Chat Inbox Overview

A unified inbox for inbound messages from every messaging channel your school is connected to — WhatsApp Business, WeChat Official Account, Facebook Messenger, Instagram DMs, Telegram, and Viber — all in one place at /chat/inbox.

What you get

• One thread per (channel, contact): messages from the same person on WhatsApp are one thread; the same person on Instagram is a separate thread.
• Status filters: Open, Snoozed, Closed, Blocked. New conversations land in Open by default.
• Linking: tie a conversation to a parent or a lead so the message history shows up alongside the application record.
• Templates: when the customer-care window is closed, you switch from free-form replies to approved templates.
• Per-user preferences: each staff member can set a default channel filter, sort order, and notification sound.

The 24-hour customer-care window

Messaging platforms enforce a 24-hour window (48 hours on WeChat) during which you can reply freely after the customer sends you a message. Outside the window you must use pre-approved templates. The inbox handles this automatically: the reply composer flips between free-form text and the template picker based on the window state.

When you see "Window closed" above the composer, only the template route is allowed.

Permissions

• chat.view — see the inbox at all
• <channel>.send — reply on that specific channel (one permission per channel)
• chat.manage — block / unblock senders, delete messages
• integrations.manage — connect new channels (admin)

Without chat.view the sidebar entry is hidden.

How messages arrive

1. The third-party platform (Meta, WeChat OA, Telegram, Viber) calls a Kinderpedia webhook when a customer sends a message.
2. Kinderpedia verifies the signature (Meta X-Hub-Signature-256, WeChat sha1 of token+timestamp+nonce, Telegram path-secret).
3. The message is added to the matching conversation, which is reopened if previously closed/snoozed.
4. Connected staff get a push notification + an unread-count bump on the sidebar.

If a sender is on the school's blocklist, the webhook gate drops the message before persistence — it's as if it never arrived.

Related pages

• Connecting Channels — turn each channel on for your school.
• Replying & the 24-Hour Window — how to send free-form vs template replies.
• Linking Conversations to Leads — connect threads to applicants.
• Blocking Senders — handle spam.