Answer common WhatsApp questions automatically, and keep your team in the loop

A keyword rule has four parts: a name, a keyword, a reply and an on/off switch. When a customer’s message arrives, whatsappx.si checks its text against your enabled rules. Matching is simple on purpose:

• The check is case-insensitive and looks for the keyword anywhere in the message. A rule for delivery matches “Delivery?” and “my DELIVERY is late”.
• Rules are checked in the order you created them, and the first enabled rule that matches replies. One incoming message gets at most one automated reply.
• Rules react only to messages people send you, never to messages your team sends.
• A keyword can be up to 100 characters and a reply up to 4,096 characters: enough for a short answer with a link or two.

The reply goes out on the number that received the message, appears in the thread as a sent message and adds one to the rule’s run count. The chat keeps its unread count in the shared inbox, so a teammate can still follow up.

For example, a repair shop could create a rule for opening hours that replies with the week’s hours, and another for quote that asks for a photo so a technician can respond. Both can be switched off on a public holiday and back on the next morning.

Keyword rules suit questions with one fixed answer: hours, address, returns policy, how to book. Questions that need judgment stay with your team in the shared inbox, where the knowledge base search helps teammates find the right article by keyword.

WhatsApp decides what it allows, so read its rules closely. Its Terms of Service prohibit “bulk messaging, auto-messaging, auto-dialing, and the like” (WhatsApp Terms of Service), and its Help Center says its products “are not intended for bulk or automated messaging” (WhatsApp Help Center). Its Business Messaging Policy says you “may use automation when responding during the 24-hour window, but must also have available prompt, clear, and direct escalation paths” to a person (WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy).

Keyword rules in whatsappx.si are built around replying, not sending: a rule only answers someone who just wrote to you, once per incoming message, and every reply lands in the shared inbox where a teammate can take over. We suggest ending each automated reply with “a teammate will follow up if you need more help”.

A few habits help keep a number in good standing:

• Keep replies short and in your own voice, not a form letter.
• If almost every incoming message triggers a rule, the keyword is too broad.
• Answer follow-up questions yourself, and honor anyone who asks you to stop.
• Keep your own outreach at a human pace: 5–10 messages at a time, to people who opted in, with pauses between batches.

Keyword rules work on both connections. QR linking uses WhatsApp’s linked-device feature, the same mechanism as WhatsApp Web, and suits a team that answers the conversations customers start. If you need to message people outside the 24-hour customer service window with approved templates, or run automation at a larger scale, connect a number through Meta’s official WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API) from inside whatsappx.si. Automations behave the same on an official number.

Meta bills its own per-message fees for the official Platform separately. As of October 2026, replies inside the 24-hour window count as service messages: each business phone number gets 1,000 free delivered service messages per month, and Meta charges for the rest (Meta documentation).