Features
Inbox and replies
Reading customer replies and answering them while the 24-hour window is open.
Every message a customer sends to your WhatsApp number lands in the Inbox as a conversation. You reply from the same screen. Use it when someone answers an order notification with a question "can I change the address?", and a person needs to answer.
The Inbox is the one place in the platform where the 24-hour window is visible in the interface rather than hidden in an error message, because it decides what you are allowed to send at any moment.
The window governs everything
WhatsApp only lets a business send a free-form message, text, an image, a document, within 24 hours of the customer's last inbound message. Outside that, the only thing Meta will deliver is an approved template.
The platform measures the window from the most recent inbound message logged against that contact and that number. A contact who has never written to you has no window at all: it reads as closed from the start.
Each conversation in the list carries a badge showing the time left, for example 7h 21m, which turns into Window closed when it lapses. The countdown refreshes every thirty seconds.
What has to be true first
- A linked number
- Conversations belong to a WhatsApp number. See Connect your WhatsApp number.
- The number is registered
- An unregistered number receives inbound messages but every reply fails with Meta error 133010.
- At least one approved template
- Without one, a conversation whose window has closed cannot be reopened at all, the template dropdown will be empty.
- The conversation is yours
- An agent can only reply to a conversation assigned to them. Admins and superadmins may always reply.
How to use it
Open Inbox
The conversation list is on the left, filtered to OPEN by default. The other filters are PENDING, RESOLVED, BOT and All. Search matches the contact name or number.Claim the conversation
If it is unassigned, the composer is replaced by an Assign to me button. Claiming it is what makes the composer appear. This stops two agents answering the same customer at once. An admin can reassign from the dropdown in the header.Check the window badge before you type
Green with a countdown means anything is allowed. Grey means template only.Send
Pick a composer tab, write, and press Enter (Shift+Enter for a new line) or the send button.Mark it resolved
The Actions menu sets the conversation to OPEN, PENDING or RESOLVED. This is for your own triage. It has no effect on what WhatsApp will deliver.
What you can send
The composer offers four tabs:
Composer tabs
| Field | Required | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Text | No | free-form | A plain message. Disabled when the window is closed. |
| Template | No | approved template | The dropdown lists only templates Meta has approved for this number, with their language. The only tab available when the window is closed. |
| Image | No | free-form | Takes a media URL. The URL must be publicly reachable, Meta fetches it. Disabled when the window is closed. |
| Document | No | free-form | Takes a media URL, same rules as an image. Disabled when the window is closed. |
Reply buttons and list menus
Interactive messages, up to three reply buttons, or a list menu of up to ten options, are not sent from the Inbox composer. They are built in two other places:
- Auto Replies and Bot flows, where the builder offers Reply buttons (up to 3, 20 characters each) and List menu (up to 10 options, 24 characters each). See Bots and auto-replies.
- The API, via
type: "interactive"onPOST /v1/messages/send.
Interactive messages are free-form, so the same 24-hour rule applies to them. A customer's button tap arrives back as an inbound message, which restarts the window.
Starting a conversation with someone new
New at the top of the list opens a chat with someone who has not written to you. Enter the number with its country code, a national number is accepted by Meta and delivered to a different subscriber entirely, which is why the field validates the country code separately.
Because they have never messaged you, the window is closed and your first message must be an approved template. The modal says so, and the composer only offers templates.
When nothing sends
- The window is closed and you picked a free-form tab. The send button is disabled. Switch to Template.
- The conversation is assigned to someone else. The composer is replaced by a note naming the assignee. An admin can reassign it.
- The number is not registered on the Cloud API. Every send fails with Meta error 133010, whatever the window says.
- No approved templates exist for the number. The template dropdown is empty, so a closed conversation cannot be reopened at all.
- The media URL is not publicly reachable. Meta fetches image and document links itself; a URL behind a login or a firewall fails at Meta's end.
Cost
A free-form reply inside an open window is a service conversation. Meta does not charge for those and neither does the platform, the send succeeds even on a zero credit balance. Sending a template from the Inbox costs whatever that template's category costs; see Credits and billing.