Channels
A channel is one account, in one format, in one language, wearing one brand. There is nothing above it: a workspace has the accounts its clips are made for, and this screen is that list.
The format is a platform and a shape: it decides the aspect ratio a clip is rendered in, how long its caption may be and how its hashtags are written. When a post is due it is handed over, by email, by webhook or both, and whoever receives it posts it; where the platform has a platform connector, Reelwire can post it there itself. See When a post is due below.
An account that posts in two shapes is two channels, because the shape is rendered rather than cropped afterwards. An account that posts in two languages is two channels for the same reason.
Each row shows the platform's logo (two chain links where the channel names no platform), the channel's name, its brand with the brand's logo, its format and language, its approval, whether it is active and its three ways out as marks, Email, Webhook and Connector, filled where on and an outline where off, and carries Settings, Sources with how many sources the channel listens to, and More, which holds Pause, Duplicate and Remove. Above the list, search by name and filter by status (active or paused), brand, format, language, approval and the ways it is handed over by.
Making one
Add new channel asks: the brand it wears, with Settings beside it to open that brand's editor over the dialogue and Duplicate this brand under it to give this channel a variation of the brand (see Brands), your own name for it (Internal channel name), its Platform and Aspect ratio, the language it posts in, whether a person clears every post first (Approval: as soon as it renders, or every post by hand; switching it back off needs the Approvals permission, see Approvals), how its posts go out (Handed over by email, Handed over by webhook and Handed over by platform connector, a section each, with its switch beside its name) and, last, its Posting settings. Nothing is created until you press Create. Settings on the row changes the same later; clips already handed over keep what they went out as.
Approval comes with Small business and Enterprise; on Free and Individual the dialogue says so where the choice would be. Every post by hand holds every post on the channel, and every change to a post that went out, for a person. On Enterprise, how many people must approve (one, or two different people) and the rule that nobody approves their own post are not here but on Compliance, under Approval rules.
Platform comes before the aspect ratio and lists Not specified and then two sections, Social (TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, X, Threads and Pinterest) and Communication (Discord, Telegram and Slack), each platform with its own logo beside its name. Aspect ratio then offers only the shapes that platform plays: TikTok takes 9x16, YouTube 9x16 (a Short) or 16x9 (an ordinary video), Facebook 9x16 (Reels) or 1x1 (feed), Instagram 9x16 (Reels), 4x5 or 1x1 (feed), Pinterest 2x3, 9x16, 1x1 or 4x5, and the rest every shape: 9x16, 4x5, 1x1 and 16x9. So a clip is never rendered in a shape its platform cannot show. Not specified, the one a new channel starts on, leaves every shape open. The chosen platform shows with its logo in the closed field too, so you can see at a glance which one the channel is on.
The platform also decides which of the post's four descriptions it takes: the longest that still leaves room for the brand's description, link and hashtags. So the tiny one goes to Pinterest, Threads and X; the short one to Telegram; the medium one to Discord, Facebook Reels, Instagram, LinkedIn, Slack and TikTok; and the long one to Facebook Feed and YouTube. A channel on Not specified hands over all four.
The name is yours alone. It is never shown on the platform, and it travels with every delivery, so a delivery log reads the way you name things. The placeholder suggests "My channel EN", with the language on the end, because that is the distinction you will need when there are fifteen of them.
The language decides which copy is used when an event carries several. When an event has nothing in the channel's language, English is used.
The thing people get wrong: a channel with no sources renders nothing
Making a channel does not make it post. A channel publishes exactly what it listens to, and it listens to nothing until you press Sources on its row and add something.
This is the one fault on this screen that looks exactly like everything being fine, which is why the row prints the count on the button: "Sources 0" is the answer to "why is nothing happening".
In the Sources dialogue, Add new source offers a Feed from Ready-made feeds, one of your Manual post lists, or a Custom feed from your Custom feeds. A source can also be added from the other end, to many channels at once: Add to channel on a feed's card under Ready-made feeds, or Settings on a post list or a stream. For a feed or a stream, two pins follow:
- Variant is which cut of the template this channel wears.
