Chats

People's messages on the group's WhatsApp and the answers to them: replying in text, with a file, a voice message or a quick reply, assigning, labelling and blocking, internal notes, and linking a number to a person on file.

What it is for

The group's WhatsApp centre: every number that wrote to the group is a chat, with its messages and the answers and notices sent to it. Replies arrive in the group's name, and the system records who sent each one. Beside the chat is the number's owner if they are a person on file, marked if they are staff.

Who uses it

The page opens for whoever holds “View WhatsApp chats”, to look only, or “Reply to WhatsApp chats”, to work in it. In the built-in roles: Owner, Manager. They are granted to any role under Settings → Roles and permissions.

Step by step

1. Choose the tab: “People”, “Unknown” or “Blocked”, and narrow by “Assigned to me” or by label if you like, or search by name or by the number's last digits.
2. Open a chat from the list, write your reply under it, or choose a “Quick reply”, or “Attach a file” or “Record a voice note”, then “Send”.
3. In the details beside it: “Follow-up: assigned to” a member of staff, label it, and write a “Internal note” for your colleagues.
4. For a number of nobody on file (a contractor, a supplier…): “Name”. For a person on file whose number is not known yet: “Link to a person”, then find them by name and choose them.
5. “Block” stops the number, and “Unblock” under the “Blocked” tab brings it back.
6. For a number whose owner stopped optional messages, and at their own request alone: “Resume optional messages” in the details, for those holding “Send WhatsApp campaigns”; tick “The number's owner asked for this themselves”, then confirm.
7. “Labels and quick replies” in the toolbar adds or removes the labels and quick replies.
8. From a record's page that holds a mobile number (where a module of SchoolOS shows one): its WhatsApp button opens that number's chat here, or starts it if there is none.
9. On the home page, whoever opens the chats sees the “Unread chats” number, which opens this page, and under “Latest” a line for each chat that received messages in the last 24 hours, with how many and the last one's time, never a name, a number or the words.

How it works

Within 24 hours of the last message from the number's owner, a reply goes as written, with a file or a voice message if you attach one, in the kinds and sizes WhatsApp takes. After that it goes by the approved general template, text only and up to 800 characters, and there is no reply until a template is approved. A file is uploaded to WhatsApp and sent, and a copy is normally kept in the group's private files, with the chat, for as long as the group's account exists, so the chat shows it as it shows the number owner's: a picture as a thumbnail that opens full size, a voice message or a video with a player and “Download” under it, a document with its size and “Download”; only those who open the chats open it, and the file's name is not kept. Opening a chat marks it read for whoever replies, the number's owner sees it was read, and the page refreshes itself every fifteen seconds. “People” are numbers of people on file, “Unknown” the rest, and “Blocked” every number that was blocked. A search by name matches however the hamza was written, by digits it matches the number's end, and the words searched never show in the page's address. In the open chat the number shows whole to those holding “Manage people and staff”, “Reply to WhatsApp chats” or “Send WhatsApp campaigns”, and by its last four digits to others and in the list to everyone, and a reader shown numbers masked searches by the last four digits only; every opening is recorded. Someone who holds the chats' keys in a narrower scope than all of the group sees only the chats placed in that scope, and sees a number whole only with one of those three keys over all of the group; a chat placed in no scope is seen by those holding the chats over all of the group. Whoever a chat is assigned to is told in their notifications bell. An internal note never reaches the number's owner, and everyone who opens the chats sees it. A chat shows the words of the replies, the automatic replies and the campaigns; a notice the system sends shows as “Notice” and its time without its words, and a sign-in code does not show at all. Each run of messages from one sender is named once, above its first: the member of staff who replied by their name, “Auto-reply”, “Chat guide”, “Campaign:” and the campaign's name, or “Notice”; the number's owner by their name, or by their number as you are shown it. Beside the time of every message sent are WhatsApp's marks: one grey check sent, two grey checks delivered, two green checks read, a clock while it waits, and a red mark if it did not reach, its reason under the message and when you point at the mark; the marks change as the page refreshes, with no reload. Linking to a person links the chat to the chosen person, so it moves to “People”; only someone holding “Manage people and staff” links, a number held by another person or used as an account's sign-in name cannot be linked, and the number is never added to the person's phones, since a person's phones are their way into their account and are added on their own record alone. Blocking stops the number's new messages from being recorded, any auto-reply to it, campaigns reaching it and replies to it, and the chat and what it holds stay under “Blocked”. A removed label is taken off the chats. A number whose owner asked to stop gets no campaigns or optional messages, but still gets the service notices and replies, and the details say since when. They come back only at the owner's request: if they write “تشغيل” or START as a message on its own, they come back and a confirmation is sent; or someone holding “Send WhatsApp campaigns” resumes them from the details after confirming the number's owner asked for it themselves. Each return is written to the action log without the number, the record of the stop is kept, and the owner can stop them again at any time. The list shows thirty chats to a page, newest first, with the rest of the tab on the next pages; a chat shows its last 100 messages.

On the page

• Unread chats, the chats of people on file, unknown numbers, and the blocked ones.
• “Labels and quick replies”: the chats' labels and the quick replies.
• The chats by tab, newest first. Narrow to those assigned to you or by label, or search by name or number.
• The messages both ways under their days, the notices among them, each run named by its sender and the messages sent with WhatsApp's marks. Write your reply under them, or attach a file or record a voice note.
• The number's owner, assigning and labels, linking and blocking, resuming optional messages at the owner's request, and the internal notes.

Questions

Someone who stopped optional messages wants them back. How are they resumed?

They write “تشغيل” or START as a message on its own, and the messages come back with a confirmation. Or someone holding “Send WhatsApp campaigns” resumes them from the chat's details: “Resume optional messages”, after ticking “The number's owner asked for this themselves”. They are never resumed without the owner's request, and each return is written to the action log.

Why can't I send a file?

24 hours have passed since the last message from the number's owner: the reply goes by the general template, text only. When the number's owner writes, the window opens again.

Why “Cannot reply”?

24 hours have passed and Meta has not approved a general message template. Get it approved under WhatsApp templates, or wait for a message from the number's owner.

Does the number's owner see my name?

No. The reply arrives in the group's name, and the system records inside who sent it, so your name shows above your reply in the chat to your colleagues alone.

What do the marks beside a message's time mean?

WhatsApp's marks: one grey check sent, two grey checks delivered to the number owner's phone, two green checks read. A red mark is a message that did not reach: its reason is under the message and shows when you point at the mark, Meta's own words among them.

I opened the chat from a record: why are there no messages?

The WhatsApp button on a record's page opens its number's chat if there is one, and otherwise starts an empty chat that sends nothing, for someone holding “Reply to WhatsApp chats”; it links the record to the chat for someone who manages such records, and the opening is recorded by the record's id, never the number. The 24-hour rule is unchanged: unless the number's owner wrote in the last 24 hours, the first message to them goes by Meta's approved general message template, text only. The button shows only while the inbox is on and a WhatsApp number is connected.

Why is there no “Record a voice note”?

The browser does not allow recording, or 24 hours have passed since the number's owner last wrote. If the microphone was refused, allow it for the site in the browser's settings.