Your WhatsApp, answered.
A WhatsApp Business AI agent replies to customers on your own WhatsApp number, around the clock. WhatsApp only allows free-form replies within 24 hours of a customer’s last message; outside that window an approved template must be used, and the agent picks the right form automatically rather than failing to send.
You connect the WhatsApp Business account you already have. Messages draw on your plan’s included credits; Meta bills its own conversation charges separately.
Or just ask for it
The window decides. You just ask.
Free-form or template — it picks the one WhatsApp allows.
Inbox46 WhatsApp conversations handled
46 customers on your own number today. 41 were inside the 24-hour window so I answered normally; the other five needed an approved template and got one. Nothing silently failed to send.
Which five? And do we have a template for the Saturday hours?
@Octo submit a template for the new Saturday hours
On it 🔧(runningcreate_whatsapp_template…)
Submitted to Meta from here — no second copy to keep in their console. Status syncs back. (edited)
🙏 23 replies · last reply 14m ago
show me what Aisha will actually see before it goes
Email octo@agent.omniocto.com · WhatsApp 1-MAN-ASK-OCTO · Slack #omniocto
The rule that breaks WhatsApp integrations
Twenty-four hours, and then everything changes.
This is not a detail. It is the single thing that decides whether a WhatsApp agent works in practice, and it is invisible until a message silently does not arrive.
Inside the window
The customer messaged in the last 24 hours, so the agent replies in its own words like any other channel.
Outside the window
Free-form is not permitted. Only a template Meta has already approved may be sent, or the message does not go.
The choice is made for you
Which form is allowed is worked out at the moment of sending. You are not tracking timestamps to decide what kind of message to write.
Getting this wrong does not raise an error a customer sees. It just means the reply never arrives, which is why it is worth the space on this page.
How you'd hand it over
Connect, get templates approved, let it answer.
Connect the account
Through Meta’s own signup flow.
Authorise your WhatsApp Business account in the flow rather than moving tokens between consoles. The number stays yours.
Create the templates you will need
Then let Meta review them.
Write the template here and send it for approval. Its status comes back and stays in sync, so you know what you may actually send before you need it.
Let it work
Free-form or template, whichever is allowed.
Replies happen in the window, templates outside it, and campaigns go out as templates with per-contact variables. Every thread lands in the shared inbox.
What is actually happening
The parts that make WhatsApp workable.
Embedded signup, not token juggling
Connection runs through Meta’s embedded signup, so authorising the account is part of the flow rather than a support ticket with screenshots of a developer console.
Meta embedded signupTemplates carry their real status
Create a template, send it for review, and its state — pending, approved, rejected, paused — is synced back rather than remembered by hand. You always know what you are allowed to send.
create → review → synced statusThe 24-hour rule is handled, every time
Whether a free-form message or a template is required gets decided at send time. The failure this prevents is silent: a reply that simply never reaches the customer.
free-form inside · template outside · decided at sendPreview before a campaign launches
Template variables are filled per contact, and you can see what a named recipient will receive before anything sends — which is where a mis-mapped column gets caught.
per-contact variables · pre-launch previewWhatsApp threads sit with everything else
Same shared inbox, same assignment, labels and search as email, SMS, chat and calls — and against the same contact record.
one inbox · one history per customerQuestions
The things people actually ask.
- What is the 24-hour window?
- WhatsApp only lets a business send a free-form message within 24 hours of the customer’s last one. After that, you may only send a template Meta has approved. It is the rule most WhatsApp integrations get wrong, because the send simply fails and nobody notices until a customer says they never heard back.
- So what happens when the window has closed?
- An approved template is sent instead of a free-form message. The agent works out which form is allowed at the moment of sending rather than assuming, so a reply outside the window becomes a template rather than an error.
- How do templates get approved?
- You create the template here, it goes to Meta for review, and its status comes back — pending, approved, rejected, or paused — and stays in sync. You are not maintaining a second copy of the list in Meta’s console.
- Can I personalise a template?
- Yes, through the variables the template defines, filled per contact. You can preview what a specific recipient will actually receive before a campaign launches, which is the step that catches a mis-mapped column.
- Does connecting it require a developer?
- No. Connection runs through Meta’s embedded signup, so you authorise your WhatsApp Business account in the flow rather than copying tokens between dashboards.
- Where do the conversations end up?
- In the same shared inbox as your email, SMS, web chat and phone calls, against the same contact — so a customer who messaged on WhatsApp and called last week is one history rather than two.
Keep reading
Related jobs you can hand over.
You connect the WhatsApp Business account you already have. Messages draw on your plan’s included credits; Meta bills its own conversation charges separately.