- Version is which build. "Latest" follows new builds, so an update to the template reaches this channel by itself. Pick a number to hold it where it is.
- Look is how its clips look on this channel, within that variant: the template's own switches, such as Theme, Pace, Corners, Text alignment, Logo, Logo size, Logo form, Hide logo and title, Hide footer line, Background pattern and Brand background, whichever the chosen variant has. Each starts on The style's own, which is how the clips look without it; change one and every clip of this source on this channel wears it. Another variant offers its own switches, and a choice it does not have is dropped.
The template itself is not a choice here. It is fixed by the source, so it is shown as a read-only card rather than a disabled dropdown. A post list is the exception: each of its posts picks its own template, variant and version, so the card reads "Chosen per post" and there is nothing to pin.
Each source in the list has its own Pause, Settings (to change the variant, the version or the look later) and Remove, which asks first. To remove several, tick them and press Remove selected under the table, which asks once for all of them; Select all ticks every source on the page shown and Select none clears the ticks. The calendar on each row says, when you point at it, the feed's own schedule and when the channel lets it out.
When a feed goes out
A ready-made feed posts when its data changes, so several feeds on one channel can arrive together and then leave it quiet for hours. When it goes out, under Schedule when you add a feed (Add new source here, or Settings on the channel's row under Add to channel on the feed's card) and in the feed's Settings afterwards, sets that per channel:
- Send on arrival, the default, posts each update the moment it comes in.
- Delayed posts each update a while after it comes in: from 1 minute to 24 hours, set under Delay in hours and minutes.
- Every day, Monday to Friday, Saturday and Sunday or one day a week, with one or more times under Time, holds each update until the next of those moments. You type the times on your own clock, and they are saved with your time zone, so "Mondays at 09:00" stays 09:00 there when the clocks change between summer and winter time. The feed's own schedule above the choice is shown on your clock too; where moving it would change the day of a weekday rule, it keeps its UTC hour and says "UTC" after it. A schedule saved before time zones were kept was in UTC: it is shown moved onto your clock where it still reads as one rule, and where it cannot be moved that way (two times of which only one would land on another day, for example), it is shown in UTC with a note saying so and saved in UTC.
- Monthly holds it until one Day of the month, the 1st to the 28th, at the times you choose.
Above the choice the dialogue shows the feed's own schedule and how many updates it actually sent in the last 30 days. Only the newest update waits: when a newer one arrives before the release, it takes the older one's place (with Delayed, it goes out when the older one would have). So a feed that sends every day, set to go out on Mondays, posts the week's latest update once on Monday, not seven clips at once. Where your schedule lets the feed out less often than it sends, the dialogue warns that the older updates will be skipped. A release with nothing new posts nothing, and a skipped update renders nothing, so it costs no video from your allowance. While an update waits, the dialogue says when it arrived and when it goes out. Choosing Send on arrival again sends a waiting update at once, and a source that is paused when its release comes drops what waited.
When you add a feed, Language says which language it comes in on this channel. A multi-lingual feed can come in any language: it starts on the channel's own and follows it unless you choose another, and the feed is translated into the one chosen by AI. A feed with its languages named comes in one of those, each written by the feed's own code with no AI: it starts on the channel's own language where that is one of them, else on the feed's default. A feed that comes in one language shows it, with nothing to choose. The same field is in the source's Settings, so the language can be changed later. Which languages a feed comes in is on its card under Ready-made feeds. A feed your plan does not include cannot be added here, and is not in the list.
Handed over by email, webhook or platform connector
Every channel has three ways a finished post leaves Reelwire when it is due, each a section of its own in the channel's Settings, with its switch beside its name. The Handed over by column on the list says which are on, in words: Email, Webhook, Connector, a list of them, or Nothing.
- Handed over by email. The workspace owner and everybody holding Operations get an email with a link to the post kit, which has the video to download or share and its text ready to copy. One of you posts it: by hand or through a posting service. Then mark it as published on Posts. Post a video by hand covers the email and each platform's steps.
