Channels
Channels: phone, text, and web chat
Sylo is one receptionist working every channel your customers use. You teach it once; it answers everywhere. Every conversation, from every channel, lands in the same Inbox.
Phone
Sylo answers calls on your Sylo number around the clock. Callers get a natural spoken conversation: questions answered from your knowledge, bookings made against your real availability, orders and messages taken. Returning customers are recognized and greeted by name.
Text (SMS)
The same number handles texting. Customers can text a question, confirm a booking, or carry on a conversation, and Sylo replies in your voice. Booking confirmations and reminders also go out by text. Customers can opt out at any time by replying STOP, and Sylo respects it immediately.
Web chat widget
Add the Sylo chat widget to your website with a small embed snippet from Channels in your dashboard. It matches your brand colors, works on phones, and can answer questions and book appointments right in the chat. The widget only runs on domains you've approved, so nobody else can embed your receptionist on their site.
Your Sylo number can be your WhatsApp Business line too. Under Channels, the WhatsApp card turns it on in one click: customers message your number on WhatsApp and Sylo answers, books, and hands off to you exactly as it does for calls and texts, with every conversation landing in the same Inbox. Photos and documents customers send come through too.
Prefer a number you already own? The same card lets you bring it. One thing to know before you do: WhatsApp allows a number to be registered in one place only, so connecting it to Sylo removes it from the WhatsApp app on your phone. Businesses that want to keep using the app on their existing number usually let their Sylo number be the WhatsApp line instead. A number connected through Sylo also cannot post Status stories; the Inbox is where those conversations live, and it works from any phone browser.
Your WhatsApp business profile (photo, description, website, email, address) is managed from the WhatsApp profile page under Channels. Every plan's usage credits cover WhatsApp; Starter runs the one channel you pick.
WhatsApp updates to your customers
API numbers cannot post Status stories, so Sylo gives you the next best thing: updates. Under Channels, WhatsApp updates, you write a message template (a weekend offer, a new opening hour, a reminder that bookings are open), WhatsApp reviews it, usually within minutes, and then you send it to everyone who asked for your updates. Customers join by replying JOIN to your WhatsApp number, or you record their consent on their customer page after they asked in person; LEAVE removes them at any time and STOP ends every WhatsApp message from you. Each recipient counts as one WhatsApp conversation from your usage credits, and Sylo shows you the total, and any overage, before you confirm. Keep updates about your business and end with a real sentence such as "Reply LEAVE to stop these updates"; WhatsApp rejects templates that end on a placeholder.
Bringing a landline or desk line to WhatsApp? The verification code can arrive as a phone call instead of a text; pick that option on the card and make sure a person answers the line while you set it up.
Countries without a local Sylo number
Sylo issues local phone numbers in the United States and Canada instantly, and in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, and Mexico after a short business verification. Anywhere else, including Nigeria, India, Australia, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates, no local number can be issued yet, so calls and texting through Sylo are not available there. Sylo runs on WhatsApp (a number you already own, connected from Channels) and on your website chat, and your plan's usage credits all go to those two channels. We say this the moment you pick your country at signup, and again on the Channels page.
Turning channels on and off
Everything lives under Channels in your dashboard: your numbers, the widget embed and its allowed domains, and per channel controls. If you only want Sylo on the phone and not on chat, that's one switch.