How channels appear in HubSpot
When you add a channel inside an Octopods HubSpot workspace, Octopods registers a custom channel with HubSpot for that channel. From that point on:
The channel is recognized inside HubSpot as a regular conversations source.
HubSpot’s automations, routing rules, ticket creation, and reporting treat it like any other inbox source.
Inbound messages from the channel land in the HubSpot inbox you selected during channel setup.
Each connected channel is its own custom channel inside HubSpot, so you can route different channels to different inboxes if that suits your team’s structure.
Selecting the HubSpot inbox per channel
During channel setup, Octopods shows you the list of HubSpot inboxes your user has access to and asks you to pick one for the channel. The inbox you pick is where every conversation from that channel will land.
Tips for choosing:
Match the inbox your team already uses for similar conversations. If your team handles support in one inbox and sales in another, send each channel to the inbox whose team is best placed to respond.
Use one inbox per channel if you want HubSpot’s automations to apply by channel. You can build inbox-specific automations in HubSpot to apply different routing or service-level rules.
Use one inbox for everything if your team works as a single pool. Smaller teams often prefer to keep all conversations in a single inbox and route from there.
If you don’t see any inboxes during channel setup, your HubSpot user doesn’t have access to any inbox in the portal. Ask your HubSpot admin to grant access to at least one inbox, or to set the channel up for you.
How a conversation flows end to end
The integration is bidirectional. For a single conversation:
A customer sends a message on a connected channel — for example, WhatsApp, Twilio SMS, Telegram, Messenger, Instagram, or Slack.
Octopods receives the message through the channel and creates (or updates) the matching HubSpot conversation in the inbox you chose.
The conversation appears in the HubSpot inbox, threaded against the matching HubSpot contact when one exists.
Your team replies from the HubSpot inbox the way they would for any conversation.
Octopods delivers the reply back to the customer on the original channel.
The customer sees only the channel they wrote in on; your team works only in HubSpot.
How conversations are threaded against contacts
When an inbound message arrives, Octopods tries to match it to an existing HubSpot contact:
For phone-based channels (Twilio SMS, WhatsApp), the customer’s phone number is matched against existing HubSpot contacts.
For username-based channels (Telegram, Messenger, Instagram, Slack), the platform identifier on the message is used.
If a matching contact exists, the conversation is threaded against that contact and your team has the full CRM record alongside the conversation in HubSpot. If no match exists, Octopods creates a contact in HubSpot so the conversation has somewhere to live and your team can enrich the record from there.
How replies are routed back
When your team replies from the HubSpot inbox, Octopods reads the reply and sends it through the channel that started the conversation. A reply written on a WhatsApp conversation goes out on WhatsApp; a reply on a Twilio SMS conversation goes out as SMS.
A few things worth knowing:
Channel-specific limits apply. WhatsApp messaging windows, for example, govern when free-form replies are allowed versus when a pre-approved template is required. Octopods follows those rules and surfaces an error in HubSpot if a reply can’t be sent.
Attachments work both ways. Inbound media appears in the HubSpot conversation, and attachments your team sends from HubSpot are delivered to the customer on the channel — within the channel’s own format and size limits.
Attribution is preserved. The HubSpot user who sent the reply is the user shown in the conversation, just as for any HubSpot conversation.
Where to confirm a channel is connected
The Connected Workspaces page in Octopods shows the HubSpot workspace’s overall connection status as Active when the portal authorization is in place. To confirm an individual channel is set up correctly, click into the workspace and look at the channels list — each channel shows its own connection status.
When something doesn’t arrive
If a message you expected to see in HubSpot isn’t there, check:
Channel status. Open the workspace in Octopods and confirm the channel shows a connected status.
Workspace status. On the Connected Workspaces page, the HubSpot workspace should show the Active badge. If it doesn’t, reconnect it.
The chosen inbox. Confirm the channel is routed to the inbox you’re checking — if it was set up to route somewhere else, conversations will appear there instead.
The message itself. Confirm the customer sent the message to the right destination — the connected phone number, bot, or page.
If everything looks right but messages still aren’t arriving, contact Octopods support with the channel name, the timestamp, and the contact’s identifier so we can trace it.
What’s next
See the Channels section for setting up WhatsApp, Twilio SMS, Telegram, Messenger, Instagram, and Slack
See the Proactive Messaging section for sending outbound messages without an inbound first