# Messaging & the gateway

> Choose a chat app, then learn about gateway setup, access and delivery.

Canonical: https://hermeswatcher.com/topics/messaging

Compare every documented chat platform and remote channel in the messaging directory. Then learn where the gateway runs, who may talk to it and where scheduled results go.

## Guides, tools and workflows

- [Hermes Agent messaging: Telegram, Slack, WhatsApp, iMessage, more](https://hermeswatcher.com/messaging.md): Compare messaging platforms, setup needs, feature notes and official documentation.
- [Telegram: reach Hermes from a private bot conversation](https://hermeswatcher.com/tools/telegram.md): Use Telegram as a conversation and delivery surface while keeping bot credentials and allowed users explicitly controlled.
- [Discord: keep agent conversation scoped to the right people](https://hermeswatcher.com/tools/discord.md): Connect Hermes to direct messages or server channels with deliberate mention rules, authorization, and session boundaries.
- [Slack: bring Hermes into your team workspace](https://hermeswatcher.com/tools/slack.md): Connect Hermes to Slack over Socket Mode so allowed teammates can message it in DMs, channels and threads.
- [WhatsApp: chat with Hermes from your phone](https://hermeswatcher.com/tools/whatsapp.md): Link Hermes to WhatsApp as a linked device through a bundled Node.js bridge, in bot or self-chat mode.
- [Signal: a private, end-to-end encrypted channel to your agent](https://hermeswatcher.com/tools/signal.md): Talk to Hermes over Signal by linking signal-cli as a secondary device and pointing the gateway at its local HTTP daemon.
- [Email gateway: give Hermes its own inbox](https://hermeswatcher.com/tools/email-gateway.md): Let Hermes read a dedicated mailbox over IMAP and reply over SMTP, with sender authentication on by default.
- [Home Assistant: let Hermes see and control your smart home](https://hermeswatcher.com/tools/home-assistant.md): Install the official homeassistant plugin to give Hermes smart-home tools and react to entity state changes.
- [Voice and TTS: spoken replies and voice-note transcription](https://hermeswatcher.com/tools/voice-tts.md): Choose a text-to-speech and speech-to-text provider so Hermes can talk back and understand voice messages.
- [Hermes Agent task finished but no message arrived](https://hermeswatcher.com/troubleshoot/task-finished-but-no-delivery.md): The task ran but no message arrived? Check the saved result and intended destination before you run the whole task again.
- [Hermes Agent messaging gateway explained](https://hermeswatcher.com/learn/messaging-gateway-explained.md): What the Hermes gateway process does, how to set it up and keep it running, who is allowed to talk to your bot, and how chat sessions behave.
- [Hermes Agent bot not responding in your chat app](https://hermeswatcher.com/troubleshoot/gateway-bot-not-responding.md): What to check when your Hermes bot on Telegram, Discord or another chat app stays silent, replies 'unauthorized', or works in DMs but not in groups.
- [How to set up Hermes Agent on Telegram](https://hermeswatcher.com/learn/hermes-agent-telegram-setup.md): Connect Hermes Agent to Telegram: create a bot with Create with QR or BotFather, set your allowlist, start the gateway and chat from your phone.
- [How to set up Hermes Agent on Discord](https://hermeswatcher.com/learn/hermes-agent-discord-setup.md): Connect Hermes Agent to Discord: create a bot, turn on Message Content Intent, invite it, set your allowlist and start the gateway.
- [How to set up Hermes Agent on WhatsApp with the Baileys bridge](https://hermeswatcher.com/learn/hermes-agent-whatsapp-setup.md): Connect Hermes Agent to WhatsApp: link a number with a QR code, set your allowlist, start the gateway and message your agent from your phone.
- [How to set up Hermes Agent on Slack](https://hermeswatcher.com/learn/hermes-agent-slack-setup.md): Create a Slack app from the Hermes manifest, save both tokens, restrict access and start the gateway for DMs, channels and threads.
- [How to set up Hermes Agent on Microsoft Teams](https://hermeswatcher.com/learn/hermes-agent-microsoft-teams-setup.md): Register a Teams bot, connect its HTTPS webhook to Hermes, restrict access by user ID and send a first direct message.
- [How to set up Hermes Agent on Google Chat](https://hermeswatcher.com/learn/hermes-agent-google-chat-setup.md): Connect Hermes through a Google Chat app and Pub/Sub pull subscription, restrict users and optionally enable native file uploads.
- [How to set up Hermes Agent on Matrix](https://hermeswatcher.com/learn/hermes-agent-matrix-setup.md): Create a Matrix bot account, configure its credentials and allowlists, choose an encryption mode and start a private conversation.
- [How to set up Hermes Agent on Signal](https://hermeswatcher.com/learn/hermes-agent-signal-setup.md): Link Signal through signal-cli, restrict access, start both processes and send a first message, with notes on media and keeping the host online.
- [How to set up Hermes Agent on email](https://hermeswatcher.com/learn/hermes-agent-email-setup.md): Use a dedicated IMAP/SMTP inbox, allow trusted senders, pin sender authentication and start the Hermes email gateway for threaded replies.
- [How to set up Hermes Agent on iMessage with Photon](https://hermeswatcher.com/learn/hermes-agent-imessage-photon-setup.md): Connect iMessage through Photon's hosted service without a Mac relay. Set access controls and understand shared-line and incoming-attachment limits.
- [How to set up Hermes Agent on iMessage with BlueBubbles](https://hermeswatcher.com/learn/hermes-agent-imessage-bluebubbles-setup.md): Use an always-on Mac and BlueBubbles to connect iMessage to Hermes. Configure both network directions, authorize senders and check delivery.
- [How to set up Hermes Agent on WhatsApp with the Business Cloud API](https://hermeswatcher.com/learn/hermes-agent-whatsapp-business-cloud-api-setup.md): Connect business WhatsApp to Hermes with a Meta app, signed HTTPS webhook and allowlist. Understand the 24-hour delivery window.
- [How to set up Hermes Agent with Open WebUI and the API server](https://hermeswatcher.com/learn/hermes-agent-open-webui-setup.md): Use Open WebUI with the Hermes API server. Set a strong key, keep loopback private and understand Docker reachability and host tool access.
- [A software consultancy builds a private Slack assistant that answers questions about the company](https://hermeswatcher.com/case-studies/blog-echobind-company-slack-bot): Echobind wrote up a Hermes Slack bot that runs on a small private server and answers questions about the company from a condensed summary and a folder of scraped knowledge pages. The write-up is useful mainly for the configuration problems it records, including one where a default setting quietly overrode the Slack tool restrictions.
- [Running a Karpathy-style LLM wiki through a Telegram bot on a small VPS](https://hermeswatcher.com/case-studies/jsong-llm-wiki): The author replaced a hand-maintained Obsidian vault with a markdown wiki that Hermes Agent keeps up to date: sources get sent to a Telegram bot, and the agent files, cross-links, logs and lints them. What makes it interesting is that the agent does the bookkeeping. The author still picks what goes in.
- [Ten fixes for running Hermes as an always-on Railway service with a Telegram bot](https://hermeswatcher.com/case-studies/tessakriesel-railway-telegram): The author packaged Hermes in her own Docker image, deployed it to Railway as a persistent gateway, and connected Telegram, Notion MCP and fallback models. She wrote up the ten problems that cost her time. Most are general container lessons that apply to any Docker-based Hermes host.
- [Three separate Hermes profiles for coding, research and illustration, each with its own Telegram bot](https://hermeswatcher.com/case-studies/avichawla-masterclass-three-agents): A tutorial that explains Hermes Agent's memory, skills and self-improvement features, then builds three specialist agents as separate profiles. One is a programmer that hands work to Claude Code, one is a researcher that sends a daily digest on a schedule, and one is a designer with a learned drawing style. Each agent has its own Telegram bot.

