💬 Working with chats
Chats are the main working tool in WazzaBee. Here you see every message from your customers across all connected messengers, and you can reply right from your browser.
📱 How to open chats
Option 1: Click the «Chats» button in the site header (at the top of the screen)
Option 2: In the side menu, click the chats icon 💬
🖥️ What you will see
The screen is split into two panels:
- Left: the list of conversations (contacts)
- Right: the conversation with the selected contact
If no messengers are connected
You will see the 🤖 icon, the text «No channels connected» and a «Connect a channel» button.
📋 Left panel: the conversation list
Search
At the top there is a search field 🔍. It searches by name, phone number and message text.
Contact list
| Element | What it means |
|---|---|
| 👤 Avatar | A photo or a circle with the first letter of the name |
| Name | The name from the messenger, or the phone number |
| Time | When the last message arrived |
| Text | The beginning of the last message |
| (3) | Unread messages |
Context menu
Right-click a conversation (or press and hold on mobile):
- Pin / Unpin: move the contact to the top of the list
- Mark as read / unread: control the status
- Archive / Unarchive: remove the chat from the main list or bring it back
More details in the article «Chat archive and Mark all as read».
The ✓✓ «Mark all as read» icon
The header of the chat list has a ✓✓ icon. One click marks as read:
- Every chat in the selected channel
- Every chat across all channels
The same menu lets you turn on «Show archive» and browse archived chats.
The 📩 «Unread only» icon
Next to it, between ✓✓ and the refresh button 🔄, there is a 📩 icon: the unread filter. Click it to keep only chats with unread messages in the list; click again to show all of them. The filter works together with the channel selector and with search. Learn more →
💬 Right panel: the conversation
If no contact is selected: «Pick a conversation on the left to start chatting»
Loading the conversation
When you open a chat, the latest messages appear immediately: the conversation opens fast even where you have been talking to a customer for a long time and messages have piled up.
To see what came earlier, click «Show earlier messages» above the conversation. The previous chunk loads and you stay exactly where you were reading: the feed does not jump. You can click as many times as you need, all the way to the very first message.
Messages with an attachment (a photo, a voice note, a document) appear in the conversation right away, and the file itself loads a moment later: for a couple of seconds you see «File is loading...» in its place. You no longer have to wait for the full download to read the message. A large video takes longer, and if the file is not ready on the WhatsApp side, we retry on our own: it usually shows up within a few minutes. When a file cannot be fetched at all, you see «File failed to load» instead of the waiting state: ask the customer to send it again.
You can view files without downloading them. For a PDF document, the first page is shown right inside the conversation: with a receipt or an invoice that is usually all you need. Click the file to open it in full: a PDF is paged through in a window, video and audio play, a photo opens full screen. Downloading still works: use the arrow button on the file card or the viewer window. Video and audio sent «as a file» also open in the player. Office documents and archives cannot be rendered by the browser: for those we offer a download.
Important: the entire history is kept and never disappears: it is simply loaded in parts. It works the same way in the dashboard, on your phone and in the WazzaBee app inside your CRM.
Messages
| Element | Incoming | Outgoing |
|---|---|---|
| Position | Left | Right |
| Background | Grey | Colored |
| Status | None | Check marks |
Delivery statuses
| Icon | Status |
|---|---|
| ✓ | Sent (one grey check mark) |
| ✓✓ | Delivered (two grey check marks) |
| ✓✓ (blue) | Read (two blue check marks) |
Where the message was sent from
Under every outgoing message, next to the time, you see where it was sent from. That is handy when several people work with the same customer, or when you reply both from your computer and from your phone.
| Label | What it means |
|---|---|
| 📱 from the phone | The reply was sent straight from the phone: from the WhatsApp or Instagram app, bypassing WazzaBee. Such a message still lands in the conversation |
| 🖥️ from WazzaBee · Name | Sent from WazzaBee chats. Next to it is the name of the agent who replied. In the WazzaBee app inside Bitrix24 we show the Bitrix24 employee's name; in the dashboard, the account owner or a team agent |
| 🔗 from Bitrix24 · Name / from amoCRM | Sent from the customer card in the CRM, or by a robot / automation. For a Bitrix24 Open Channel we also show the name of the agent who replied |
| 📢 broadcast | The message went out as part of a broadcast |
| ⚙️ via API | Sent by your own software through the REST API |
Important: these labels are visible only to you and your agents inside WazzaBee. They are not sent to the customer's messenger: they receive a plain message without any marks.
Messages sent long ago (before this label appeared) may have no label at all: that is normal.
⏳ The 24-hour window (WhatsApp Business)
In WhatsApp Business you can reply to a customer with a regular message within 24 hours of their last message. Once that time is over, only an approved template (HSM) will go through.
