Overview
Channels are the surfaces through which customers contact your team. Plain unifies all of them into a single, structured thread queue with consistent workflows, SLAs, labels, and reporting regardless of where a conversation originates.
Plain supports the following channels: Slack, Email, Chat, Microsoft Teams, Discord, Contact Forms, and the Headless Support Portal.
Slack
For companies running shared Slack Connect channels with customers, Plain ingests messages from those channels and surfaces them as threads. Your team can triage, respond, and track requests directly from Plain — and replies post back to Slack as if sent from there. You can control exactly which channels sync using ingestion modes, and set up auto-join rules so new channels are picked up automatically.
Route your support email address (e.g. support@yourcompany.com) into Plain to handle all inbound email as structured threads. You can send and receive emails, manage alternate addresses, and keep everything tracked alongside your other channels — with none of the inbox chaos.
Live Chat
Embed Plain's chat widget directly in your product or website so customers can reach out without leaving your app. Each conversation becomes a thread in Plain. You can customize the widget appearance, configure business hours, and show agent or AI status to customers in real time.
Microsoft Teams
For customers who work primarily in Microsoft Teams, Plain can sync messages from selected Teams channels directly into your support queue. Your team responds from Plain and replies are posted back into Teams — keeping customers in their preferred environment while giving your team full structure and context.
Learn more about Microsoft Teams →
Discord
Designed for developer-focused and community-driven products, the Discord integration brings messages from your Discord server into Plain as threads. Instead of losing support requests in busy channels, your team can triage and respond with the same workflows used across every other channel.
Contact Forms
Contact forms let you define a structured intake process for support requests. You control the fields, required information, and routing — so threads arrive in Plain with the context your team needs to respond immediately. Forms can be embedded in your help center or linked to directly.
Learn more about Contact Forms →
Headless Support Portal
For teams that want full control over the support experience, Plain exposes a GraphQL API to power custom-built, in-app support portals. Customers can submit requests, view thread history, and track status — all within your own UI. This is the right choice when the out-of-the-box chat widget or help center doesn't fit your product's design or requirements.