When a customer messages you, you have 24 hours to reply with anything you like: text, photos, files, buttons. After 24 hours without a new message from them, WhatsApp only lets you send an approved template. The clock starts again each time the customer writes.
Why it exists
Section titled “Why it exists”The rule is WhatsApp’s, not ours. Meta wants customers to hear from a business when they expect to, not out of the blue days later. So while a chat is fresh, you can write freely. After that, you can only reach the customer with a template that Meta has checked first.
It also affects cost. Meta doesn’t charge for your replies inside the window. It charges for each template message delivered, at a price set by the template’s category. This is why campaigns always use templates: most of the people you send to haven’t written to you today.
How it works in Soosh
Section titled “How it works in Soosh”Soosh counts 24 hours from the customer’s last message. Your own replies don’t add time. Only the customer can restart the clock, by writing to you again.
In an open chat, the top of the chat shows the time left, for example 3h 05m left. A thin line under the chat’s header shrinks as the time runs down, and changes colour in the last 6 hours and again in the last hour.
When the window closes, the top of the chat says Template needed. A red bar above the message box says it’s been over 24 hours since the customer last wrote, so you can only send a template, and offers Send template. The list there shows only templates Meta has approved for the number you’re replying from.
In the chat list, a chat gets a small clock when the customer is waiting for your reply and fewer than 6 hours are left. The Expiring tab collects these chats, the one closing soonest first. Chats with plenty of time, or where you already replied, stay quiet.
What Soosh blocks. While the window is closed, the message box is turned off and says Send a template to reply. Attachments and saved replies are off too.
If you use more than one number, Soosh keeps one clock per customer: the time of their last message to any of your numbers. WhatsApp counts each of your numbers on its own. When you open a chat, Soosh picks the number the customer last wrote to, so reply from that one.
What it means for you
Section titled “What it means for you”- Answer waiting customers first. Check the Expiring tab when you start work, so nobody’s window closes while they wait.
- Keep a few templates ready. A follow-up or an order update, approved in advance, lets you reach a customer whose window has closed. See Template approval for why approval takes time.
- Use a template to restart the chat. Ask a question the customer will want to answer. Once they reply, you can write freely again.
- Bots answer inside the window. Keyword replies, bot flows and AI answers reply to a customer who has only now written, so the window is open.