The chatbot development market is composed of many players, who basically do one of:
Each platform has its own API, used to communicate with web-based chatbot clients. PhoneMyBot uses adaptors to implement the native API and support several chatbot platforms directly, while exposing a simple API for all other chatbots to use. If your chatbot has been developed using one of the supported platforms, you don't have to change anything: the platform API is native to PhoneMyBot and the platform will see PhoneMyBot just as another chatbot client.
Adaptors provide many advantages, you can see a summary in this video: https://youtu.be/KuWoDBNTxj8.
If your chatbot is not developed with one of the supported platforms, you can use the PhoneMyBot API or call us and ask us about adding your platform to PhoneMyBot. It's usually pretty fast.
The modules that sit between the chatbot platform and PhoneMyBot to implement the platform API and normalize the flow with PhoneMyBot are called Adaptors. They use the PhoneMyBot API to communicate with the rest of the PhoneMyBot environment.
The number of supported platforms is growing. For the moment they are (strictly in alphabetical order):
ASC Brazil
Aivo
AsisteClick
Baruk
ChatLayer.ai (Sinch)
ChatGPT
Chattigo
Google Dialogflow
IBM Watson
Inbenta
Interactive Media Omnia
Microsoft Bot Framework
Zenvia
Each of these platforms requires its own authentication information and supports different configuration parameters for the chatbots that run on them. You can set these parameters in the Bot Vendor Parameters tab in the configuration window. See details about the parameters needed for each platform in their dedicated pages.
PhoneMyBot and its adaptors also lets you configure conversation behavior that's independent from the chatbot platform. The corresponding configuration is explained in the Chatbots page.