Automatic replies is a simple yet extremely useful tool that allows you to send an automatic response to the customers that get in contact with your WhatsApp number in three different scenarios:

1. Greetings: when they are first getting in touch with you.
2. Away messages: when they are contacting you outside of operating hours.
3. Follow-up messages: when there has not been messages interchange for a while and you need to re-engage with the contact (available only for Business and Enterprise plans).

In case you need inspiration to compose you automatic replies, make sure you check this article.

1. From your dashboard, click on the settings icon of the number where you want to use the automatic replies.
2. By clicking on each section title, you can open or close the section itself.
3. On the right side on the automatic replies title bars, you can find a switch icon that allows you to quickly activate and deactivate each type of automatic reply. The switch is also useful to see rapidly see what automatic replies are currently active at a glance.

1. Click on the "Welcome message" title bar to display the section and compose your greeting message in the text box. You can include emojis and links to the text.
2. If you want to use a quick reply as an automatic welcome message, you can do so by clicking on the left-arrow icon below the text box. A pop-up window with all your quick replies will appear for you to select. The selected one will appear in the text box.
3. You can also add images to your message by clicking on the image box on the right and upload it, or just by dragging and dropping it.
4. Select the recipients category you want to receive your welcome message:

• Everyone: all customers that contact you receive a welcome message.
• New contacts: only contacts with whom you have not exchanged any messages before.

5. Select the categories of contacts that you want to exclude from the previous choice:

• Exclude resolved chats: if you have selected "everyone" as the recipients but you want to exclude chats that have already been resolved, tick this option.
• Exclude assigned chats: if you have selected "everyone" as the recipients but you want to exclude chats that have already been assigned to a team member.

6. Determine welcome message frequency by choosing the timeframe in which the same contact can receive the welcome message. If you select every 2 days, for instance, one contact will receive a welcome message after contacting you on day one, but after that they wont receive any further welcome message until 48h later.
7. Exclude specific contacts from the list of recipients that you have defined earlier by typing the complete phone number including the country code: +1234567890.
8. If you want to see how your message looks like for your customers, you can click on "Send test message" and you will receive it to your own phone number. Note: no matter what you have defined as the recipients list of the message, you will be the only one to receive the test message.
9. Click on "Enable welcome message" to activate this specific automatic reply.

1. Click on the "Out of business hours message" title bar to display the section and compose your message as described above in the previous paragraph about welcome messages. Tip: when composing an away message, make sure you advise your customer about your operating hours, when you'll get back to them and what resources they can use in order to find the solution to their queries. More tips here.
2. Select the time zone where your operative hours apply.
3. Define your team's operating hours. Outside these time windows, your contacts will receive the out of business hours message.
4. Optionally include specific dates when you want the message to be automatically sent.
5. Select the recipients category you want to receive your welcome message:

• Everyone: all customers that contact you receive an out of business hours message.
• New contacts: only contacts with whom you have not exchanged any messages before.

6. If you want to see how your message looks like for your customers, you can click on "Send test message" and you will receive it to your own phone number. Note: no matter what you have defined as the recipients list of the message, you will be the only one to receive the test message.
7. Click on "Enable away message" to activate this specific automatic reply.

1. Click on the "Follow up message" title bar to display the section and compose your message as described above in the "How to configure welcome message" paragraph.
2. Choose one or more labels that will define the list of recipients. The contacts that have these labels applied will receive the follow-up message. Note: if one contact has more than one label, they will receive only 1 message.
3. Select the categories of contacts that you want to exclude from the previous choice:

• Exclude resolved chats: exclude all chats that have the selected labels applied but are also resolved.
• Exclude assigned chats: exclude all chats that have the selected labels applied but are still assigned to a team member.

4. Determine how much time after the last exchanged message you want the automatic follow up message to be sent.
5. Exclude specific contacts from the list of recipients that you have defined earlier by typing the complete phone number including the country code: +1234567890.
6. If you want to see how your message looks like for your customers, you can click on "Send test message" and you will receive it to your own phone number. Note: no matter what you have defined as the recipients list of the message, you will be the only one to receive the test message.
7. Click on "Enable follow-up message" to activate this specific automatic reply.

Within the chat, an automatic reply message is marked with a special icon representing a robot

No, the new chat that comes in and gets an automatic reply will be marked as not read and it will show that it contains new messages that need your team's attention.

Not exactly, although they serve the similar purpose of automating the messages that a business sends to a customer in a web chat session, an automatic reply is limited to just one message in one of the specific situations described above, that is: to welcome customers, to inform that the customer's message has reached the business outside of their support hours, and to follow up with a previous conversation.

Automatic replies do not need a complicated dialog flow and the customer understands that they are receiving an automatic message (that is not a personalized one) for a specific and limited reason.

Firstly, WhatsApp Business has only two kinds of automatic replies: greetings and away messages. Our automatic replies tool offers follow up messages as well, which are a potent asset for engaging with customers even after a conversation.

Secondly, our tool offers an uncomplicated yet precise interface to define with a much higher level of detail the recipient list and the timing of your automatic messages.

Additionally, unlike WhatsApp Business, with PulpoChat you can also conveniently include images to your automatic replies.