Limit a support employee to one inbox
A team running customer support only through WhatsApp can turn off SMS and other unused channels so the employee never spends time watching a surface nobody uses.
Channel Enable/Disable Toggle
Not every employer wants every channel open. Turn Slack, WhatsApp, SMS, or any other non-core channel on or off for your workspace, either in the settings screen or by simply telling your employee to switch it. Core channels like chat stay on because every employer needs them; everything else is yours to control.
Every AI employee ships connected to more channels than a given employer may want active at once. The channel toggle lets you decide, per workspace, which ones are actually live: turn on WhatsApp for a customer-support employee, leave SMS off for one that only handles internal reporting, and change your mind later without losing any configuration. Only three channels arrive switched on by default when a workspace is provisioned: In-App Chat, Mailbox, and Auto Schedule. Everything else, Slack, Telegram, API Access, MCP Server, A2A Protocol, Webhook, and Email Webhook among them, starts off until you turn it on.
A small number of core channels are always on because the product depends on them to function at all: In-App Chat (turning it off would lock you out of the product), Live Meeting (the meeting-bot join), Auto Schedule (the cron surface behind recurring work), and Calendar (auto-joining from Google, Outlook, and Apple invites). None of these four can be switched off from the UI or by asking your employee; the toggle write is rejected before it reaches the database, and you get back an explanation naming the channel rather than a silent no-op. A separate set of channels, In-App Voice, In-App Video, Discord, SMS, Microsoft Teams Chat, WhatsApp, Phone Call, Chat Widget, and SDK, are marked coming soon in the catalog: they show up in the list so you know they exist, but there is nothing to flip yet, on the UI or in conversation.
You can flip a channel from the workspace settings UI, or just tell your employee directly, for example 'turn off SMS for now' or 'enable WhatsApp'. Either path calls the exact same write function, so the two are always in sync. This is different from the channel usage panel on the same Communications page: the toggle controls whether a channel can receive or send anything at all, while the usage panel only reports how much traffic an already-enabled channel has seen. Turning a channel off does not erase its usage history or its configuration (a Slack workspace connection, a webhook endpoint) which stays intact for the next time you turn it back on.
Two ways to flip it
The settings UI lists every channel available to your workspace with a simple on/off state, so you can see and manage everything in one place.
The same switch is available conversationally through the employee's manage_channels tool, which supports list, enable, disable, and setup_info actions. Ask your employee to enable or disable a channel by name and it calls the same underlying write the UI toggle uses. There is only one source of truth, so the UI and the conversation never disagree.
What stays protected
Four channels are marked always-on in the catalog because the platform relies on them: In-App Chat, Live Meeting, Auto Schedule, and Calendar. Trying to turn one of these off returns a clear explanation naming why, instead of silently failing or leaving your workspace half-configured.
Nine more channels are marked coming soon and cannot be toggled at all, in the UI or by an employee, so you will never accidentally 'turn on' something that is not actually built yet. Asking your employee to enable one of these gets a plain answer that it isn't available.
Some channels are gated by plan
Slack, Telegram, API Access, MCP Server, A2A Protocol, Webhook, and Email Webhook each carry a plan entitlement on top of the on/off toggle. If your plan does not include one of these, trying to enable it, from the UI or by asking your employee, returns a message telling you it needs a plan upgrade rather than turning on and quietly failing to work.
The entitlement check runs before the toggle write, so a channel you are not entitled to never ends up in an enabled-but-broken state. Once your plan covers it, the same enable action works immediately without any other change.
How It Works
One switch, read everywhere a message could arrive
Each channel's on/off state is stored per employer and per channel. When a message comes in on any channel, the platform checks this setting before doing anything else: if the channel is off, the message is not processed for your workspace.
A short-lived cache keeps that check fast, and flipping the toggle immediately clears the cache for that channel so the change takes effect on the very next message, not after a delay.
Two channel categories are protected from being turned off entirely: channels the product cannot function without, and channels that are not yet built. The first stays on by design; the second cannot be toggled at all until it ships.
Use Cases
Roll out a new channel gradually
When your team is ready to try a new channel, switch it on for one employee first, confirm the workflow feels right, then enable it more broadly.
React to a channel outage or policy change
If a third-party channel needs to be paused, for example during a provider issue or a temporary company policy change, disable it in seconds instead of reconfiguring the employee.
Check whether a locked channel is a plan issue or a setup issue
If enabling Slack or the API fails with a plan-upgrade message instead of turning on, you know immediately it's an entitlement problem, not a broken OAuth flow or missing key, and can decide whether to upgrade.
FAQ
Can I turn off every channel except chat?
Yes, for any channel that is not marked always-on. In-App Chat, Live Meeting, Auto Schedule, and Calendar stay on for every employer since the product depends on them; every other channel, including Mailbox and Slack, can be turned off.
How fast does turning a channel off take effect?
Within 60 seconds at the outside, and immediately in practice. Flipping the toggle clears the cached state for that channel right away, so the next incoming or outgoing message for your workspace reads the fresh setting instead of the 60-second cache.
Can my employee turn a channel on or off if I just ask in chat?
Yes. Asking your employee to enable or disable a channel calls the same write function the UI toggle uses through the manage_channels tool, so there is no difference between the two paths.
