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Voluble is a communications system that allows users to send messages to and receive replies from their contacts over a number of platforms.
Voluble is not a messaging platform such as WhatsApp, Telegram or Facebook Messsenger. Rather, Voluble may use some of these platforms to send messages to your contacts.
Voluble by default does not actually support any messaging platforms. The idea is that you customise Voluble to your needs by adding a series of plugins that facilitate the sending of messages to your contacts.
Therefore, in order to be able to send messages via SMS, you might install the plugin for an SMS provider, such as Esendex or Sinch.
A plugin enables a Service. A Servicechain is a failover-chain of Services.
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A plugin is just a collection of JavaScript files, that, when placed under the plugins_directory folder, allow Voluble to make use of a Service.
A Service is Voluble's way of interacting with a messaging provider, such as Twilio or Telegram. These actually send the messages; Voluble is just interacting with them.
A Servicechain is Voluble's way of mitigating against a message failing to send (or, in certain circumstances, from being received.) For example, if we try to send a message to a contact using a service that interacts with Telegram, but the user no longer uses Telegram, or does not have a data connection, then the message will fail to be delivered.
So now what? Either, we could write the message off as having failed, or, if we have the contact details for the contact on a different service -- let's say, their phone number -- then we could use this to send the same message as an SMS. This, in essence, is a Servicechain. It's just a list of Services in priority order that Voluble should try to use to send the message.