Platform · Quickstart

From signup to a first AI reply in 15 minutes.

One AI agent, one knowledge base, every channel. This guide takes a new MessageMind account from a blank signup form to a real conversation with the AI on your own site.

  • No credit card to start
  • WhatsApp, Instagram, SMS, email, website
  • Every channel speaks in your voice
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90-second tour

See the full flow before you start

Step by step

Seven steps, roughly fifteen minutes.

  1. 01

    Sign up and verify

    Enter a work email, set a password, paste the one-time code we send. Account live in under a minute.

  2. 02

    Add your company

    Business name and website. Multi-brand or multi-store? Add another company from the sidebar later.

  3. 03

    Answer the questionnaire

    Two minutes: what you sell, who you sell to, tone of voice, office hours. Shapes every reply the AI will ever write.

  4. 04

    Pick your model category

    eCommerce for Physical Goods, Services, or Hotels. Pre-shapes how the AI reasons about products, bookings or orders.

  5. 05

    Connect your first channel

    Website Chat is fastest: paste one line into your site footer. WhatsApp, Instagram, SMS and email each have their own card.

  6. 06

    Test in the AI playground

    Send real questions in a safe sandbox. Tune the questionnaire or knowledge base if an answer is off, then ask again.

  7. 07

    Send a real message

    Write to the chat widget from an incognito tab. Watch the AI reply land in the inbox as a new conversation.

What you can do on day one

Five outcomes most new accounts land in the first week.

  • Greet every visitor

    The AI opens the conversation on your website chat and captures the ones who leave an email or phone.

  • Answer the daily FAQs

    Price, availability, hours, how to buy. One shared answer across every channel you connect.

  • Qualify leads warm

    The AI asks the right questions during the first message so hot leads land in your inbox ready to buy.

  • Rehearse before launch

    Playground lets you tune answers against your own setup before pointing a live channel at it.

  • Add a second channel

    One knowledge base, every channel. Add WhatsApp, Instagram, SMS or email in one click each.

Ready to try it?

Spin up a free account and come back to this page as you set up. The reference below has every detail of what the dashboard, channels and automations do under the hood.

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Documentation Platform fundamentals Quickstart

Platform integration

Quickstart

  • CategoryPlatform

Overview

MessageMind is one AI agent that answers across every channel you connect (WhatsApp, Instagram, website chat, SMS, email) using one knowledge base and one set of automations. This quickstart takes a new account from signup to a first AI reply in a real chat thread, in roughly fifteen minutes. The journey is linear: create the account and verify the email, answer a short questionnaire so the AI knows your business, pick the model category that matches what you sell, connect the first channel you want the AI to answer on, and send yourself a test message so you can watch the reply land.

What MessageMind can do with it

  • One AI agent across every channel: the same answers on WhatsApp, Instagram, website chat, SMS and email once each one is connected.
  • Business questionnaire during signup so the AI greets your first customer with context, not a blank slate.
  • A model category for your business type that pre-shapes how the AI thinks about products, bookings or services.
  • Channels, integrations, contacts, analytics and a chatbot setting panel reachable from the dashboard the moment you sign in.
  • An AI playground where you can rehearse answers against your own setup before pointing a live channel at it.
  • Multi-company and multi-store accounts: add a company or a store from the sidebar when the business runs more than one brand or location.

Requirements

  • A work email you can receive a one-time code on, used to verify the account at signup.
  • The basics about your business ready to paste: company name, what you sell or do, and the category that fits best.
  • Access to at least one channel you want the AI to answer on (for example, a website you can paste a snippet into, or a WhatsApp Business number you own).
  • A browser on a laptop or desktop for the first setup. The dashboard is responsive, but the questionnaire and channel install flows read better on a wider screen.

How to connect

  1. Open the signup page, enter your work email and set a password. MessageMind sends a one-time code to that address; paste it on the verify step to confirm the account.
  2. On the welcome screen, add your company: paste the business name and the website if you have one. If you run more than one brand or location, you can add another company or a store from the sidebar later.
  3. Answer the short business questionnaire. The AI uses these answers (what you sell, who you sell to, your tone of voice, your office hours) to shape its very first replies, so a two-minute pass here is worth more than a day of tuning later.
  4. Pick the model category that matches your business (for example, eCommerce for Physical Goods, hospitality, services). The category pre-shapes how the AI reasons about products, bookings or orders, so pick the one closest to what you actually do.
  5. Open Channels in the sidebar and connect the first channel you want answers on. Website Chat is the fastest: activate it, copy the one-line snippet and paste it before the closing body tag of your site. WhatsApp, Instagram, SMS and email each have their own card with step-by-step install instructions.
  6. Open the AI playground and send a test question to the agent. Confirm the answer reads like your business before you point a real channel at it. Tune the questionnaire or the knowledge base if the answer is off, and ask again.
  7. Send yourself a real message on the connected channel (write to the chat widget from an incognito tab, or message your own WhatsApp business number). Watch the AI reply land in the contacts inbox under the new conversation.