What happens if I try to disable a core channel?
You get a clear message explaining that channel cannot be turned off because it is a core surface every employer needs, rather than a silent failure. This applies to In-App Chat, Live Meeting, Auto Schedule, and Calendar.
What happens if I enable a channel my plan doesn't cover?
Slack, Telegram, API Access, MCP Server, A2A Protocol, Webhook, and Email Webhook are gated by plan. Enabling one you're not entitled to returns a message that it needs a plan upgrade instead of turning on in a broken state.
Does turning a channel off delete its setup, like a Slack connection or webhook URL?
No. Disabling a channel only flips its enabled state. Any existing setup, like an authorized Slack workspace or a configured webhook endpoint, stays in place so re-enabling it later doesn't require reconnecting anything.
Where Channel Enable/Disable Toggle fits
Channel Enable/Disable Toggle is part of Ways you talk to them.
Chat in the app with live reasoning, speak to your AI voice agent over a call, message on Slack or WhatsApp, send an email, or embed a widget on your website. Every channel connects to the same AI agent with the same memory and capabilities. Switch channels mid-conversation and your employee picks up right where you left off.
- Ways you talk to them: Every channel. One conversation.
Read the guide
More in Channels
- Web Chat: Chat with any AI employee directly in the workspace, with a streaming reply, a live execution timeline showing what it is reading, thinking, and doing, and inline approve/reject buttons when it needs a sensitive action confirmed. It is the default channel: nothing to configure, works on desktop or mobile, and every conversation persists so you can pick it back up later.
- Voice Calls: Voice Calls is a planned channel for speaking to an AI employee out loud and hearing it reply in real time, instead of typing. It is not available yet: there is no voice button in the workspace today, and the feature is paused while the underlying voice flow is redesigned. When it ships, a voice call will run through the same skills, tools, and memory as a typed conversation.
- Connect an Email Provider: Point your own SendGrid, Mailgun, or Postmark inbound-parse webhook at a tenant-scoped endpoint and every email that lands there gets turned into work for an employee. Forward support requests, sales inquiries, or internal approval emails and the employee reads the sender, subject, and body, then acts on it in the background. You get a 202 response immediately; there's no waiting on the request.
- Personal Mailbox: Every employee gets its own email address on the shared Sistava domain the moment you hire it, no setup. Email it directly, CC it on a thread with other people, or forward something over, and it reads and replies within seconds. Free to send from, with a monthly cap by plan. Control the shared employee signature in Company Profile, or connect your own Gmail or Outlook when you want it sending as you, with no cap.
- Send from Gmail or Outlook: The built-in employee address is free and always on, but it sends as the employee, not as you. Connect your own Gmail or Outlook instead and an employee sends and replies from your real address, in your name, with no monthly sending cap on any plan.
- Talk to Your Employee on Video: In-App Video is a planned channel for live, face to face video calls with an AI employee, camera and microphone, directly inside the workspace. It has no working implementation today: it appears in Settings > Technical > Channels as a Coming soon placeholder only. Once it ships, it is meant to run on the same execution pipeline as every other channel, so the employee keeps its skills, tools, training, and conversation memory on a video call. If you need an employee in a live call today, it can already join a Google Meet, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams meeting as a participant, which is a different capability and available now.
- Chat Widget: The Chat Widget will let you embed an AI employee directly on your public website so visitors can ask questions and get answers without leaving the page. It is on the roadmap and is not available to configure yet: today it appears in Settings > Technical > Channels as a Coming soon placeholder with no setup, embed snippet, or Manage action.
- SMS: SMS is a planned channel for reaching an AI employee by ordinary text message, with no app to install. It is on the roadmap and not available today: there is no SMS number, no inbound texting, and no way to turn it on yet. Until it ships, use web chat or Telegram for mobile access from any phone.
- WhatsApp: WhatsApp is a planned messaging channel for talking with an AI employee from your phone. It is not connected yet: the card shows as coming soon and cannot be set up today. When it ships, it will carry the same employee memory, skills, and guardrails as web chat, Telegram, Slack, and the mailbox. Telegram and Slack are live now and give you the same access from a phone, so nothing you set up today has to be rebuilt when WhatsApp arrives.
- Discord: Discord is a planned channel for bringing an AI employee into the servers and direct messages your community already uses. It will connect the same way Slack does today: authorize a bot through OAuth, then map it to one employee. It is not available to connect yet, so no Discord traffic reaches an employee until it ships. Slack, Telegram, each employee's own email address, and web chat cover the same job in the meantime.
- Calendar Invites: Add your employee's personal address as a guest on any Google, Outlook, or Apple calendar event and they show up for the meeting automatically, no RSVP or extra app on your side. Once the meeting starts, the employee joins the Meet, Zoom, or Teams call, listens, speaks when addressed, and writes a summary afterward. There is nothing to switch on for the invite itself, just turn on the Meeting Attender tool for that employee once.
- Slack Channel: Bring your AI employee into Slack as a real bot user your team can mention, DM, or trigger with a slash command. Every reply lands in the same thread, and memory, tasks, skills, and tools stay shared with web chat, so a conversation started on Slack continues anywhere else. You approve or reject requests right from Slack, and the bot only speaks when mentioned, DM'd, or already in a thread.