Four new messaging channels, and what they say about who we serve
We’re expanding the set of message channels this+that reads. Google Chat is live as of this week. Telegram is in final testing. Instagram and Facebook Messenger are awaiting platform approval. Four new channels, two distinct stories.
The knowledge-work story: Google Chat and Telegram
Google Chat is the obvious one. Workspace-first companies have been waiting, and we wanted to serve them as well as we already serve Slack and Teams shops. The product has matured noticeably in the last couple of years and the user base keeps growing. Adding it brings our team-chat coverage to three: Slack, Teams, and Google Chat. Combined with Gmail and Outlook, that means we now read across every channel most knowledge workers actually live in.
Telegram is the less obvious one. We added it for OpenClaw users.
If you’ve been watching, OpenClaw has become the default way consumers automate work in their personal lives, and the surface they use is Telegram. People type their requests to a bot and the bot acts. That interaction pattern is already second nature to early adopters in the US.
We describe this+that as OpenClaw for knowledge workers. The reasons we picked Telegram are compatibility and familiarity. If you already delegate work to a bot over Telegram in your personal life, you’ll know exactly what to do with this+that in your professional one. Same gesture, same surface, different scope of work.
The small-business story: Instagram and Facebook Messenger
Most B2B tools don’t touch Instagram or Facebook Messenger. We added them on purpose. Small businesses talk to their customers there. A boutique fielding DMs about a product. A restaurant taking reservation requests. A local service responding to inquiries. The conversation happens on those channels, but the work spawned by it (follow up, schedule the visit, log the lead) usually lives somewhere else, and the gap between the two is where things fall through.
For a small business, Instagram and Messenger aren’t personal channels. They’re the front door of customer service. Reading those messages, extracting tasks, and triggering workflows means a one-person shop can run customer comms with the same rigor a larger team would.
What’s live, what’s pending
Google Chat is live today. Telegram is in final testing and we expect it shortly. Instagram and Facebook Messenger are waiting on platform approval, which is out of our hands but underway. We’ll post when each lands.
The thesis
The set of channels you read defines who you’re for. We chose Google Chat and Telegram because that’s where knowledge work actually arrives, at work and at home. We chose Instagram and Facebook Messenger because that’s where small businesses meet their customers. Different audiences, same architecture. Messages in, actions out, from wherever the message actually came in.