Messaging customers
The WhatsApp reply window
WhatsApp only lets a business send free-text messages to a customer for 24 hours after the customer’s last message. Customer messaging follows that rule, which is why the reply box on a WhatsApp conversation sometimes turns into a short list of ready-made messages.
The rule, in plain terms
Each time the customer sends you a WhatsApp message, a 24-hour window opens. Inside it your team can write whatever they like. Once it closes, WhatsApp only allows messages whose wording it has approved in advance, called templates. The customer’s next message opens a new window. Growth and above
This is WhatsApp’s rule rather than Queue Join’s, and it is the same reason your automatic WhatsApp messages use approved wording. It only applies to WhatsApp: a customer who wrote by SMS or RCS can be answered on that channel at any time.
What you see
While the window is open, the reply box says until when you can reply freely. When it closes, the box is replaced by the approved templates. Pick one and send it.
Needs the permission messages.send (send messages). Owners and Admins have every permission by default.
The conversation stays on WhatsApp. It isn’t switched to a text, because that would mean writing to the customer on a channel they didn’t choose. If something can’t wait for them to reply, phone them.
The templates
There are two. The wording is Queue Join’s and the same for every business, in English, with your location’s details filled in:
Please call us
Hello, this is [your location’s name]. We've seen your message and would like to talk to you. Please call us on [your location’s phone number]. Thank you!
We have an answer
Hello, this is [your location’s name]. We have an answer to your message. Reply to this message and we'll send it to you here. Thank you!
“Please call us” uses the phone number in the location’s details, so it can only be sent when that is filled in.
A template that can’t be sent, for example one WhatsApp hasn’t approved yet, isn’t offered, and the page says when none are available. Phone the customer instead.
Once the customer replies to either, the window is open again and you can write freely.
What it costs
A template is a reply like any other, so it uses one of your monthly messages. See Customer messaging.