Quick replies & templates

A quick reply is a saved message you can paste into a chat in two keystrokes. You give it a short keyword — its shortcut — and from then on, typing / then that keyword in any conversation drops the message straight into your reply box.

They’re built for the answers that never change: your address, your opening hours, your price list, a payment how-to. The text is inserted exactly as you saved it — there are no merge fields or variables, so a quick reply reads the same for every customer. When you want a reply that adapts to each person, that’s the job of the AI agent instead.

Go to Settings → Quick replies and choose New Quick Reply. The dialog asks for three things — only the first two are required.

• Shortcut — the keyword you’ll type after the “/”. The field shows a leading / for you, so just type the word. Up to 25 characters, letters and numbers only — spaces and punctuation are stripped as you type, and it’s saved in lowercase. So Price List becomes pricelist.
• Message — the text that gets inserted. Line breaks and emoji are fine; there’s no length limit.
• An optional attachment — choose Add attachment, then Image or Document, and pick a single file to send along with the message.

Hit Save Changes and it’s live for everyone immediately.

In any conversation, type / as the first character in the reply box. A list of your quick replies pops up above it; keep typing the shortcut to narrow it down.

Pick one — with the arrow keys then Enter, or a click — and its message lands in the box, ready for you to tweak before you send. If the reply has an attachment, the file is attached at the same time.

The popover is picky on purpose, so it never gets in the way of a normal message. Two rules cover all of it:

• It only opens when the box starts with “/” and has no space in it yet.
• It matches shortcuts by prefix — a shortcut shows if it starts with what you’ve typed, not if it merely contains it.

Back in Settings → Quick replies, every saved reply is a card showing its /shortcut, a preview of the message, and an attachment badge if it has one. They’re listed alphabetically by shortcut, and the search box filters by shortcut or message text — handy once the list grows.

Click a card to open it for editing. To remove one, use Delete inside that dialog and confirm — deleting can’t be undone, and since the library is shared, it disappears for the whole team.

You’ll also see Send a template message… in the reply box. That’s a different feature — WhatsApp message templates, pre-approved by Meta — and it’s easy to mix them up. The short version: quick replies are your canned text for an open chat; templates are how you reach out on official WhatsApp once a conversation has gone quiet.

A starter set worth saving on day one. Adapt the wording to your voice — the shortcuts are just suggestions.

• They’re fixed text. No variables or merge fields — a quick reply reads identically for everyone. Need it personalised? Use the AI agent.
• Shared, not personal. The whole workspace shares one library, so name shortcuts clearly and remember an edit or delete hits everyone.
• Shortcuts are letters and numbers only, lowercased, max 25 characters. Dashes and dots get stripped — group with a prefix word instead.
• The list opens only at the start. Type “/” first, with no space; a space turns it back into a plain message.
• Inserting replaces the box, it doesn’t append — so insert first, then edit.
• One file per reply, image or document. For more than one attachment, send a follow-up message.
• Not the same as a WhatsApp template. Quick replies need an open conversation; templates are for reopening a closed WhatsApp window.