Reply to WhatsApp messages

Once your WhatsApp number is connected, every message a customer sends to it arrives in Inbox, whether they replied to an order update, scanned your QR code, or tapped the chat button on your store. Replying to a customer who messaged you first costs nothing on Meta's side.

Open the inbox

Inbox appears in the sidebar as soon as a WhatsApp number is connected. The number beside it is how many conversations are waiting on a reply from you; it goes away as you answer. Use the Needs reply, Open and Closed tabs to work through them, and search by name, phone number or a word from any message. A match inside a conversation shows the line it was found in, and opening it jumps to that message. A conversation closes when you choose Close, and reopens by itself the next time the customer writes. A closed conversation is deleted two years after its last message, together with any photos and files in it; conversations that are open or waiting for a reply are kept.

Reply

Open a conversation and type your reply. You can write freely for 24 hours after the customer's last message; the countdown is shown above the reply box. After that, WhatsApp allows only an approved message template until the customer writes again. The reply box then offers your approved templates, and you fill in the details they need. A marketing template can be sent only to a customer who agreed to offers and has not turned them off. Any message from the customer restarts the 24 hours. To answer customers when nobody is free, set up a welcome message, an away message, order status replies and answers from Mink AI under Automatic replies. When Mink AI drafted a reply for a conversation, the draft appears above the message box with what it drew on: check it, change anything you like, and press Send, or Discard it. Sending a draft uses 1 Mink credit; writing your own reply does not.

Beside each conversation you can see the customer's recent orders, store credit and whether they have agreed to order updates and offers on WhatsApp, so you can answer without leaving the inbox.

Reply from your phone as well

If you connected a number that is also on the WhatsApp Business app, you can keep answering from your phone. Messages you send there appear in Inbox too, marked as sent from your phone, so your team always sees the whole conversation.

Photos, documents and voice notes

Anything a customer sends is shown in the conversation and kept with it. To send a photo or a PDF yourself, use the paperclip beside the message box within the 24 hours after the customer last wrote: a photo can be up to 5 MB and a PDF up to 16 MB, and anything you type with it goes out as the caption. Voice notes, videos and other kinds of file are still sent from your phone.

Work on conversations as a team

Assign a conversation to a colleague from the list above the chat; they get a notification in their dashboard, and the Mine filter shows each person what is theirs. Anyone who can see the inbox can still read and answer an assigned conversation. Labels tag a conversation with whatever your store finds useful, such as Wholesale or VIP: create them with the Labels button above the inbox, add them to a chat from its Label button, and filter the list by one. A note is for your team only: switch the message box to Note, and what you write appears in the conversation in yellow, visible to anyone who can see the inbox and never to the customer.

Saved replies are the sentences you type every day. Create them with the Saved replies button above the inbox, each with a short name, then type / in the message box to pick one; write {{name}} in a saved reply where the customer's first name should go. To answer one particular message, use Reply on it: your reply quotes that message on the customer's phone, as replies do in WhatsApp. Order updates sent from your number appear in the conversation as well, so you can see what a customer is replying to.

When a customer writes STOP

A customer who replies STOP, unsubscribe, or the same in Hindi, or taps a button worded that way such as "Stop promotions", stops receiving offers and news from your number. Order updates continue, because they are about that customer's own orders. The customer gets an automatic reply on WhatsApp confirming it, so the conversation does not wait for you in Needs reply. Customers can also change both choices under My account on your store at any time.

Let customers start a chat

Open Settings → Channels → WhatsApp. The card shows a QR code and a link for your number: print the code for your counter or packaging, or share the link. Under Settings in the same card, the chat button switch shows a WhatsApp button on every page of your store that opens a chat with your number; switch it off if you prefer customers to use the enquiry form.

Who can see the inbox

Owners and Admins can read conversations, reply to them and close them. Settings, then Roles & permissions shows every role that includes Inbox; to give someone one of those roles, change it under Settings, then Staff.