Wait for a customer reply in Automations
Use Wait for reply when the next step depends on the customer's answer. For example, send an appointment reminder, wait for a confirmation, then update the contact or follow up if no reply arrives.
Automations is in Early access. Your workspace permissions determine which actions you can perform.
Before you start
Add an SMS or WhatsApp send to your workflow. SMS needs a number in your workspace that can receive messages. WhatsApp needs a sender in your workspace and one individual phone recipient.
Email replies are not supported. Replies in WhatsApp group conversations are not supported.
Your workspace needs permission to send and read messages for the selected channel. Normal channel requirements and the workspace’s automated-send limits still apply.
Add the wait
- Add Wait for reply on the send's Success path. You can also select Also wait for a reply when adding an SMS or WhatsApp send.
- In Reply to, select the earlier send. If only one send is eligible, it is selected automatically. The send can have other steps between it and the wait.
- Set Wait up to to the duration you want to allow for an answer.
- Connect Reply received to the step that handles the answer. Use Choose a path to distinguish a confirmation, a request for help, and other replies.
- Connect Timed out to a follow-up or an explicit outcome. Handle send failure from the send step's separate failure path.
The workflow starts capturing replies when the message is accepted for sending, so a fast answer can be saved before the run reaches the wait. The timeout begins when the run reaches the wait; the run time limit can end it earlier.
Use the reply
On the Reply received path, choose fields under Reply → Message in Available data. An SMS send provides SMS fields. A WhatsApp send provides WhatsApp fields, which can include text, button responses, or media. Check which optional fields are present before using them.
The wait accepts an eligible reply without interpreting its meaning. Your next step decides what to do with an answer such as “yes”, “no”, or unexpected content. The Timed out path has no reply data.
Avoid overlapping questions
Replies match the channel and the business/customer phone-number pair within the workspace. They do not identify which question the customer intended to answer. The same reply can satisfy eligible waits in several workflows, and a late answer can satisfy a later question.
Use Run overlap to skip a new run while this automation is already waiting for the same pair. Coordinate other automations that message that customer too; overlap settings apply to one automation at a time.
Preview and check the result
Preview the workflow with a reply, an unexpected answer, and a timeout. Preview uses sample data without sending messages. Check the paths and fields, then publish when you are ready for real messages.
In Runs, inspect the Wait for reply step and its selected branch to see whether a reply arrived or the wait timed out. A timeout completes the wait step successfully and follows the Timed out path. The run's final status depends on what happens next.
If retrieving the reply message fails permanently, the run fails rather than taking the timeout path. Inspect the failed step for the cause and check channel read permissions.
If Reply to has no choices, connect the wait to an earlier SMS or WhatsApp send's success path. A send reached only through its failure path is not eligible.
Pausing the automation prevents new runs but lets existing waits continue. Cancel an individual run when its follow-up work should stop.
Next steps
Related resources
Continue with the documentation, guides and examples for this topic. Resources are in English.