Connecting MessageBird to AI: SMS and WhatsApp with one Amsterdam provider
MessageBird, now called Bird, can be connected to AI. The assistant sends a text or a WhatsApp message on behalf of your organisation, looks back at what happened to earlier messages, and can check the credit left on the account. Everything that goes out costs money and is final, so the assistant first shows which text goes to which number.
Two channels, one assistant
Send a text
The assistant sends a short message to one or more numbers, under the sender name you have agreed. Numbers travel with their country code, otherwise the message does not arrive.
Hold a WhatsApp conversation
Through the WhatsApp channel held at Bird the assistant can message a customer inside the running conversation, rather than sending a loose message that arrives without context.
Respect the twenty four hour window
If the customer wrote within the past day, the assistant may answer freely. Outside that only an approved template is allowed. That is WhatsApp policy and it applies through Bird too.
Look back at what went out
For a period or a channel the assistant can review what was sent and what came in, and whether messages were delivered or got stuck.
Check the credit
How much credit is left on the account is a question the assistant can answer straight away. Useful as a standing check before a batch of messages goes out.
Situations where Bird takes over the work
E-commerce
- Situation
- Customers message about their order and the web shop team looks up the order number every single time.
- What the agent does
- The assistant pulls the order from the connected system and sends the answer back in the same WhatsApp conversation, inside the twenty four hour window.
- Result
- An answer with the right details in the channel the customer was already in, without switching tabs.
HR and recruitment
- Situation
- Candidates are not replying to email about an interview scheduled for the day after tomorrow.
- What the agent does
- The recruiter asks for a short text with the date, the time and the address; the assistant shows the list of numbers and the text before anything goes out.
- Result
- Confirmations arriving through the channel people actually read, without anyone typing thirty messages by hand.
Government
- Situation
- Residents of a street need short notice before planned works begin.
- What the agent does
- The assistant sends the announcement as a text to the supplied list of numbers and afterwards checks which ones were not delivered.
- Result
- A send run with a verifiable outcome, so the residents who were not reached can be approached another way.
Retail
- Situation
- A store manager wants to know whether last week's customer messages all actually arrived.
- What the agent does
- The assistant reviews that week's sends and lists what was delivered and what was not.
- Result
- An overview inside the conversation itself, without anyone clicking through a dashboard.
Customer service
- Situation
- Halfway through a busy morning confirmations suddenly stop arriving and nobody knows why.
- What the agent does
- The administrator asks the assistant for the credit on the Bird account and for what happened to the most recent messages.
- Result
- Within a minute it is clear whether the credit is the cause or something else is, instead of half a morning of searching.
How you set it up
-
1
Connect with your own Bird account
The connector runs on your own account at Bird. An administrator sets it up in the platform and can withdraw it just as easily; from that moment the assistant can send nothing.
-
2
Permissions and channel choice
You decide which roles may have messages sent and which channel is for what. A workable rule of thumb: WhatsApp for a running conversation with a customer, a text for someone who has not been in touch before.
-
3
Arrange templates in time
If you want to reach customers outside the twenty four hour window you need approved WhatsApp templates. Decide in advance which messages those are, because that approval takes lead time.
-
4
Use the assistant
After that a colleague asks for a message in the conversation. The assistant shows the recipient and the text, sends once approved, and records every send in the log.
Credit, templates and the limits of an open channel
Messages that cost money and land on a private phone deserve stricter agreements than an internal note. With WhatsApp the provider's policy comes on top of that.
Where the data lives: Nederland of de EU
Number and text in view first
Before every send the assistant shows who it goes to and what it says. For a list of recipients it shows the whole list, not just the count.
Within the WhatsApp rules
The twenty four hour window and the approved templates are policy, not advice. The connector stays within them so your account does not run into trouble.
Access stays yours
The connector works on a key you create and can revoke yourself. Doing so touches no other system running on the same account.
The text is written on your own ground
The model that composes the messages runs on your own server in the Netherlands. Your conversations are not used to train models.
Frequently asked questions about the Bird connector
Can I connect MessageBird to ChatGPT?
Not in a way an organisation would want. You would give a public service the ability to send messages to your customers at your expense. IntraGPT runs on your own Bird account, shows every message before sending, respects the WhatsApp rules and records every send in the log.
Does IntraGPT work with MessageBird?
Yes. MessageBird, now named Bird, is in the connector catalogue. The assistant can send texts and WhatsApp messages, look back at what happened to earlier messages and check the credit on the account.
What is the difference with the WhatsApp Business connector?
The WhatsApp Business page covers the direct route at Meta. At Bird, WhatsApp runs through your Bird account and the channel shares billing with SMS. If you already work with Bird this connector is the logical one; if you only have WhatsApp and no SMS the direct route is simpler. The WhatsApp rules are exactly the same either way.
Why would an assistant need to check the credit?
Because an empty credit behaves like a silent outage. Messages do not go out, nobody gets an alert, and the first to notice is a customer who hears nothing. Now anyone with the right role can check it in the conversation, and the assistant can also verify it before sending a larger batch.
Can the assistant reply to incoming WhatsApp messages?
It can hold a conversation and look back at what came in. What it does not do is respond of its own accord to every incoming message; this connector is not built for that. If you want a channel where the assistant reacts to incoming messages by itself, we will discuss which form of the platform suits that.
What format do the phone numbers need?
With the country code. A number a colleague quotes the way they store it themselves is completed by the assistant before anything is sent. If the country is wrong the message does not arrive and in some cases you still pay for it, so when in doubt it asks.
What does a MessageBird connector cost?
Connecting it is part of the project we run together. What drives the work is whether you use SMS only or WhatsApp as well, whether the assistant may send independently, and which source supplies the data that ends up in the message. The message charges and the credit run through your own Bird account.
How long does setup take?
The connection itself is quickly made and SMS can be tested the same day. For WhatsApp it depends on whether the channel at Bird is ready and whether the templates you want to use outside the window have been approved; that last part has the longest lead time.