WhatsApp treats a conversation the customer opened recently differently from a message the business starts. The rule is set by Meta and applies to every business connected through the official platform, so every agent should know it.
How the 24-hour window works
- Every message from the customer opens a 24-hour customer-service window. Inside the window you can send anything: text, photos, files and voice notes.
- Have 24 hours passed since the customer's last message? WhatsApp then only delivers a template that Meta approved in advance.
- A customer who has never written to the business also gets the first message as a template.
- When the customer replies, a new 24-hour window opens and you can write normally again.
What you see in Whapiz
When an agent sends a free-form message after the window has closed, Whapiz stops it before it goes out and shows a red message: the 24-hour window has closed, and you need to send an approved template to reopen the conversation. The red message shows for a few seconds, and the text you wrote stays in the box, so you can send it once the customer replies.
Continue the conversation with a template
- In the customer's conversation, click the document icon above the message box, WhatsApp Templates. If the conversation is closed, click Reopen first.
- Choose a template from the list. Seeing No templates available? An admin needs to sync templates on the Settings → Templates page.
- If the template has variables, fill them in under Fill variables and check the wording under Preview.
- Click Send Template. When it works you see Template sent successfully.
- When the customer replies, the window reopens and you can carry on with the conversation.
Choose a template that invites a reply, such as a short question or a request to confirm, so the customer answers and the conversation reopens.
A message that went out but wasn't delivered
Sometimes a message leaves Whapiz but WhatsApp doesn't deliver it to the customer. You then see a red ! next to the message time, and hovering over it explains that the message wasn't delivered. Common reasons:
- The number is wrong, or has no WhatsApp account.
- The customer blocked the business.
- Meta limited delivery, for example because the customer recently received many marketing messages, or because the number's quality rating dropped.
- The template isn't approved, or was paused or disabled at Meta.
Check the number and the template's status, and try again later. If agents get a message that WhatsApp rejected the connection's access token, the problem is the connection itself: email us at support@whapiz.com.
Tips
- Reply in time. As long as the conversation is inside the 24-hour window, you can keep it going freely.
- The 24-hour window doesn't block templates, so they are how you get back to a customer even days later.
- Every profile can send a template from a conversation, including agents. An admin does the sync from Meta.