- Handed over by webhook. The video and its text are sent to the workspace's webhook address, set under Webhook, for your own script, an automation or a posting service to post.
- Handed over by platform connector. Reelwire posts the video and its text on the channel's platform itself, with the credentials in the same section (see Platform connector below), and marks the post published with its link. The switch is there only for a platform whose connector is available; on a platform whose connector comes later, the section says so instead.
Any of them may be on together: then the post is emailed, sent to the webhook and posted, each as switched on. All may be off: then a finished post goes to nobody of this workspace. It appears on Posts, where its requests still work, and it reaches every Syndication participant whose group takes the channel, so a channel for syndication alone is simply all off. The form then says so in an amber note right above each of the three switches. A new channel starts with Handed over by email on.
In each section, links open its guides in a new tab: by email, Post a video by hand and Post through a posting service; by webhook, Post through the platforms' APIs and Post through a posting service's API; by platform connector, Posted by platform connector, which lists every platform and how far its connector is.
A post going to several channels is handed over once per batch, not once per channel. Its channels that need no approval go together, in one email and one webhook call, once every one of them is rendered and due; a channel that asks for approval follows on its own once it is approved. See Posts.
Not specified (shown as No specific platform in lists and on posts) is the platform for a channel that does not name where its clips go. It takes every shape Reelwire renders, 9x16, 4x5, 1x1 and 16x9, so pick the one that suits where you will post it, and its hand-over, by email or webhook, carries the text in all four lengths, one for each kind of platform. It has no platform connector, since it names nowhere to post.
Every new workspace starts with one, Default channel: No specific platform in 9x16, handed over by email, wearing Default brand and already listening to Default post list and Default stream, so it has something to render from the first minute.
Platform connector
The Handed over by platform connector section, under the webhook's, holds the switch and, on a platform with a connector, what Reelwire needs to post there for this account.
Each platform asks for its own:
| Platform | What it asks for | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Discord | Webhook URL | Discord |
| Slack | Bot token, and the channel ID | Slack |
| Telegram | Bot token, and the channel or group | Telegram |
Accounts connected through Zernio
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Threads, TikTok, X and YouTube let an app post for other people only once they have reviewed it, so Reelwire posts there through Zernio, a posting service whose app they approved. On those platforms the section asks for nothing to type, and three buttons do everything, each at once with no Save. Connect opens the platform's own sign-in in a new tab (it names Zernio); sign in there and choose the account, Page, board or organisation (on LinkedIn, your own profile or a company Page you administer). As soon as the sign-in is done, the account is kept on the channel and its connector switched on, once, and the dialogue shows Connected: within a few seconds, or the channel's Settings do when opened again, as can happen on a phone. On a new channel, or one whose platform was just changed, Connect saves the dialogue first. Disconnect asks once, then takes the account off the channel and switches its connector off; where no other channel posts to the account, Reelwire disconnects it at Zernio right away. Test asks Zernio whether it can still post, posting nothing. Connecting is part of the Individual plan and above, needs the Administration permission like typing credentials, and is done by a person, in this dialogue. TikTok receives every video as a draft in the account's TikTok inbox, posted from the TikTok app, so keep Handed over by email on beside it for the caption.
Connected accounts
Each account connected through Zernio counts against the workspace's connected accounts, because the posting service charges for each one: Individual includes one, Small business three and Enterprise nine, unless your offer says otherwise. Two channels posting to one account count once, and Discord, Slack and Telegram, which post with credentials of your own, do not count. The section says how many are in use, such as Connected platform accounts: 1 of 3 in use. Once every one is in use, the connect button is greyed out under an amber note: the owner adds more as Additional connected accounts on Plan, or you disconnect one from another channel first. Connecting another account to a channel that has one takes no more room. Allowance shows the count beside videos and storage.
Several channels often post to one account, such as one channel per brand or per post list. Where another channel of the workspace is connected to an account on the same platform, Connect first lists each such account with the channels posting to it. Use this account keeps it on this channel at once: nobody signs in again, and it takes no more room, since the account counts once. New connection signs in to another account as above. Where the workspace has no account on that platform yet, Connect goes straight to the sign-in.
