WhatsApp Smart Reply: AI Replies, Keyword Triggers & Auto Calling

WhatsApp Auto-Call can be limited to messages that show a clear intent. Add up to five keywords or phrases per number, such as price, book or gold rate. A message triggers the call only when it contains one of them as a whole word, case-insensitively, so order matches but ordering does not. Messages without a keyword get the normal smart reply instead, and a voice note never counts as a match, because nobody has read it. With the filter off, any genuine message from a customer can trigger the call, subject to the limits below.

A WhatsApp chat can turn into an AI voice call in two ways:

• Keyword Auto-Call. A message matching your keywords is answered with a call rather than a text, and the customer's own words become the opening context for that call.
• Call when the customer agrees. Switch this on for a number and the AI watches for customers who sound like real prospects: asking about price, booking, availability, a visit or a quote. It then asks once, in their language, whether your team may call them on this number. On a yes, the chat is summarised and an AI call goes out in the language they were writing in. On a no, the AI keeps helping in the chat and does not ask again. This read happens at most once every 30 minutes per chat, and only when the business could actually place the call: a Live number, enough balance, calling configured.

At most one such call a day goes to the same number across both paths, so a customer who triggered a keyword call is not rung again by the consent flow.

WhatsApp Auto-Call is a premium feature switched on per workspace. Once enabled for a number it places an AI voice call after a customer messages you, with these controls:

• Instant or delay. Call immediately, or wait 1 to 30 seconds so a burst of short messages is merged into one call.
• Minimum gap of 1 to 6 hours between calls to the same customer, and a daily cap of 1 to 10 calls per customer, default 1.
• Language, purpose, company name and maximum call length for the call.
• Wallet check first. If your Live balance cannot cover the call, that message is skipped with no charge and nothing left waiting in the queue.

Not every incoming message starts a call: the keyword filter, the gap, the daily cap, your wallet and your DND hours all apply, and a call that falls inside DND is held until the window ends.

Customers rarely send one message. Wait after last message holds the reply for a few seconds, 3 by default and up to 30, so the AI answers everything the customer sent in one coherent reply. Business hours only limits AI replies to 9 am to 9 pm, which suits teams that prefer to answer the late messages themselves the next morning.

What this number should do gives the AI a goal for every chat on that number, such as collecting a name and a preferred visit time, or steering towards a booking. Today's update adds something only true today, for example closed after 4 pm, on top of your Business Details. For answers that change daily, tick your own APIs under Live data in replies and the AI reads today's rate, an order status or stock from your systems before it answers. See Custom APIs.

The AI cannot pick up a WhatsApp voice call. With Missed call auto-reply on, an incoming call is declined politely and followed up: a text with your own message, and optionally an AI voice callback, a real AI call billed at your call rate with its own language, purpose, maximum duration, cooldown and daily limit. Choose only outside working hours and calls during your working hours ring through to your phone as normal. WhatsApp only exposes the number of callers who have messaged you before, so first-time callers are declined but cannot be contacted.

• Custom auto-reply sends a fixed message when the AI is off, or as a fallback.
• Reply to voice notes sets the message a customer receives when they send only a voice note, which the AI cannot listen to.
• Exceptions list up to twenty numbers per connected number, such as your family and staff, added one at a time or by CSV. They get no automatic replies, no Auto-Call and no missed-call handling, and their calls ring through to you. Their messages still appear in the inbox.

Every chat on every connected number is listed under Conversations, with the customer's messages and the AI's replies side by side. Anyone on your team with access can open a chat and type a reply by hand at any time. There is no automatic escalation rule on WhatsApp: the AI does not decide to hand a chat to a person, and it does not stop replying because a person has joined. If a customer asks for a person during an AI voice call, that becomes a follow-up for your team.

Broadcasts send one approved WhatsApp template to a whole list from your own WhatsApp Business number, now or on a schedule, with opt-outs respected and a report of what went out. See WhatsApp broadcasts.

On Call Messaging sends approved templates around your AI calls: after a call, when there was no answer, during the call when the customer asks for something, or after the call only if the customer actually asked. Messages go through AutomateChats or your own Meta WhatsApp Business account, and a template slot can carry live data from your own API. The rules are described under On Call Messaging in the WhatsApp documentation.

The same assistant and the same Business Details serve your AI voice calls, your outbound campaigns, and your Instagram and Facebook inboxes, so a customer gets one answer whichever way they reach you. Calls that started on WhatsApp land in Call Logs like any other, and the leads join the rest in Lead Feed and the lead qualification flow.