> This page is for Omni Channel. > For clean Markdown of any page, append .md to the page URL. > For a complete documentation index, see https://docs.hams.ai/llms.txt. > For AI client integration (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.), connect to the MCP server at https://docs.hams.ai/_mcp/server. # Overview > Learn what Omni Channel does, the main terms of the product, and the first steps to set up your account. Omni Channel is the part of Hams for customer messages. It puts the messages of all your channels in one shared list: WhatsApp, email, the chat widget on your website, social media, and phone calls. Your team reads and answers every customer from the same dashboard. Workflows and AI agents answer the repeated questions for your team. ![The conversations view shows the channels on the left, the conversation list in the middle, and the thread on the right.](/_fern-img/a93ff0390566fd3b6dc7dc5685c080264eb256ce0c6f69c689da9a7c2af30755.webp) In this page, `{account_id}` is the number of your account in the dashboard URL. ## Main terms | Term | Meaning | | ------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | Inbox | One channel that you connect to your account, for example a WhatsApp number or an email address. | | Conversation | All the messages between your team and one contact in one inbox. | | Contact | A customer who sends messages to your account. A contact can have conversations in different inboxes. | | Company | A group of the contacts who work for the same organization. | | Agent | A person on your team who answers conversations. An administrator is an agent who can also change the settings of the account. | | AI agent | An automated agent that answers customers in a conversation. It can transfer the conversation to a human agent. | | Conversation cycle | One visit of a contact through a conversation, from open to close. A conversation can have more than 1 cycle. | ## What you can do | Area | What it does | Pages | | ------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Inboxes | Connect your channels. Get phone calls as conversations. Answer X direct messages and public X mentions. | [Inboxes and channels](/omni-channel/inboxes), [Phone calls](/omni-channel/voice), [X](/omni-channel/x), [X Mentions](/omni-channel/x-mentions) | | Conversations | Follow each visit of a customer, and group contacts by organization. | [Conversation cycles](/omni-channel/conversation-cycles), [Companies](/omni-channel/companies) | | Automation | Send a WhatsApp template to many contacts. Automate the steps of a conversation. | [WhatsApp campaigns](/omni-channel/whatsapp-campaigns), [Workflows](/omni-channel/workflows) | | Reports | Count and read conversation cycles, analyze closed cycles, and compare WhatsApp campaigns. | [Conversation log](/omni-channel/reports/conversation-log), [Post-chat analysis](/omni-channel/reports/post-chat-analysis), [WhatsApp campaign reports](/omni-channel/reports/whatsapp-campaign-reports) | | AI Agent | Create AI agents, give them knowledge and tools, test them, and read their results. | [Assistants](/omni-channel/ai-agent/assistants), [Knowledge and documents](/omni-channel/ai-agent/knowledge), [FAQ and responses](/omni-channel/ai-agent/faq), [Scenarios](/omni-channel/ai-agent/scenarios), [Tools](/omni-channel/ai-agent/tools), [Playground](/omni-channel/ai-agent/playground), [AI agent reports](/omni-channel/ai-agent/reports) | | Developer API | Send messages and templates from your own systems, and read and change conversations and contacts. | [Quickstart](/omni-channel/api/quickstart), [Messages](/omni-channel/api/messages), [Templates](/omni-channel/api/templates), [Conversations](/omni-channel/api/conversations), [Contacts](/omni-channel/api/contacts), [Pre-call context](/omni-channel/api/precall-context), [Errors](/omni-channel/api/errors) | > **Note** > > Some features are off by default. Hams support turns them on for your account. The features are: > > * The X channel and the X Mentions view: **X Channel (Mentions + Chat)** > * Phone calls: **Call Center** and **Voice Channel** > * Companies: **Companies** > * WhatsApp campaigns: **WhatsApp Campaign** > * Workflows and the AI agent: **Workflows + Agent** > * Post-chat analysis: **Post-chat Analysis** > > The top of each page tells you who can use the feature and how to get it. ## Set up your account Do these steps in this order. #### Connect a channel Open **Settings** > **Inboxes**. Click **Add Inbox**. Select a channel. Then connect it. See [Inboxes and channels](/omni-channel/inboxes). #### Add your team Open **Settings** > **Agents** at `/app/accounts/{account_id}/settings?tab=agents`. Click **Add Agent**. Enter the **Agent Name** and the **Email Address**. Select the **Role**: **Administrator** or **Agent**. Click **Add agent**. The system sends an invitation email to the new agent. #### Give the agents access to the inbox Add the agents to the inbox in the **Add Agents** step of the inbox wizard. You can also add them later on the **Collaborators** tab of the inbox settings. An agent sees only the conversations of the inboxes and teams of that agent. #### Automate the repeated work Build a [workflow](/omni-channel/workflows) for the steps that are the same each time. Create an [AI agent](/omni-channel/ai-agent/assistants) for the questions that are the same each time. #### Connect your own systems Create an API key. Then send your first template through the developer API. See [Quickstart](/omni-channel/api/quickstart). ## Switch to Cloud Call Center The sidebar has a product switcher under the account name. Use it to move the dashboard between **Omni Channel** and **Cloud Call Center**. Use Cloud Call Center to take and make calls, route calls, and read call reports. Your account, your login, and your contacts are the same in both products. A call shows as a conversation on the timeline of the contact. See [Phone calls](/omni-channel/voice) and the [Cloud Call Center overview](/cloud-call-center/overview). ## Personal settings Each user can set a chat background for the message area of a conversation. Open **Profile Settings** and find **Chat background** in the **Interface** section. You can also open the **More actions** menu in the header of a conversation and click **Chat background**. The choices are **Default**, **Sand**, **Sky**, **Lavender**, **Slate**, **Doodle**, **Dots**, **Waves**, and **Grid**. The background applies only to the user who sets it. Other users see their own background. ## Related * [Inboxes and channels](/omni-channel/inboxes) * [Conversation cycles](/omni-channel/conversation-cycles) * [Workflows](/omni-channel/workflows) * [Assistants](/omni-channel/ai-agent/assistants) * [Quickstart](/omni-channel/api/quickstart)