WhatsApp Business auto reply: greeting message, away message and quick replies, with ready examples

The short answer

To set a WhatsApp Business auto reply, open the Tools tab in the free WhatsApp Business app. Tap Greeting message to welcome new customers, Away message to answer when you are closed or busy, and Quick replies to save answers you type again and again. The greeting and away messages send themselves; quick replies are shortcuts you send by typing "/" in a chat. The whole setup takes about 20 minutes, and the steps are the same on Android and iPhone apart from a few labels.

This guide is for shop owners, clinics, tutors and other small businesses that answer customers from one phone on the WhatsApp Business app. If your team already works from a WhatsApp Business API panel, the equivalent is covered in our guide to canned responses and quick replies on the API. Not sure which one you are on? Read WhatsApp Business app vs API first.

What the three tools do

All three come from WhatsApp's own Business app; they cost nothing and need no other software. The limits matter, though, and they are covered in where the app's automation stops.

Step 1: fill in your business profile and hours

Do this first, for two reasons. The away message has an Outside of business hours schedule, and WhatsApp's help centre notes that this option is only available once you have set business hours in your business profile. And the app creates default quick replies from your profile, so a customer can be sent your hours, address or the profile itself with two taps.

Fill in the address, a one-line description of what you sell, a website or Instagram link if you have one, and your real hours, including the weekly holiday. If your shop shuts on Tuesdays, mark Tuesday as closed; otherwise the away message will stay silent all Tuesday.

Step 2: set up the greeting message

1. From the Tools tab, tap Greeting message.
2. Turn on Send greeting message.
3. Tap the message to edit it and save the text.
4. Tap Recipients and choose who should get it.
5. Tap Save.

The recipient options are Everyone, Everyone not in address book (shown as Exclude my contacts on iPhone), Everyone except… and Only send to…. For most businesses Everyone not in address book is the right choice: new enquiries get the welcome, while relatives, suppliers and staff you have saved do not. If you save every customer's number as a habit, choose Everyone instead, or saved customers will never see it.

A good greeting does three things in three or four lines: says who you are, tells the customer what to send so you can help quickly, and sets an expectation for the reply time. It should not try to answer every question.

Step 3: set up the away message and its schedule

1. From the Tools tab, tap Away message.
2. Turn on Send away message.
3. Tap the message to edit it.
4. Tap Schedule and choose Always send, Custom schedule or Outside of business hours.
5. Tap Recipients and choose Everyone, Everyone not in address book, Everyone except… or Only send to….
6. Tap Save.

Which schedule to use:

• Outside of business hours for everyday use. It follows the hours in your profile, so you set it once.
• Custom schedule for a fixed period such as the Diwali holidays or a doctor's week of leave. Switch back afterwards.
• Always send only when you are unreachable for a while, for example while travelling. Left on by mistake, it tells every customer you are away even when you are replying.

Unlike the greeting, the away message has no 14-day rule in WhatsApp's description: anyone covered by your recipient setting who writes while it is active gets it. Keep it short, because regular customers will see it often.

Step 4: create quick replies

1. From the Tools tab, tap Quick replies.
2. Tap the add (+) button.
3. Tap the message field and write the reply. You can attach images and videos, for example a rate list photo.
4. Tap Shortcut and type a short keyword, such as fees or address.
5. Tap Save.

To use one, open a chat, type "/" in the message box and pick the reply, or tap the attach (paper clip) icon and choose Quick reply. The text drops into the box so you can change a name or date before sending. You can store up to 50 quick replies. Media in quick replies is not supported on WhatsApp Web or Desktop, so if you reply from a computer, keep the important information in the text.

Name shortcuts after what customers ask, not after your internal labels: /price, /timing, /upi, /location, /fees. Deleted quick replies cannot be recovered, so keep a copy of your best ones in a note.

Ready-to-copy messages for three Indian businesses

Change the names, hours and numbers to your own. Every message tells the customer what to send next, which cuts the back-and-forth.

A kirana and home-needs shop

Quick replies: /upi with your UPI ID and "please share the screenshot after paying"; /delivery with your delivery area, charges and timings; /location with a Google Maps link and a landmark ("opposite the Gaurav Tower bus stop").

A clinic

Quick replies: /fees with the consultation fee (for example ₹600, follow-up within 7 days ₹300); /reports explaining how to share lab reports as PDF; /confirm with a booking confirmation you edit before sending ("Your appointment with Dr Meera is on [day] at [time]. Please arrive 10 minutes early."). Do not answer medical questions with a quick reply; ask the patient to book.

A coaching centre

Quick replies: /fees with the course fee and instalment plan (for example ₹45,000 a year, payable in 3 instalments); /demo with the free demo class timing; /batches with a photo of the timetable.

Step 5: test it before customers do

Ask a family member to message the business number from a phone that has never chatted with it and is not saved in your contacts. Check that the greeting arrives. Then test again outside your hours to see the away message. If you chose Everyone not in address book, testing from a saved contact will correctly show nothing, which confuses many owners.

WhatsApp's help centre also suggests switching the feature off and on, updating the app and restarting the phone when a greeting is not being sent.

Where the app's automation stops

The Business app's auto replies are good for a one-person business with a few dozen chats a day. They run out when:

• Customers need different answers. Each tool sends one fixed text. It cannot ask "Which course?" and send the right brochure, or reply differently to "price" and "location".
• You need to collect details. There is no way to ask for a name, class or pin code and save the answers anywhere.
• Several people answer. The app runs on one phone plus its linked devices. A shared team inbox on the API adds chat assignment, departments and a clear view of who is handling which customer.
• The phone is the system. If it is off or offline, nothing is sent.
• You want to send updates, not only replies. Order confirmations, fee reminders and campaigns need approved message templates, which are a WhatsApp Business Platform feature.

The next step: a chatbot on the WhatsApp Business API

On the WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API), the greeting and away message become a chatbot flow that runs on a server, not on your phone. In Broadchat, for example, a bot can start on any new message or on a keyword, check working hours, show buttons or a list, ask questions and save the answers to the contact, send the right brochure and hand the chat to a person in the shared inbox. Our step-by-step guide to building a WhatsApp chatbot without code builds exactly that for a coaching institute. The WhatsApp chatbot page lists what the builder can do.

Two things change when you move. First, cost: replies inside the 24-hour customer service window are free only up to 1,000 per phone number per month since 1 Oct 2026, and charged after that, while templates are charged per delivered message; see WhatsApp API pricing. Second, your number: in India you can keep using the Business app on the same number through WhatsApp coexistence, but under coexistence the app's greeting, away and quick-reply automation is not carried over to the API, so you rebuild it as a bot. For a wider plan that covers opt-in lists, broadcasts and ads, see the WhatsApp marketing strategy guide for India.

Agencies that set up WhatsApp for local shops and clinics can offer the API version under their own brand through the white-label partner program.