Channels API

Channels API overview

The Bird Channels API is an omnichannel messaging solution to allow customers to send and receive messages to multiple different messaging services. This includes SMS, Email and WhatsApp. See supported channels.

To get started with the Channels API you can register for a free account and install your first channels.

Next check out the API reference for sending messages and managing channels

Permissions required for Channel actions

To manage channels, create channel connectors or send messages via the API the access key that is being used needs a certain level of permissions to carry out these actions.

The examples below give your access key permissions to all channels in all of your workspaces but you replace the wildcards with either specific workspace or channel ids to limit the scope further

Channel Viewer

An example of the resource permissions that are required to view a list of all channels, specific channels, channel messages and uploaded media create an access policy that allows view as follows:

Action	Resource
List all channels	/workspaces/*/channels
Get a specific channel	/workspaces/*/channels/*
Get all messages for a channel	/workspaces/*/channels/*/messages
Get a specific message for a channel	/workspaces/*/channels/*/messages/*
Get all interactions that have happened to a message	/workspaces/*/channels/*/messages/*/interactions
Get outgoing media to channels	/workspaces/*/channels/*/media/*
Get media attached to incoming messages	/workspaces/*/messages/*/media/*

Message sender

To send messages to a channel create an access policy that allows create as follows:

Action	Resource
Create a new message	/workspaces/*/channels/*/messages
Upload media	/workspaces/*/channels/*/presigned-upload

Updating channel settings

To update settings for a channel create an access policy that allows update as follows:

Action	Resource
Update channel settings	/workspaces/*/channels/*

Connector installation

Channels are created by first installing a new connector. Connectors are responsible for linking the MessageBird Engagements platform to third party platforms. To create a connector create an access policy that allows create as follows:

Action	Resource
Create a new connector	/workspaces/*/connectors

Connector viewer

To view connectors that are installed in a workspace and check the health of the connectors create an access policy that allow view as follows:

Action	Resource
List all connectors	/workspaces/*/connectors
Get a specific connector	/workspaces/*/connectors/*
Get connector health	/workspaces/*/connectors/*/status