One way that channel hooks differ from plugins is that hooks can define commands that the user can invoke to instruct the hook to do something. For example, the Channel Monitor Window hook defines commands to open and close the monitor window.
Commands are defined in the .HOOK file like this:
[ChannelHookCommandDefinition-1] Name=... DisplayName=... [ChannelHookCommandDefinition-2] Name=... DisplayName=... etc...
Commands defined here will appear in the My Channels context menu and main menu when the channel is active (see screenshot).