Inbox
Answering customers as a team, the 24-hour window, assignment, labels and notes.
The inbox is one WhatsApp number answered by your whole team. It looks like WhatsApp Web on purpose — conversations down the left, the thread in the middle, the customer's details on the right.
The 24-hour window
Everything in the inbox depends on this one rule.
When a customer messages you, a 24-hour window opens. Inside it you can reply with anything — text, images, documents, voice notes. No template, no approval, no wait.
When the window closes, free text is no longer allowed. The inbox tells you and offers to send an approved template instead. The template reaches them, and their reply opens a fresh 24 hours.
The clock runs from the customer's last message, not from the first. Every reply they send resets it.
If you try to send free text after it closes, you get: "The 24-hour reply window has closed. Send an approved template to reach this customer."
That is Meta's rule, and no plan or setting changes it. See WhatsApp Business API.
Replying
Type and send. Messages are up to 4,096 characters.
Sending media
You can attach:
- Images — JPEG, PNG, WebP
- Video — MP4, 3GP
- Documents — PDF and the usual office formats
- Audio — AAC, MP4, MPEG, AMR, OGG
Captions follow the same 4,096 character limit. Media is also only allowed inside the open window.
Sending a template
When the window is closed — or when you simply want to send an approved message — use the template option. Only approved templates appear, and you fill in any variables before sending.
Reactions
You can react to a customer's message with an emoji, the same as in WhatsApp.
Working as a team
Assignment
Assign a conversation to a person so everyone knows who owns it. Unassigned conversations are everybody's and therefore nobody's — assign early.
Open and closed
A conversation is open or closed. Close it when the matter is finished; it leaves the active list without deleting anything. If the customer messages again, it comes back.
Closing is not deleting. The whole history stays on the contact.
Mark as read
Marks the conversation read without opening it — useful for clearing noise after a campaign.
Notes
Notes are internal. The customer never sees them. Use them for context the next person needs: what was promised, what the account number is, why this one is awkward.
Labels
Labels organise conversations — refund, wholesale, escalated. Create them once and apply as needed. Labels sit on the conversation; tags sit on the contact.
Canned replies
Saved answers for things you type constantly — opening hours, delivery timelines, the return policy. Save one from a message you have just written, then reuse it.
The AI agent in the inbox
If the AI Agent is switched on, it can answer on its own. Each conversation has a bot status you can turn off, so a human takes over for that customer without switching the agent off for everybody.
Turning the bot off for a conversation is the normal way to escalate.
When a message fails
A failed message shows in the thread with its reason, and can be retried from there.
Common causes:
- The window closed while you were typing. Send a template.
- The number is not on WhatsApp.
- Meta payment issue — your WhatsApp Business Account has no valid payment method. See What it costs.
Practical habits
Assign before replying. Two people answering the same customer looks worse than a slow reply.
Close what is finished. An inbox where everything is open tells you nothing.
Notes over memory. The person who picks this up at 9pm is not you.
Watch the window. If a conversation is nearly 24 hours old and still needs an answer, answer it now — after that it costs a template.