Wix Answers Help Center
Replying to WhatsApp Chats
Use Live Chat to reply to customers who create tickets by contacting you from WhatsApp. Customers can send text, emojis, attachments, locations, and audio messages through the app.
In this article, review WhatsApp's 24-hour rule, sending template replies, and other limitations that keep your replies optimized for WhatsApp.
In this article, review WhatsApp's 24-hour rule, sending template replies, and other limitations that keep your replies optimized for WhatsApp.
Important:
To adhere with the WhatsApp Business Policy, you must obtain an opt-in from customers before sending them template notifications. We recommend adding an opt-in message wherever you share your "click to chat" link.
Customer replies create new tickets when:
- Customers reply to tickets that have been in the Closed or Solved status for at least 48 hours.
- Customers reply to tickets that have been in the Open, Pending, or Investigating status for at least 14 days after the last reply.
Note: In both cases, the new customer reply becomes the new ticket subject.
Tip:
Add the source filter to Views and select WhatsApp to show WhatsApp tickets in your ticket lists.
The 24-Hour Rule
WhatsApp has a 24-hour rule that limits the types of messages you can send to customers. According to the rule:
- If a customer has not sent you a message in the past 24 hours, you can only send them a template message. See Sending Template Messages below.
- When a customer has sent you a message from WhatsApp in the past 24 hours, you can send a regular reply through Live Chat. See Limitations of Replying to WhatsApp Chats below.
Sending Template Messages
If 24 hours have passed since a customer sent you a WhatsApp message, you can only reply with a template message. The available template options appear in the Reply box automatically when you reply after 24 hours have passed.
Show me the template messages
Note:
Template messages have additional fees based on the country code of your customer's phone number and the number of messages you send to their location. Learn More
Limitations of Replying to WhatsApp Chats
Aside from the 24-hour rule, other limitations exist to keep your replies optimized for WhatsApp.
When replying to WhatsApp chats:
- You can paste links to articles from the Knowledge base articles icon
, however, you cannot add article contents. - You can use bold and italics to format your text. However, you cannot hyperlink or format text using bullet points or numbered lists.
- If you use a saved reply or macro that contains hyperlinks, the full URL of the link displays to the customer. For example, "Go to Wix Answers" displays as "Go to Wix Answers (https://www.wixanswers.com)" to your customer.
- If you use a saved reply, macro, or pasted text containing formatted lists, the lists appear as plain text to your customer. Bullet points (
) appear as dashes (-) and both bulleted and numbered lists are not indented. - You can attach images, but you cannot insert them into the text of your reply.
- If you attach multiple images, only the first image is displayed to your customer. Additional images appear as links.
- If you send other attachments, they appear on your customer's end as links.
- You can attach audio files up to 16 MB, image files up to 5 MB, and video files up to 16 MB in WhatsApp tickets.
- Deleting a reply permanently removes it from the ticket. However, your customer can still view the deleted reply in their WhatsApp application.
Was this article helpful?