Support Bots and Automations in External Channels

Support Bots and Automations in External Channels

Hello Zoho Cliq Team,

How are you?

We actively use Zoho Cliq for collaboration, including with our external developers. For this purpose, external channels are a key tool since they work seamlessly within the same interface as all of our other channels and chats. This allows us to maintain one consistent workspace without switching to a different product or interface.

Currently, however, there is a significant limitation:

  • Bots and automations are not supported in external channels.

  • This prevents us from implementing valuable use cases such as automatically detecting Jira ticket references in conversations and converting them into clickable links or any other available bot or automation.

We understand that Cliq Networks are offered as an alternative, but this is not a practical solution for us because:

  1. Networks require a separate interface, disrupting the natural workflow of users who already work inside Cliq.

  2. External channels already solve the collaboration problem in a simple way, and we only need them to support the same automation features as internal channels.

Our request:
Please enable bots and automations (Participation Handler, Message Handler, etc.) to work in external channels, the same way they work in organization or team channels.

Benefits:

  • Keep internal and external collaboration within the same interface.

  • Avoid the need for users to switch to another product (Cliq Network or external tools like Slack).

  • Unlock advanced use cases (e.g., Jira ticket hyperlinking, workflow automations, notifications) for external collaboration.

We believe this enhancement will greatly improve the usability of external channels and strengthen Cliq as a collaboration hub both internally and with external partners.

Thank you for considering this request, and we look forward to your feedback.

Best regards,
Ram

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