Flows and automation
A flow is an automated sequence that runs without a person driving it. Flows answer common questions, qualify leads, send follow-ups, and route conversations to the right team member.
Open WhatsApp → Flows to build one.
What a flow is made of
| Piece | What it does |
|---|---|
| Trigger | Starts the flow — an inbound message, a quick reply tap, a new contact, a tag being applied. |
| Condition | Branches the path based on contact data, tags, or what the customer said. |
| Action | Sends a message, applies a tag, assigns an agent, or calls an external system. |
| Delay | Waits before the next step — minutes, hours, or days. |
Common patterns
Instant acknowledgement. A customer messages outside business hours; the flow replies immediately with an expected response time and tags them After Hours.
Lead qualification. Send a template with quick reply buttons. Tag by the button tapped, then assign hot leads to a salesperson and drop the rest into a nurture sequence.
Drip campaign. A multi-day sequence that sends a template, waits, checks whether the customer replied, and either escalates to a human or sends the next message.
Handoff. An AI agent handles the conversation until it hits something it cannot answer, then assigns a human and stops replying.
Templates and the 24-hour window
Inside the 24-hour service window a flow can send free-form messages.
Outside it, every message a flow sends must be an approved template. Build your flows accordingly — a drip campaign spanning several days needs approved templates for the later steps.
Drip campaigns
WhatsApp → Advanced → Drip configures time-based sequences. Each step names a template, a delay, and an exit condition — usually "stop if the customer replies."
Every message a drip sends counts against your daily messaging limit when it opens a new conversation.
Best practices
- Give every flow an exit. A customer who replies "STOP" should never receive step four.
- Keep branches shallow. Deeply nested conditions become impossible to debug.
- Test with your own number before you enable a flow for real contacts.
- Watch the quality rating after launching an automated campaign — automation scales mistakes as fast as it scales successes.
Next steps
- Create the templates your flow will send.
- Review performance once it is running.