The Stravax Engage inbox is a shared team view of every conversation on your connected WhatsApp numbers, plus Messenger and Instagram DMs where those channels are enabled. Conversations are organized into folders, and new messages, status changes, and assignments appear in real time over a WebSocket connection, so agents never need to refresh the page.
Each WhatsApp number has its own realtime connection behind the scenes. When you open the inbox, your browser connects to that number's channel, and from then on, the moment a new message arrives, a status changes, or a conversation gets assigned, that event is pushed to every agent connected to the same number. You don't refresh to see it, it just appears.
These connections are designed to stay open cheaply. An idle browser tab keeps its connection open without costing anything extra, so leaving the inbox open all day has no real overhead.
Presence (online or away) rides the same connection as everything else. Your status is whatever your own client last reported, and the moment you disconnect, whether by closing the tab or losing your connection, you simply drop off the list. There's no separate status you manage by hand: presence is always a live read of who's actually connected right now, so it can't go stale.
WhatsApp is the primary channel, but Messenger and Instagram direct messages also appear where your org has connected those accounts.
| Channel | Appears in the inbox | Send from the inbox | Window rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | The 24-hour customer-service window | |
| Messenger | Yes, incoming DMs where enabled | Plain-text replies inside the 24-hour window, subject to your plan and access | A plain 24-hour customer-service window |
| Yes, incoming DMs where enabled | Plain-text replies inside the 24-hour window, subject to your plan and access | A plain 24-hour customer-service window |
After the Facebook connection change, connecting or reconnecting Facebook and Instagram requires the new look when its connection control becomes available; see Connect Facebook and Instagram. Receiving a conversation and being able to reply are separate capabilities.
Messenger and Instagram conversations use a straightforward 24-hour customer-service window, with no click-to-WhatsApp-style free-entry pricing attached. See the 24-hour window guide below for how that window works on WhatsApp.
Folders give you a way to organize the conversations flowing into the shared inbox, rather than working from one long, undifferentiated list. As your team and message volume grow, folders keep the working queue manageable.
Conversations can carry voice notes, images, documents, interactive button and list messages, and a delivery status for each message you send. The Details panel beside the chat shows customer information and notes. In the earlier look, the side panel beside the thread also carries the customer's lead.
Occasionally a customer sends something WhatsApp itself cannot pass on to any Business API app, ours included, such as certain newer WhatsApp message formats. WhatsApp tells us a message like this arrived but withholds its content entirely, so there is nothing to show and nothing to recover: the conversation displays a card explaining that WhatsApp did not deliver the content, along with WhatsApp's own reason and reference code when it sends one. The customer can usually resend the same thing as a plain text message instead.
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