Platform connections
The card under the channels lists every platform connection of the workspace, with the channels posting to each: an account connected through Zernio once, however many channels post to it, and the credentials typed for a Discord, Slack or Telegram channel one row each. It says where a channel has the connector switched off and where the last test failed. Remove, for whoever holds Administration, takes a connection off every channel posting to it at once: it names those channels and asks for the account's name typed back, then switches their connectors off, switches Handed over by email on for any channel that had no other way out, and disconnects an account at Zernio, or deletes the typed credentials.
Connect account, the button under the list, connects an account for the workspace rather than for one channel, for whoever holds Administration on the Individual plan and above. It lists the platforms Reelwire posts to through Zernio, each with Connect, which opens the platform's own sign-in in a new tab, as a channel's Connect does. Once you have signed in and chosen the account, it appears in the list with no channel posting to it yet, and stays connected until Remove takes it, also when the channels posting to it disconnect. Every channel on that platform then offers it under Connect in its Settings, so it is used with no new sign-in, and it counts against your connected accounts from the moment it is connected. Use it to connect your accounts before you make their channels, or one account for several channels.
After a move to a smaller plan, or an extra given back, the accounts connected first go on posting, up to the new number, and posts through the newest stop with a sentence saying why, until one is disconnected or more are added. Resend post request under More on Posts then sends them again.
On Free, which includes none, every connected account stops posting from the day the workspace moves there, and is disconnected 30 days later. The owner gets an email a week before, and choosing a plan again before that day keeps them. A channel the connector was the only way out of is then handed over by email.
Saved, they are kept encrypted. The fields hold what is saved, as every setting in a dialogue does: an identifier as it is, a secret as dots, never shown again in the clear. Change a field and save to replace it; the others stay as they are. Empty every field and save to remove the credentials (switch the connector off first, since it cannot post without them). Moving the channel to another platform removes them too, since they were for the old one.
Test platform connector
At the foot of the section, Test platform connector asks the platform whether the credentials work, and posts nothing. It is like a ping: Reelwire only reads what the credentials reach, such as the bot and the channel it may post in, and shows the answer right under the button: a green Connected: @yourbot in Company News. Tested just now., or The test failed: and the platform's reason in a red note, such as a bot that is not an administrator of the channel. A test of credentials you have not saved yet says so, and Save keeps them. Saving does not ask the platform anything, so test before you rely on them: credentials saved and never tested carry an amber note saying so.
It tests the fields as they are. A test of saved credentials is kept on the channel, so everybody who opens its Settings sees whether it is connected and when it was last tested. A test of credentials you just typed is shown at once, and kept with them if you save them within half an hour. Credentials saved without a test are tested by their first post, which stops with the platform's reason if they do not work.
When they expire
Some credentials stop working on a date, such as a token made to expire. Credentials expire says when: never, in a number of days, or at a date and time, in your own time zone. With a date set, Email a reminder before they expire sends a reminder a week before and again a day before, to the owner and everybody with the Administration permission, naming the channel, the platform and the day. After renewing, enter the new credentials, set the new expiry and test them; the reminders then follow the new date.
Who may do what
Setting or removing the credentials, their expiry and the reminder needs the Administration permission, as the webhook's address does, and only a person can do it, in this dialogue: no API key or AI assistant can. Anybody else who edits channels, such as somebody with Operations, sees whether the connector is connected, when the credentials expire and the last test, can press Test platform connector to test the saved credentials, and reads an amber note saying that only somebody with Administration can change them.
A post the connector made shows Posted on its Connector mark on Posts, and reads Published with its link. Send update request changes its text where the platform allows it (Discord, Telegram, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube), and Send delete request takes it down where the platform allows it (Discord, LinkedIn, Slack, Telegram, Facebook, Pinterest, Threads, X and YouTube); where it does not, the connector's mark beside the request is dashed, and you change or delete it on the platform by hand. The details per platform are in Posted by platform connector.
