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How WhatsApp and text conversations work

What customers can do on WhatsApp, what the assistant can send, and the current limits.

Updated 24 Oct 2026

Customers can message your business on WhatsApp and get answers from the same assistant, catalogue, stock and policies as your other channels, and payment links and order updates can also go out by text message. Their baskets, orders and handoffs appear in the same dashboard. WhatsApp is in beta.

Setting up WhatsApp

WhatsApp is set up on your Hapro number together with our team. Contact us and choose support as the reason, and we will take you through it.

What customers can do

  • Ask about products, prices and stock.
  • Build a basket and place an order.
  • Receive a secure payment link in the chat.
  • Ask for a person. The conversation goes to your handoff queue, and your team replies in the same WhatsApp chat.

How conversations continue

If a customer messages again within 12 hours, they carry on the same conversation. After that, a new conversation starts, so an old basket is not reopened by surprise.

Current limits

  • Text only. Pictures, voice notes, locations and stickers are ignored, and the assistant does not reply to them.
  • Replies only. WhatsApp only lets a business start a conversation with a message template that WhatsApp has approved. Hapro does not send template messages yet, so it replies to customers who have messaged you, rather than messaging them first.

Customers who reply STOP

If a customer sends just STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END or QUIT, they are opted out of marketing messages on that channel, and the assistant does not reply. Sending START, UNSTOP or SUBSCRIBE opts them back in.

The word only counts on its own. "Stop, I want the 5kg instead" is treated as a normal message. Messages about an order the customer has just placed, such as a payment link, are still sent.

Text messages

Payment links and order updates can also go out by text message from your Hapro number. To send texts, the number must be able to send them, and in the UK that usually means a mobile number. See Get a phone number.

Usage

Each WhatsApp or text message sent from your account counts towards your plan's message allowances, including replies from your team and payment links. See Understand your usage and allowances.

Seeing what was sent

The Messages page lists the text and WhatsApp messages your account has sent. It is a read-only record.