## Questions

- [What is the messaging gateway?](https://hermeswatcher.com/faq#what-is-the-gateway)
- [How do I connect Hermes to Telegram, and can I run separate bots there?](https://hermeswatcher.com/faq#connect-telegram)
- [How do I connect Discord or Slack?](https://hermeswatcher.com/faq#connect-discord-slack)
- [Can I use Hermes on WhatsApp?](https://hermeswatcher.com/faq#connect-whatsapp)
- [How do I control who can use my bot?](https://hermeswatcher.com/faq#who-can-talk-to-my-bot)
- [How do I keep the gateway running in the background?](https://hermeswatcher.com/faq#gateway-as-service)
- [Why doesn’t my Telegram bot see messages in a group?](https://hermeswatcher.com/faq#telegram-group-privacy)
- [How do I stop tool logs and reasoning cluttering my chat?](https://hermeswatcher.com/faq#hide-tool-progress)
- [Can Hermes have its own email inbox?](https://hermeswatcher.com/faq#agent-email-inbox)
- [Can Hermes work with Gmail or Outlook, and how do I connect email safely?](https://hermeswatcher.com/faq#connect-gmail-outlook)
- [Is Telegram or Discord easier to connect, and do they get the same features?](https://hermeswatcher.com/faq#telegram-or-discord)
- [Can I move a live session from my computer to my phone?](https://hermeswatcher.com/faq#handoff-to-phone)

All answers: https://hermeswatcher.com/faq.md

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HermesWatcher is an independent guide. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Nous Research. The [official Hermes Agent documentation](https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs) and [repository](https://github.com/NousResearch/hermes-agent) from Nous Research are the authority; each page here lists the official sources it was written from. If this site and the official docs disagree, trust the official docs. Index for agents: https://hermeswatcher.com/llms.txt