Posting settings
Last in a channel's Settings, where the platform has any: Visibility, and the switches the platform has. Only what the chosen platform actually offers is shown, whether or not Reelwire posts there itself, since the settings travel with the email and the webhook too. A setting the posting service has no way to apply is not offered: comments on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Threads and Pinterest, branded content on YouTube and Facebook, and who sees a post on LinkedIn are set on the platform itself.
| Platform | Posting settings |
|---|---|
| YouTube | Visibility, Notify subscribers, Advanced features (YouTube) |
| Meta One plan with links (Facebook) | |
| Allow comments, Mark as branded content, Hashtags as first comment, Meta One plan with links (Instagram), and for Reels Also share to feed | |
| TikTok | Visibility, Allow comments, Mark as branded content, Allow duets and stitches |
| X | Allow comments |
| Telegram | Silent post, Protect content |
| Post as | |
| Threads, Pinterest, Discord and Slack | None |
| No specific platform | Meta One plan with links (Facebook), Meta One plan with links (Instagram), Advanced features (YouTube) |
They go with every way out alike. The platform connector applies the ones its platform lets it, and
each platform's guide says which. Mark as branded content, on Instagram and TikTok, it
does not apply, and an amber note under the switch says so while the connector is on. The email's
post kit lists them under each channel's texts, "Posting settings, set these as you post it", so
whoever posts by hand sets them there. The webhook call
carries them as posting on each channel, for a publish and an update alike, and your own system
applies them as it needs (Webhooks).
Silent post is Telegram's "Send without sound": subscribers still get a notification, but without sound or vibration, and the post looks the same. Protect content is Telegram's too: subscribers cannot forward the post or save the video. Notify subscribers off posts a YouTube video without telling the channel's subscribers. Also share to feed shows an Instagram Reel in the profile's feed grid as well. On X, Allow comments off lets only the accounts the post mentions reply.
Post as, on LinkedIn, chooses what every post on the channel is made of: Video, the clip; Picture, its keyframe, the frame Preview shows; Pictures, a picture of every page the clip shows and your brand's outro end card last, posted side by side; or Slides, the same pictures as one document LinkedIn shows as a carousel to swipe through. No video is made for the three made of pictures, and none is counted against your allowance. The post kit and the webhook call carry the pictures, and for Slides the document, in place of the video. The LinkedIn guide says which pages a template gives and how the end card is made.
Meta One plan with links on Facebook and Instagram and Advanced features on YouTube say whether the account may post links, since those platforms make that depend on what it pays for or has verified. Off, the post carries no link: the brand's link is left out and an address in the text reads like example . com. Unlike the others, these change the text itself, so the post kit, the webhook call and the platform connector all carry it that way. Facebook, Instagram and YouTube each say what the platform allows. Facebook and Instagram start off, YouTube on.
A channel on No specific platform has these three alone, since whoever posts from it chooses the platform. Where one is off and the post holds a link, that platform gets a description of its own without links, such as Long description (Facebook Feed) beside Long description (YouTube).
Duplicating a channel
Duplicate makes a second channel like this one, for an account that differs in one or two things: the same sources in another language, or on another platform. The dialogue opens with the channel's name in it; change it to the copy's name, which no other channel may have, and press Duplicate. The copy has the channel's format, language, brand, approval, posting settings, the ways it is handed over by email and webhook, and every source it listens to, each with its variant, version and pause.
The copy starts paused. Listening to the same sources, it would otherwise make every post a second time and hand it over the same ways. Change what differs in its Settings, then press Resume on its row. A platform connector is not copied: its credentials post as one account, so set up the copy's own in its Settings.
Pausing and removing
Pause stops a channel rendering and handing posts over, and is undone by pressing Resume. Pausing a single source instead stops only that source on that channel; pausing a feed on Ready-made feeds stops it on every channel at once. Pausing the channel's brand stops every channel wearing it.
Remove stops the channel at once: nothing more is rendered or handed over, and posts still waiting to render, for approval or to go out are cancelled. Its platform connector's credentials are deleted. Posts already handed over stay where they were posted and stay in Posts, marked as removed. Because none of that can be undone, the dialogue asks you to type the channel's name.