Welcome to the Using Threadline Guide
This guide explains every part of Threadline in plain language. For each feature you will find three things: what it is, what problem it solves, and how it works, followed by step-by-step instructions.
It is written for the people who use Threadline every day: an Admin who runs a business in it, and the Agents on that business's team.
Installing Threadline on a server, adding AI provider keys, or selling subscriptions? That is the Owner's job, and it is covered in the separate Platform & Setup guide.
What Threadline is
Threadline is a customer support assistant for chat apps. Your customers write to you on WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, Messenger or a chat bubble on your website. Threadline reads each message, looks for the answer in your own documents, and replies for you. When it does not know the answer, or the customer asks for a person, it hands the conversation to someone on your team.
The problem it solves
Most customer questions are the same few questions asked again and again: prices, opening hours, delivery, refunds. Answering them by hand takes time, and customers who write at night or on a weekend wait for hours.
A general chatbot is not a safe fix, because it guesses. Threadline only answers from the content you gave it. If the answer is not there, it says so and brings in a person. You get fast replies at any hour without the risk of made-up answers.
How it works, in one picture
- You add your knowledge. Upload your FAQ, price list, policies or product details into a knowledge base.
- You connect a channel. Link WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, Messenger or the website widget. See Channels.
- A customer writes to you. The message appears in your Inbox.
- The AI answers from your knowledge. It searches your documents and writes a reply based only on what it found.
- A person steps in when needed. If the AI is not sure, the conversation is handed over to your team, and they are told.
Everything after that is optional: tracking sales, sending campaigns, and automating repeat work.
Start here: your first hour
1. Add your knowledge
Create a knowledge base and upload your FAQ, policies or product details.
2. Test the answers
Ask your own questions in the Playground before any customer does.
3. Connect a channel
Connect WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, Messenger, SMS, email or the website widget, and choose an assistant that uses that knowledge base.
4. Invite your team
Add the people who will take over when the AI hands a conversation on.
Every feature, and where to read about it
Getting started
| Feature | What it is for | Guide page |
|---|---|---|
| Getting around | The sidebar, search (Ctrl K), the bell, the Help menu and dark mode. | Getting Around |
| Workspaces | Run more than one business from one login. | Workspaces |
| Dashboard | See how busy you are, how the AI is doing, and your plan usage at a glance. | Dashboard |
| Agents | Add the people who answer when the AI cannot. | Your Team |
Connect a channel
| Feature | What it is for | Guide page |
|---|---|---|
| Channels | The places customers write to you, health cards, Connect with Meta, business hours. | Channels |
| Setup guides | Step-by-step connection for each app. | Create your Meta app, WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, Messenger, WeChat, SMS, Email, Website widget |
Configure
| Feature | What it is for | Guide page |
|---|---|---|
| Knowledge base | The content the AI answers from: files, text, questions and answers, web pages, sitemaps, photos, tables. | Knowledge Base |
| Assistants | Give each channel its own AI voice, knowledge base and fallback reply. | Assistants |
| Media library | One place for pictures, videos, audio and PDFs you reuse. | Media Library |
| Playground | Test answers safely, and see what the AI read. | Playground |
| Answer review | Find wrong answers and fix their source. | Answer Review |
| Inbox | Read and answer every conversation as a team: statuses, snooze, labels, notes, templates. | Inbox |
| Hand-over | Decide when a person takes over from the AI. | Handing Over to a Person |
| Contacts and segments | Everyone who has written to you, with profiles, consent, groups, tags, fields and rule-based segments. | Contacts |
| Deals | A sales board with follow-ups, lead scores and a table view. | Deals |
| Lead finder | Find businesses on Google and add the good ones as leads. | Lead Finder |
| Reports | Inbox performance, campaigns, automations and AI cost, with exports. | Reports |
| Notifications | Choose what reaches you by email and in the bell. | Notifications |
| Workspace settings | Time zone, business address, alerts, labels. | Workspace Settings |
| Data and security | Password, devices, the activity log, exporting your data. | Data and Security |
Grow and automate
| Feature | What it is for | Guide page |
|---|---|---|
| Broadcast | Send one message to many people on WhatsApp, SMS or email, with a five-step wizard and reports. | Broadcast |
| WhatsApp templates | Write, check and submit the messages WhatsApp requires. | WhatsApp Templates |
| Auto replies | Instant answers to keywords, a welcome, or out-of-hours messages. | Auto Replies |
| Automations | Rules that do repeat work for you, ask questions and branch. | Automations |
| Lead forms | Ask a customer a few set questions in chat. | Lead Forms |
| WhatsApp links | Links and QR codes that open a chat with you, and show which one worked. | WhatsApp Links |
| Meta lead ads | Turn Facebook and Instagram ad leads into contacts. | Meta Lead Ads |
| Online stores | Connect Shopify, WooCommerce or BigCommerce: orders, products, carts and AI order answers. | Online Stores |
| Appointment booking | Customers book in the chat, with reminders and Google Calendar. | Appointment Booking |
| Social media | Write once, post to Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X, with a calendar and AI planner. | Social Media |
| Webhooks | Tell your other tools when something happens. | Webhooks |
| API | Let your other tools do almost everything, with scoped tokens and an in-app reference. | Integrations & API |
Subscription and help
| Feature | What it is for | Guide page |
|---|---|---|
| Plans and billing | Choose, change or cancel your plan; promo codes, tax, invoices and usage. | Plans & Billing |
| Support | Ask the team that runs your platform for help. | Support |
| Troubleshooting | Fixes for common problems, by symptom. | Troubleshooting & FAQ |
| Glossary | Plain meanings of the words used in Threadline. | Glossary |
Who can do what
Threadline has three kinds of people.
- Owner. The person who installed Threadline and runs the platform. They set the AI keys, the plans and the prices.
- Admin. The person who runs a business (a workspace) inside Threadline. An Admin can do everything in their workspace: connect channels, manage contacts, send campaigns, build automations, invite the team and manage the plan.
- Agent. A team member who answers customers. An Agent works in the Inbox, the Deals board, the Lead finder, Orders and Products, Social posts, the Knowledge base and the Playground. An Agent does not see channels, billing, broadcast, reports or other setup pages, and gets a smaller Dashboard about their own work.
If a menu item is missing, there are two usual reasons: your role does not include it, or your plan does not include that feature (a lock shows next to it). See Plans & Billing.
Need help?
Start with Troubleshooting & FAQ. It is grouped by what you are seeing, such as a channel that will not connect or a document stuck on Processing. If a word is unclear, check the Glossary.