Integrating WhatsApp into Customerly brings all your customer interactions directly into your inbox. This ensures that your team can manage support requests from one central place, while maintaining the special conditions WhatsApp applies. Here’s how the inbox will look and behave when handling WhatsApp conversations:
Aura as the first line of support
When a WhatsApp message arrives, Aura – the AI assistant – automatically engages with the customer first. Aura follows any Chatflows you’ve set up, providing instant replies, collecting data, or routing requests depending on the situation.
Smooth escalation to humans
If Aura detects the need for a human agent, or if the customer requests one, the conversation escalates just like any other channel. You’ll be able to:
Assign the conversation to a team or a specific teammate
Track the transition from Aura to a human agent, visible in the message history
This ensures your team has full visibility of when and why Aura handed off the conversation.
Whatsapp source indicator
Conversations coming from WhatsApp are easy to spot thanks to the WhatsApp icon displayed next to the user’s message. This helps agents immediately recognize the communication channel and adjust their approach accordingly.
User phone number storage
Every WhatsApp conversation is tied to the customer’s phone number, which is stored under:
Contact property: saved in the customer’s profile for future interactions
Moreover, we store as conversation property the business whatsapp number your user reached out to:
The 24-hour reply window
WhatsApp has a strict messaging policy: you cannot reply to a customer’s message after 24 hours from their last interaction, unless you use a pre-approved template.
If you try to respond after this period, you’ll see a WhatsApp Messaging Limit notification in the inbox.
To continue communication, you’ll need to use one of the approved templates (this feature will come soon, not available yet).
Full transparency in the chat history
In the conversation timeline, you’ll see system notes showing when:
Aura responded to the customer
A teammate assigned or reassigned the conversation
The chat was closed or reopened
This gives everyone on the team a complete overview of the conversation lifecycle.