Setup guides — connect every channel to Talko AI yourself, step by step
Plain-language guides for connecting every channel and turning on automation — no developer needed. Most take five to ten minutes.
You can set up Talko AI without a developer. Each guide below is a numbered walkthrough of one task — connecting a channel, grounding the AI, building a flow — with its own time estimate and prerequisites. Most take five to ten minutes; a realistic first session is about half an hour, and most of that is Meta's own verification screens rather than anything inside Talko AI.
Written for business owners, marketers and support leads setting this up themselves, not for engineers. If something is already broken, the troubleshooting guide is organised by symptom and will get you there faster.
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What you need before you start
Gather these once and every guide below goes faster.
- Admin access to your own Meta Business account, for WhatsApp, Instagram or Messenger.
- The phone number, Instagram professional account or Facebook Page you want to connect.
- An AI provider key from Gemini, OpenAI or Anthropic — replies are billed to your account, not resold by us.
- For YouTube comment automation: the Google account that owns the channel.
- For Google review replies: owner or manager access to the Business Profile listing.
- For the website widget: the ability to paste one line of HTML into your site.
Getting started
Your first day with Talko AI, start to finish.
Connect a channel
Bring each channel your customers use into one inbox.
How to connect WhatsApp to Talko AI
Connect a WhatsApp number through Meta's official WhatsApp Business Platform, in a guided click-through flow — no manual API tokens required.
How to connect Instagram to Talko AI
Automate Instagram DMs and turn comments into replies or private messages, connected through Meta's official API — fully within Instagram's messaging rules.
How to connect Facebook Messenger to Talko AI
Bring Facebook Page messages and comments into the same inbox as your other channels, connected through Meta's official Messenger Platform.
How to connect YouTube comment automation
Auto-reply to comments on your own YouTube videos, moderate spam, and let AI take over a thread — connected through Google's official YouTube Data API.
How to connect Google Business Profile reviews
Draft or auto-post AI replies to your Google reviews, warm for great reviews and calm for the tough ones, connected through your own Google Business Profile.
How to add the website chat widget
Drop a live-chat bubble on your site with one line of code — no Meta account, no approval process, and visitors chat with your AI instantly.
Automate
Set up the AI and flows that do the work for you.
How to add your own AI key
Bring your own Gemini, OpenAI, or Anthropic key so AI replies run on your account, billed transparently, with full control over the model.
How to build your first chatbot flow
A no-code flow that greets a customer, offers a menu, and books or answers automatically — triggered by a keyword, no developer needed.
Which guide should you start with?
Four situations, and the track each one points to.
Setting up for the first time
Start with Getting started. It covers the account, your first channel and your first automated reply in one pass — about half an hour end to end, most of it Meta's verification screens rather than anything in Talko AI.
Adding another channel
Go straight to Connect a channel and pick the one you need. Each guide is self-contained and assumes your account already exists, so nothing is repeated from the first-time path.
Switching automation on
Read the Automate track. It covers grounding the AI on your own material, building a flow, and scheduling sequences and broadcasts within the platforms' sending rules.
Fixing something broken
Skip to the troubleshooting guide, which is organised by symptom rather than feature — find what you're seeing, read the cause and the fix.
Questions about setting up Talko AI
How long does it take to set up Talko AI?
- Most individual guides take five to ten minutes, and each one lists its own time estimate. A realistic first session — create the account, connect one channel, add your AI key, switch on auto-replies — runs about half an hour, most of which is Meta's own verification screens rather than anything inside Talko AI.
Which guide should I start with?
- Start with Getting started, which covers the account and your first channel end to end. Then follow Connect a channel for each additional place your customers message you, and finish with Automate to turn on the AI replies, flows and sequences that do the actual work.
Do I need a developer to follow these guides?
- No. Every step is a screen in Talko AI or in your own Meta or Google account, described in plain language. The single copy-and-paste step is the website widget's one line of HTML, and the guide shows exactly where it goes.
What do I need before I start?
- For WhatsApp, Instagram or Messenger: admin access to your own Meta Business account and the phone number, Instagram account or Facebook Page you want to connect. For AI replies: an API key from Gemini, OpenAI or Anthropic. For the website widget: the ability to paste one line into your site's HTML. Each guide restates its own prerequisites first.
Something is not working — where should I look?
- Start with the troubleshooting guide, which is organised by symptom rather than by feature, so you can find the case that matches what you are seeing and read the cause and fix. If the symptom is that nothing is sending at all, check the system status page before anything else.
Sources
- Meta — WhatsApp Cloud API documentation — message types, templates and the 24-hour customer service window
- Meta — Instagram Platform documentation — the DM and comment permissions behind Instagram automation
- Meta — Messenger Platform documentation — Facebook Page messaging and private replies
- Google — YouTube Data API v3 — how comment threads are read and replied to
- Google Business Profile Help — review-reply rules for Google listings
Ready to transform your customer conversations?
- Connect a number and go live in under an hour
- Bring your own AI key — predictable, transparent costs