AI agent use cases

  • Have the AI greet every visitor who opens your website chat and capture the ones who leave an email or a phone number as a new contact.
  • Let the AI answer the questions you repeat every day (price, availability, opening hours, how to buy) with one shared answer across every channel.
  • Qualify inbound leads during the first message so the ones that are ready to buy or book land in your inbox already warm.
  • Rehearse the AI's answers in the playground before pointing a live number or a live chat widget at it, so the first real customer gets a tuned reply.
  • Add a second channel once the first one is paying for itself, without re-training the AI (one knowledge base, every channel).

Configuration

  • Chatbot settings: the panel where you edit tone of voice, office hours, escalation rules and the fallback the AI uses when it is unsure. Everything here applies to every channel at once.
  • Business profile and model category: both are editable after signup. Updating the category re-aligns the AI's reasoning (for example, switching from services to eCommerce for Physical Goods changes how orders are discussed).
  • Companies and stores: the sidebar carries 'add company' and 'add store' entries so a group with more than one brand or location can keep them separate while sharing one login.
  • Integrations: the /integrations page in the dashboard holds every CRM, calendar and spreadsheet connector. Not required for a first reply, but a Google Sheet or a CRM here is usually the second thing a new account connects.
  • Analytics: the sidebar's analytics entry shows how many conversations the AI handled, how many escalated to a human and how many ended in a booking or a sale, once traffic starts to land.

Example workflows

Signup to first AI reply

  1. You sign up with a work email, verify the one-time code and set a password.
  2. You add your company on the welcome screen and answer the business questionnaire.
  3. You pick the model category that matches your business (for example, eCommerce for Physical Goods).
  4. You activate the Website Chat channel and paste the snippet onto your site.
  5. You open the AI playground and send a test question, tuning the answers if needed.
  6. You open the live chat widget from an incognito tab and send a message. The AI replies and the conversation appears in contacts.

Second channel on day one

  1. With Website Chat answering, you open Channels and pick a second card (WhatsApp, Instagram, SMS or email).
  2. You follow that card's own connect steps (each channel has its own install path).
  3. You send a message on the new channel. The AI answers using the same knowledge base and tone of voice as the website.
  4. The conversation lands against the same contact in the inbox if the person was already known, so history follows the human across channels.

Limitations

  • The free trial caps the number of AI-handled conversations per month; the live counter in the dashboard shows how many you have left.
  • Some channels (WhatsApp Business, Instagram) need their own provider approval before messages flow. The signup flow does not control how long those providers take.
  • The questionnaire shapes a strong starting point but is not a replacement for a knowledge base: for product-specific answers, connect a Google Sheet, a CRM or paste the key documents into the chatbot settings.
  • Multi-company and multi-store setups are supported, but a single login carries one active workspace at a time; the sidebar switcher chooses which one you are editing.
  • A free trial account cannot invite unlimited teammates; team seats open up on a paid plan.

Troubleshooting

The verification email never arrives.

Check the spam folder first (one-time codes are often filtered). If it is not there, request a fresh code from the verify screen; the old one expires as soon as a new one is sent. Confirm you typed the email you actually control, not a shared alias.

The welcome screen asks for a company but you only sell as an individual.

Put your trading name (or your own name) in the company field. The category and the questionnaire do the heavy lifting; the company field is a label, not a legal check.

None of the model categories feels like an exact match.

Pick the closest one. The category only pre-shapes how the AI reasons; the questionnaire and the chatbot settings override it in practice, and the category is editable later from the business profile.

The website chat snippet is pasted but the bubble does not appear.

Confirm the snippet sits just before the closing </body> tag of a page that is live (not a draft), and that your site is not blocking third-party scripts. Open the Website Chat card in the dashboard for the per-platform install steps (Shopify, WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, custom HTML).

The AI answers in the playground but a real message gets no reply.

The channel is probably not fully connected (a provider approval is pending, or the number is not pointed at MessageMind yet). Open the channel's card: the status strip shows which step is still outstanding.

The AI's first replies read generic or off-brand.

Revisit the questionnaire and the chatbot settings. Tone of voice, what you sell, who you sell to and your office hours are the four fields that change the AI's voice the most. Save and ask again in the playground; the change is live immediately.