WhatsApp Flow

Getting here

Automate → Workflows, open a workflow, click + on the canvas, then pick WhatsApp Flow (form) under Add Steps.

Before you start

• An owner, admin or agent can add this step and save the workflow. Publishing that workflow — the thing that makes it run on live conversations — is an owner or admin action.
• Building and running workflows depends on your plan; see pricing.
• The Flow must already be published in WhatsApp Manager. Inchat does not build or publish Flows — you build them in WhatsApp Manager, then send them from here.
• A WhatsApp number must be connected to this workspace.

Set up

1. Open the workflow and click + where the form belongs.
2. Pick WhatsApp Flow (form).
3. Write the Message the customer sees above the button. You can insert variables into it.
4. Under Select Flow, pick one of your published Flows. If the list is empty or cannot be read, click Enter Flow ID and type the number WhatsApp Manager shows for the Flow.
5. Check First screen ID. It is filled in from the Flow when Inchat can read it — confirm it, or type the screen ID from WhatsApp Manager if it could not be read.
6. Write the Button text, and optionally a Header and Footer Text.
7. Save the step, then publish the workflow.

Fields

Message

The text shown above the button. Variables can be inserted into it.

Header (optional)

A short line shown above the message. Variables in it are filled in at send time.

Default: empty

Footer Text (optional, max 60 chars)

A small line shown below the message.

Default: empty

Limits: At most 60 characters.

Button (required, max 20 chars)

The text on the button the customer taps to open the form, e.g. Open form.

Limits: Required, and at most 20 characters. The step cannot be saved without it.

Select Flow

The published Flow to send, listed by name from the Flows on your WhatsApp numbers. Preview flow opens WhatsApp's preview when it gives one.

Limits: Only published Flows are listed. Enter Flow ID is the fallback when the list is empty or cannot be read; a Flow ID is digits only.

First screen ID

The screen the Flow opens on. WhatsApp needs it to send the Flow.

Limits: Required — the step cannot be saved or published without it. It is prefilled from the Flow; when the Flow does not say which screen opens first, Inchat fills in the first screen in its list, so check it in WhatsApp Manager.

How it works

• The step sends your message with a button. When the customer taps it, the Flow opens inside WhatsApp; nothing is sent to them again when they finish.
• It is a free-form send, so it follows the same 24-hour messaging-window check as Send a Message, and it is WhatsApp only.
• Each send is kept by Inchat with its own token, so a submission can be matched back to the send it answered.
• When the customer submits the Flow, the answers are saved under Forms → WhatsApp Flows — open the Flow to see its responses, one row per submission, with the contact, each answer, and when it was submitted. Each row links to the conversation.
• The conversation thread shows the submission as a line that starts Form submitted —.

When it fails

• Messaging window closed: the send is refused before it reaches WhatsApp, and the step is recorded as failed in the workflow's Activity tab. Nothing reaches the customer.
• Wrong Flow ID or first screen ID, or a Flow WhatsApp will not send: the step fails with WhatsApp's own reason in the execution log.
• A throttled send is not retried as plain text — a message without its Flow button is not the step you built, so the step fails instead.
• The step cannot be saved or published while the Flow, the first screen ID, the message or the button text is missing.

Limits

• It sends only inside the 24-hour window. Outside it, use Send WhatsApp Template — this step does not send a Flow through a template.
• WhatsApp only. On any other channel the step does not send.
• The Flow must be published in WhatsApp Manager first. This step cannot create, edit or publish a Flow.
• It does not copy the customer's answers into contact fields. The answers stay under Forms → WhatsApp Flows and in the thread's Form submitted — line.

Best practices

• Put this step right after a message the customer just sent, or on a path that runs well inside the window, and use Send WhatsApp Template for anything that can run a day later.
• Open the Flow once in WhatsApp Manager and confirm the first screen before you publish the workflow, especially when Inchat had to guess it.

Use cases

• A booking form sent when a customer asks to book a slot.
• A short survey sent after a conversation is resolved, while the window is still open.

FAQ and troubleshooting

Where do the customer's answers go?

Under Forms → WhatsApp Flows. Open the Flow to see one row per submission. The conversation also shows a Form submitted — line.

My Flow is not in the list.

Only published Flows are listed. Publish it in WhatsApp Manager, or click Enter Flow ID and type its ID.

Can I send a Flow after the 24-hour window has closed?

Not with this step. Use Send WhatsApp Template to reopen the conversation, then send the Flow once the customer replies.

Related

• Send a Message — Send free-form text — with several attachments if you need them, on the customer's own channel or a named one — inside the messaging window that channel currently has open.
• Send WhatsApp Template — Reach a WhatsApp customer with an approved Meta template regardless of whether the messaging window is open, checked for approval and marketing consent before anything is sent.
• Workflow triggers — The 34 events a workflow can start from — what each one actually watches, what it exposes to conditions and messages, and where it quietly does nothing.
• Test and publish a workflow — Plan a workflow's path against a pretend conversation without sending anything, then publish it — and know what Publish refuses, what it only warns about, and what it locks.
• Workflows: how a flow runs — A workflow is one trigger, optional conditions and an ordered list of steps; only a published workflow runs, and this article explains how a run starts, forks, pauses, fails and stops.