So that you can see it in advance:
- such conversations are marked «Template only» in the chat list;
- inside the chat a hint appears with a «Pick a template» button;
- if less than three hours are left before the window closes, we show how much time you still have for a regular reply.
Important: the window reopens only when the customer writes to you themselves. Sending a template does not extend it. More details in the article «Message templates».
✍️ How to write a message
Text
- Pick a conversation on the left
- At the bottom there is the «Type a message» field
- Type your text
- Press ➤ or Enter
Tip: Shift + Enter = a new line (without sending).
Emoji
Click 😊 to the left of the field → pick an emoji.
Files
Click 📎 → pick a file (photo, video, document) → send it.
A screenshot from the clipboard
A copied image (a screen capture, for example) can be pasted straight into the chat: press Ctrl + V (on a Mac, ⌘ + V) while in the input field. The image goes to the customer right away: no need to save the file on your computer first.
Voice message
Click 🎙️ → allow the microphone → speak → stop the recording.
🔒 If the subscription has expired
You will see: 🔒 «Subscription expired» and a «💳 Pay for the license» button.
Important: messages are not lost! They will all appear once you pay.
📱 On the phone
First the conversation list → tap a contact → the chat opens full screen. To go back, use the ← arrow at the top.
✅ Checklist
- ☐ You can open chats
- ☐ You can pick a conversation
- ☐ You can send text, a file and a voice message
- ☐ You know what the ✓ ✓✓ check marks mean
👤 Contacts: adding, name, number and notes
Contacts in chats can be added by hand and edited: for example, to write to a customer first, or to label a number with a name you recognize.
Add a contact
Click «+» in the header of the chat list and fill in the form:
- Channel: which channel to write to the customer from.
- Contact name: optional. You can start a chat with just a number and add the name later.
- Phone number: paste the number in any format: with a plus sign, spaces or brackets. If you paste a full number with the country code, it is saved correctly: you do not need to pick the code separately. The code list on the left is only needed when you type a national number without the code.
Handy: the country code you pick is remembered and filled in by default next time: if almost all your numbers are from one country, choose its code once.
Change the name and add a note
Open a chat and click the contact's name at the top: the contact card opens. Here you can:
- Change the name: put a recognizable name in place of the number and save it.
- Add a note about the customer: any remark for yourself and your colleagues (for example, «interested in wholesale», «call back after 18:00»). The note is visible only to you and your agents: it is never sent to the customer.
Copy the number in one click
Next to the customer's number (in the chat header and in the contact card) there is a copy icon. One click copies the full number with the country code, so you can quickly paste it into a call, your CRM or another app.
Search by number
The search field at the top of the list finds contacts not only by name, but also by phone number: type the number however you like, with a plus sign or with spaces.
Bulk upload from a file
Next to the «+» button there is a button for uploading contacts from a file (Excel or CSV). It is useful when you need to add a long list at once, your whole customer base, for example.
- Click the upload button and pick a channel.
- Download the template (two columns: «Name» and «Phone»), fill it in and save it.
- Upload the file: you will immediately see how many contacts were recognized.
- Click «Import».
Names are pulled into the chat automatically once the customer writes to you or you write to them. No separate empty chats are created. If a number already exists, its name is updated. Contacts are visible only to you.
Need automation? Contacts can also be added through the REST API, see the article «Contacts via API».
Quick chat start and notes
Once a contact is added, the chat with them opens right away: you can write without extra clicks. If a contact has a note, a note icon appears next to the name in the chat header: click it to open or edit the note.
🔔 Notification sound and time zone
Both settings live in Settings → Notifications.
New message sound
You can turn the sound off, pick a softer tone («Soft», «Drop», «Bell») and lower the volume. The «Play» button next to it lets you hear how it will sound. The setting is per computer, so every agent tunes it to their own taste.
Time zone
Pick your city and message times will be shown in your own time: in the chat list, in the conversation and on the date separators.
📄 Chat templates
On the «Templates» page (/dashboard/chat-templates) you can create ready-made texts for quick sending in chats. The page has two tabs:
- «Chat templates»: your own quick replies (a greeting, a price list, company details, standard answers to common questions and so on)
- «HSM (WABA)»: if you have a WABA channel connected, HSM templates (approved by Meta) are available here as well. If there is no WABA channel, the tab suggests connecting one. More about HSM templates →
How to create a chat template
- Open «Templates» in the side menu
- On the «Chat templates» tab click «+ Add template»
- Enter a name (to find it quickly in a chat) and the message text
- Save it
How to use a template in a chat
In a conversation with a customer, click the templates icon 📄 next to the input field: your list of templates opens. Pick the one you need and the text is inserted into the input field. From there you can edit it or send it right away.
Tip: chat templates work in any channel (WhatsApp QR, WABA, Telegram, Instagram, OLX and others). HSM templates only work in WABA channels, and they are exactly what you need for broadcasts to «cold» numbers.