An automatic reply is a message WhatsApp sends on your behalf when a customer writes to you. The free WhatsApp Business app has two kinds built in, and they are worth setting up today even if you never move to anything bigger.
In the WhatsApp Business app
Both live under Settings, then Business tools.
Greeting message
Sent automatically to anyone who messages you for the first time, or after 14 days of silence. One message, no conditions.
Thanks for reaching out to {{1}}. Tell us what you are looking for and someone will reply shortly. We are open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 7pm.
Away message
Sent when you are outside business hours. You can set it to always send, to send on a custom schedule, or to send outside the business hours you configured.
Thanks for your message. We are closed right now and will reply when we open at 10am. For urgent orders, call {{1}}.
Set the schedule rather than leaving it always-on. An away message that fires at 2pm on a Tuesday reads as nobody being home.
Where the free app stops
The Business app gives you exactly two automatic messages, tied to one phone. It cannot reply differently depending on what the customer asked, it cannot route a chat to the right person, and it cannot do anything at all if the phone is off. Quick replies exist, but those are shortcuts a human still has to trigger.
Automatic replies on the API
On the WhatsApp Business API the automation runs on a server, so it works whether anyone is at a desk or not, and it can branch on what the customer actually said. In Boldally Chat that covers:
- Greeting and away messages on proper business hours per team.
- Keyword replies. Someone writes “price” and gets the price list, “hours” and gets your timings.
- Routing. A message mentioning an order number goes to whoever handles orders, with the chat assigned to them.
- Order and appointment updates triggered by your store or booking system rather than typed by a person.
Writing auto-replies people do not hate
- Say when a human replies. “Someone will get back to you within an hour” beats “we will get back to you soon”, and it is the whole point of the message.
- Give one alternative. A phone number for anything urgent.
- Do not oversell. Nobody who just asked about a delivery wants a paragraph about your new collection.
- Then actually reply. An automatic reply buys you time. It does not buy you a day.
Automated replies inside the 24-hour service window are free, since the customer messaged you first. Details on how that window works are in our pricing guide.
Common questions
Does the personal WhatsApp app have auto-replies?
No. Greeting and away messages are WhatsApp Business app features. The personal app has none, and it is free to switch.
Will auto-replies work if my phone is off?
In the Business app, no. The messages are sent by the app on your phone, so a dead battery means silence. On the API they are sent server-side and are unaffected.
Can I set different replies for different questions?
Not in the free app, which sends the same greeting to everyone. Keyword-based replies need the API.