Chats

People's messages on the office's WhatsApp and the answers to them: replying in text, with a file or by voice, labelling and assigning, internal notes, and linking a number to a person on file.

What it is for

The office's WhatsApp inbox: every number that wrote to the office is a chat, with its messages and the answers and notices sent to it. Replies arrive in the office's name, and the system records who sent each one. Beside the chat is the number's owner if they are a person on file, marked if they are staff.

Who uses it

The page opens for whoever holds “View WhatsApp chats”, to look only, or “Reply to WhatsApp chats”, to work in it. In the built-in roles: Owner, Manager. They are granted to any role under Settings → Roles and permissions.

Step by step

1. Choose the tab: “People”, “Unknown” or “Blocked”, and narrow by label or “Assigned to me” if you like.
2. Open a chat from the list, write your reply under it, or choose a “Quick reply”, or attach a file or record a voice message, then send.
3. In the details: give the chat to a member of staff, label it, and write a “+ Internal note” for your colleagues.
4. For a number of nobody on file (a contractor, a supplier…): “Name”. For a person on file whose number is not known yet: “Link to a person”, then find them by name and choose them.
5. “Labels and quick replies” in the toolbar adds or removes the labels and ready replies.

How it works

Within 24 hours of the last message from the number's owner, a reply goes as written, with a file if you attach one. After that it goes by the approved general template, text only and up to 800 characters, and there is no reply until a template is approved. Opening a chat marks it read for whoever replies, the number's owner sees it was read, and the page refreshes itself every fifteen seconds. The number shows whole to those holding “Manage people and staff”, “Reply to WhatsApp chats” or “Send WhatsApp campaigns”, and masked to others, and every opening is recorded. An internal note never reaches the number's owner, and everyone who opens the chats sees it. Linking to a person adds the number to the chosen person's phones, so the chat moves to “People”; only someone holding “Manage people and staff” links, and a number held by another person or used as an account's sign-in name cannot be linked. Blocking stops the number's messages from being recorded and campaigns from reaching it, and is undone from “Blocked”. A number whose owner asked to stop gets no campaigns or optional messages, but still gets the service notices and replies. The list shows the most recent chats.

On the page

• Unread chats, the chats of people on file, and unknown numbers.
• “Labels and quick replies”: the chats' labels and the ready replies.
• The chats by tab, newest first. Narrow by label or to those assigned to you.
• The messages both ways, the notices among them. Write your reply under them.
• The number's owner, assigning and labels, blocking and linking to a person, and the internal notes.

Questions

Why can't I send a file?

24 hours have passed since the last message from the number's owner: the reply goes by the general template, text only. When the number's owner writes, the window opens again.

Why “Cannot reply”?

24 hours have passed and Meta has not approved a general message template. Get it approved under WhatsApp templates, or wait for a message from the number's owner.

Does the number's owner see my name?

No. The reply arrives in the office's name, and the system records inside who sent it.