With WhatsApp now having the largest share of any messaging app (over 2 billion users), companies all over the world are experiencing a similar issue – employees and customers are using WhatsApp as a communications channel outside of regular IT with negative effects in productivity and compliance.
Businesses such as recruiters, realtors, brokers and travel agents have therefore turned to providers of WhatsApp inboxes to bring this under control, and under the gaze of regular IT. But there is more to this than meets the eye. We’ve compiled a quick guide to help buyers look out for what they need.
1. Captivate
The best thing about Captivate’s offering is that there is no Inbox! Captivate turns the concept of having a new inbox that imports all the other channels and apps on its head by simply bringing everything into your inbox of choice. Currently supported inboxes are Microsoft Teams, Slack and Freshchat but the platform easily allows others to be integrated.
What’s more is Captivate supports a growing list of channels starting with Facebook, Web, Instagram and Twitter as well as bots starting with IBM Watson and Amazon Lex.
It’s super quick to setup – IT can have it running in minutes and they’ll love it too because it’s compliant as it uses existing tech like Teams or Slack. No need to install other inbox software on desktops and phones, no new backup worries and no new training!
Captivate also offers other features – chats can be moved across departments and even across organizations and if you need to get technical, everything is programmable.
Main features:
- Use Teams or Slack as your inbox
- Omnichannel – currently Web, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram and Twitter
- Programmable bot support (easy out of box templates for your industry) – currently Amazon Lex and IBM Watson Assistant
- Easy to integrate any other live chat platform
- Move chats anywhere in the organisation, or even across to another organisation
- As many of each channel as you want (multiple numbers and accounts)
Conclusion: Captivate is inexpensive, easy to install, easy to use and most importantly compliant. Your IT department doesn’t need to worry about secret, encrypted conversations and users don’t need to switch devices or sessions. Just think that your Teams or Slack is expanded to your client’s phone right there in the app of their choice. It’s built on Captivate’s chat middleware platform The Captivate Hub whose purpose is to make complex chat setups easy to setup out of the box so you won’t need programmers or deep tech people to use it.
If you want to chat from Teams or Slack, particularly Teams, there is no better solution.
2. Respond.io
Respond.io gives you a WhatsApp API Team Inbox so all members of your team can share messages. Conversations can then be assigned to the users you want so they can answer questions. This can be done automatically using Auto Conversations Assignment.
Respond.io comes with an advanced Analytics & Reporting Dashboard
There are numerous integrations including channels, bots and apps. Bots supported are Rasa, IBM Watson and Google Dialogueflow and channels include Instagram, WeChat and Facebook Messenger. You can integrate with Zapier and web chat is supported for WordPress and Joomla websites.
Main features:
- WhatsApp API Team Inbox
- Auto Conversations Assignment
- Analytics & Reporting Dashboard
- Integrate with your existing software Easily
- Multichannel Inbox for WhatsApp & More
- Best Value Whatsapp API Solution
Conclusion: Respond.io is a great business messaging platform that unifies customer communication. It’s designed for companies who have techies for setup and who want to engage customers across multiple channels. You can find out more here.
3. Rasayel.io 
Rasayel offer a variety of channels including Telegram and Viber but their main thrust is WhatsApp. If you are happy with another inbox on the desktop, Rasayel is perfect for you as it is simple to setup and designed for non–technical organisations. It has a collaborative team inbox, with broadcasts, automations, integrations, and developer friendly APIs.
Main features:
- WhatsApp messaging
- Rich media messages
- Voice recording
- Shared team inbox
- Powerful automations
- WhatsApp Campaigns
Conclusion: Rafayel is a low cost WhatsApp-focussed shared inbox solution which brings multiple integrations including other channels, bots and CRMs. You can find out more here.
4. Front.com
Front aims to unify support ticketing with the customer center agent’s inbox. It includes plenty of automation to allow tasks to be quickly performed where possible. The central idea is to unify customer messaging with the support system so that agents aren’t flitting between systems.
Features:
- One hub for all messaging channels
- Chat with customers in WhatsApp or email or any channel
- Customer insights next to WhatsApp threads
- Analytics across all channels
- Easy to implement
Conclusion: Front is perfect for contact centre scenarios where businesses are seeking to unify their ticketing side with their messaging. It requires a separate new inbox and doesn’t come cheap at a minimum of $20 and agent a month. You can find out more here.
5. DelightChat
DelightChat has a regular approach to a WhatsApp inbox supporting WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Email & Web Chat. Their difference is their slant towards eCommerce and they also support WhatsApp broadcasting for marketing purposes and for cash on delivery use cases.
DelightChat allows agents to respond directly to buyer comments in Instagram and Facebook and it is highly integrated with Shopify. Macros can be used to create templated replies. These can be automated for common queries and there is a Self-Service Widget to allow your customers to track their order status. FAQs and Help articles can be easily written and integrated.
Features:
- Combined inbox for email, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Web Chat
- Answer buyer comments from the platform
- Integrated with Shopify
- Numerous features to easily create FAQs and Help articles to encourage self-service
Conclusion: DelightChat is a great choice for eCommerce site owners particularly Shopify sites. You can find out more here.
6. HelpWise
Helpwise allows for combined inboxes supporting email, Web Chat, WhatsApp, SMS, Facebook Messenger and Twitter. HelpWise also supports numerous integrations (too numerous to list here) including Slack, Pipedrive, Hubspot, Google and Asana. The main thrust of the product is to make Customer Service so great that customer problems are converted to happy customers via a great CX. The product is ideal for communicating with customers as well as other agents using mentions and drafts.
Features:
- Combined inbox for email, WhatsApp, SMS, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Web Chat
- Collaborate with other team members using mentions and drafts
- Numerous integrations to support other platforms
Conclusion: Helpwise is setup to allow a support desk to collaborate around customers support using omnichannel. You can find out more here.
7. Timelines.AI
Timeline.ai’s approach supports multiple WhatsApp numbers with automation with rules. You can integrate with various CRMs such as Hubspot and Pipedive and Zapier allows further integrations.
Features:
- Multiple WhatsApp numbers
- Can include WhatsApp Business and WhatsApp consumer as well as groups
- CRM integrations as well as Zapier
Conclusion: Timelines’ approach allows you to have multiple WhatsApp numbers with automation. A great if you want to integrate with CRM. You can find out more here.
