a copy button, the registration steps for that platform, and a button that opens the right dashboard.
  4. Register it. For WhatsApp: in the Meta app dashboard, open WhatsApp → Configuration → Webhook, paste the URL, enter your verify token, and subscribe to the messages field. For Slack: enable Event Subscriptions, paste the URL as the Request URL, subscribe to the message.im and app_mention bot events, then reinstall the app to your workspace. Either way the platform sends a challenge and the channel answers it by itself.
  5. Message it. Text your number, or DM your bot. The message lands in your app, your handler replies, and the reply goes back out.

The URL on the card points at your build workspace, so you can test the channel before anything is live. Once you deploy, register your live app's domain instead — the card says so too.

Who's allowed to message you

You choose how open the channel is:

  • Open — anyone who messages your number becomes a user in your app. Good for support lines and public assistants.
  • Closed — only people you've already linked can get through. Good when the channel is for known customers or staff.

Pick based on whether a stranger messaging in should be able to start using your product. Sender identities are stored against your users, so the same person is the same account whether they arrive by message or by browser.

Doing this for a client

If you're building an app that a client will run, the app side is identical — but the number and credentials are theirs, because the platform verifies them against that client's business. In practice the client creates their own Meta or Slack app, gives you the credentials to store, and you paste the generated webhook URL into their configuration. Pikku Studio Cloud does everything else the same way it does for you.

Good to know

  • Bring your own account. Pikku Studio Cloud wires up the app; the WhatsApp Business number or Slack app is always yours (or your client's).
  • Credentials stay in secure storage. They live in your project's secrets, never in code, and a missing one blocks the deploy rather than failing silently in production.
  • Senders become users. Each conversation links to a user, so a WhatsApp chat is just another entrance to the same app.

Where to go next

  • Secrets — where your channel credentials are safely stored.
  • Users — how people who message you show up as users in your app.
  • Addons — other integrations you can switch on for your project.