WhatsApp automation is software that sends and answers WhatsApp messages without a person typing each one, through the WhatsApp Business API. What it may send depends on the clock: within 24 hours of a customer’s message you can send any non-template message; after that, only a pre-approved template. Good automation is designed around that window, not around the chatbot.
The rule that shapes every flow
Meta calls it the customer service window. It opens when a customer messages your business and lasts 24 hours. Per Meta’s pricing documentation (updated 30 September 2026, checked 2 October 2026):
- Inside an open window, you can send any non-template message (text, images and so on). From 1 October 2026 these are service messages: the first 1,000 a month per phone number are free, then each is charged at the market’s utility rate. Utility templates sent in a window are charged too.
- After the window closes, you can only send template messages. Templates are pre-approved by Meta and are charged by category and recipient country, when delivered.
- A customer who messages you from a click-to-WhatsApp ad opens a separate free entry point window from your first reply. It can stay open for up to 7 days, and marketing, utility, authentication and service messages in it are free.
The money side changed on 1 October 2026: see service message charges and rates and WhatsApp Business API pricing for a service business. Here the point is design: every automated message is either a reply inside a window or a template outside one, and those are different tools.
A worked example: the Friday evening enquiry
A business answers staff messages Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 18:00. A customer asks for a quote on Friday at 17:50.
| Moment | What is allowed | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Friday 17:50 | An automatic acknowledgement in plain text | The window just opened; non-template messages are allowed |
| Friday 18:00 to Saturday 17:50 | Any free-form reply, including one from a person | Window still open, even though the office is closed |
| Monday 09:30, staff reply | Template only | The window closed on Saturday at 17:50; the customer has not written again |
| Monday 09:30, if the customer wrote Sunday | Free-form reply | Their Sunday message opened a fresh window |
The lesson: an out-of-hours enquiry with a working-hours promise can outlive the office, and the window can close before anyone is back. A flow that only sends an acknowledgement and waits for staff will, on Monday, need a template to reach the customer. Decide that on purpose, and see the working-hours clock for counting your own deadline.
What to automate, and what not to
A decision table, using the window as the test:
| Task | Automate? | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Acknowledge a new enquiry | Yes | Inside the window; say who will reply and when, without promising what you cannot keep |
| Collect name, service and location | Yes | Keep to three or four questions; offer a person at any point |
| Answer opening hours, address, documents needed | Yes | Only from text you maintain; never let a bot invent |
| Appointment or order confirmations | Yes | A utility template, charged at the utility rate even inside a window since 1 October 2026 |
| Quotes, prices, exceptions | No | A person decides; automation can fetch the context |
| Complaints, anything emotional | No | Hand to a person at once |
| Reopening a cold conversation | Carefully | Template only, with the customer’s consent to be contacted |
Handoff to a person: four ways it breaks
These are failure modes that follow from the rules and the way flows are built, not results from a specific project:
- 01The bot keeps answering after a person joins. Pause automation on the conversation the moment a human replies.
- 02The handoff happens at 18:05. Nobody sees it until morning, and the window may have closed. Route handoffs with a deadline and an owner.
- 03The reopening template goes out with no consent. A template reopens the conversation; it does not make the contact welcome. Check consent rules for the country first, such as missed-call text-back consent.
- 04Nobody knows who owns it. An automation that creates chats nobody owns just moves the inbox problem; see CRM vs shared inbox vs API.
What we do and do not claim: we design and build WhatsApp automation on the official API as a service, around these rules. We do not publish automation results or client numbers, because we do not have any to show yet. See WhatsApp automation for what the service covers.