WhatsApp experience

WhatsApp reaches people the other channels can't — frontline staff, shop-floor teams, field engineers, deskless workers and new joiners who don't have a corporate login yet. It is also the most constrained channel, because WhatsApp itself imposes rules that no amount of product work can remove.

Two of those rules shape everything: employees must opt in before the assistant can message them, and once an employee has been silent for 24 hours the assistant can only reach them through a pre-approved template.

For provider credentials and business number configuration, see WhatsApp setup.

How employees start a conversation

The employee messages the business number, and is recognised by their phone number. This means the number in your HR system has to match the number they message from — a mismatch is the most common reason an employee gets no response at all.

The assistant cannot send the first message to someone who has not opted in. In practice this means the introduction message most employees see on the Web App never appears on WhatsApp. If an employee sends any greeting, the assistant will respond and the conversation proceeds normally.

How responses are formatted

WhatsApp supports only a limited subset of formatting, so responses are rewritten rather than passed through:

• Headings become bold lines rather than leaking ### into the message bubble.
• Horizontal rules become a simple separator line.
• Lists become plain bullets or numbers, preserving the original numbering start where one is set.
• Tables cannot be rendered, so they are converted into images and sent as attachments.
• Bold, italic and strikethrough map to WhatsApp's own markers.

The practical effect: answers read cleanly, but nested structure flattens. A response that relies on a table to be understandable arrives as a picture the employee can't copy from or search.

Interactive elements

Buttons and lists use WhatsApp's native interactive message types, so employees tap rather than type a number.

Thumbs up and thumbs down feedback is available and is rendered as quick replies, always sorted to the end of the option list.

Webview links are also excluded from WhatsApp list replies specifically, so a list of options won't contain a webview entry.

Files and media

This is asymmetric, and it catches teams out.

The assistant can send images, documents, video and audio to employees. Files are delivered through short-lived private links, so a URL forwarded to a personal chat stops working shortly afterwards.

The assistant cannot process images, documents or video that an employee sends. If someone photographs a payslip and sends it, the message is received but the attachment is not read, so the assistant responds as though nothing was attached.

Voice notes are the one exception, and only on the older WhatsApp integration, where a voice note is transcribed and handled as if the employee had typed it. On the current Infobip-based integration, voice notes are not processed either.

Notifications

Notifications are possible, but they are the most operationally involved of any channel:

• The employee must have opted in.
• Templates must be created and approved by Meta before use. Approval is not instant.
• If a template declares buttons, those buttons must be included when the message is sent, or the provider rejects it.
• Messages sent outside the 24-hour window are converted into a re-engagement prompt as described above.
• WhatsApp messages are billed by your provider, so notification volume has a direct cost.

Because of this, WhatsApp works better for high-value, low-volume messaging — onboarding nudges, shift changes, compliance deadlines — than for routine broadcast.

Delivery and read receipts are supported, so you can see whether messages landed.

Compared with the Web App

Things to tell your employees

• The assistant can't start a conversation. Say hello first.
• If the assistant hasn't heard from you in a day, you may get a short prompt asking you to tap before you receive an update.
• Sending photos or documents won't work. Describe the problem in words instead.
• Tables arrive as images, so they can't be copied.
• Links open your browser and need internet, not just WhatsApp.

Setting up the channel

Provider credentials, business account configuration, template management and opt-in handling are covered in WhatsApp setup. Delivery troubleshooting is available in WhatsApp logs.