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Reply to pet parents in the WhatsApp Inbox

Every message a parent sends to your WhatsApp Business number lands in one shared Inbox. Reply, assign the chat to yourself, and close it when it's done.

Updated 2026-10-09

When a pet parent replies to one of your alerts, or simply writes to your WhatsApp Business number, the message appears in the Inbox. The whole team sees the same threads, so nobody answers twice and nothing is missed.

Who can do this: anyone who can manage enquiries. By default that's Owners, Admins, Managers and Receptionists.

Before you start

The Inbox needs two things under Settings → Integrations → WhatsApp Business:

  1. 1Your WhatsApp Business number connected (phone number ID and access token).
  2. 2The webhook set up: save your Meta app's App secret and a verify token, then add the webhook URL shown there to your Meta app and subscribe to messages. Without the webhook, WhatsApp has no way to hand messages to FurKisses.

Read and reply

  1. 1Open /app/inbox. Unread threads show a count. You also get a notification for every new message.
  2. 2Click a thread. It's marked as read for everyone.
  3. 3Type your reply and press Enter. Use Shift + Enter for a new line.

Photos, voice notes and documents a parent sends open right in the thread. FurKisses fetches them from WhatsApp when you look at them and doesn't keep a copy.

The 24-hour rule

WhatsApp lets a business write freely only for 24 hours after the parent's last message. The thread shows until when you can reply.

After that, the reply box is replaced by Send "please reply" message. This sends a short approved message asking the parent to answer. As soon as they do, you can write freely again. The message has to be approved by WhatsApp once: submit it under Settings → Alerts → WhatsApp approval.

Automatic alerts are not affected by this rule, because they go out as approved templates.

Keep the Inbox tidy

  • Assign to me shows your name on the thread, so the team knows you have it. It appears under the Mine tab.
  • Close moves a finished thread to the Closed tab. It reopens by itself if the parent writes again.
  • Use the search box to find a thread by name or number.

Unknown numbers

A message from a number that isn't on any customer profile still gets its own thread, shown by the sender's WhatsApp name. Add them as a customer with the same phone number and their future messages are linked to that profile.

STOP and START

If a parent replies STOP, FurKisses switches off automatic alerts for them and tells them so. START switches them back on. You can still reply to their messages by hand.