🤖 Auto-replies
An auto-reply is a message the customer receives on their own, before an agent joins the conversation. You set it up in the “Auto-replies” section in the side menu.
There are two rules and you can switch them on separately:
- First message: the customer is writing to you for the first time and there is no previous conversation.
- Out of hours: the customer wrote outside your working schedule.
Important: if a customer writes for the first time and does it out of hours, they get only one auto-reply: the out-of-hours one.
1. Channels
Tick the channels the auto-reply should work on. If you tick none, the rule works on all of your channels: WhatsApp (QR and Business), Telegram bot, Instagram, Facebook, OLX.
Exception: auto-replies do not work on personal Telegram accounts yet.
2. Auto-reply text
Your own text
A regular message, for example: “Hello! Thank you for getting in touch. We have seen your message and will reply shortly.”
A template approved by Meta
For WhatsApp Business channels you can pick one of the channel’s ready templates (HSM) instead of your own text. The list only shows approved templates without variables: the auto-reply is sent automatically, so there is nobody to fill the values in.
A template belongs to the channel you picked it from. If the rule works on several channels, the others will get the plain text. That is why the “Text for the other channels” field is always filled in.
3. Working schedule
For the “Out of hours” rule, tick your working days and set the hours. If a customer writes at any other time, they get the auto-reply.
The schedule is calculated in your time zone from “Settings → Notifications”. Check that your city is selected there, otherwise your working hours will be shifted.
You can also set a night shift, from 20:00 to 08:00, for example: the system understands that working hours run past midnight.
4. Pause between auto-replies
So that a customer does not get an auto-reply to every single message in a row, set a pause in hours (6 by default). Within that pause the same customer will not receive the auto-reply again.
💡 What is worth knowing
- Auto-replies are not sent to group chats.
- If a channel is switched off or its subscription has ended, no auto-replies go out on it.
- An auto-reply is a normal outgoing message: it is visible in the conversation (labelled “auto-reply”) and is billed just like an agent’s reply.
- No auto-reply is sent for reactions, deleted messages or edited messages.
- When chat history is imported, no auto-replies are sent: they go out only for new messages.
- On WhatsApp Business the auto-reply goes out right after the customer’s message, so the 24-hour window is open and plain text is delivered.
✅ Checklist
- ☐ Time zone is set in the settings
- ☐ Working days and hours are ticked
- ☐ The text is written (or a template is selected)
- ☐ The rule is switched on with the toggle and saved