Message templates and auto-replies
Message templates
A template is pre-written text an operator inserts into a conversation with one click, instead of typing the same thing every time (company details, an answer to a common question, a link to your price list). Manage templates in Message templates.
This isn't the same as WhatsApp Business API templates for broadcasts — those go through Meta review and are only needed to message a customer outside the 24-hour window. Regular Chato templates work in any channel and need no review at all.
Auto-replies
An auto-reply is a message Chato sends to a customer automatically, without an operator involved. Configure it in Auto-replies, and it runs on two scenarios:
- First message from a new contact — fires when a customer you haven't talked to before writes in. Useful so the customer knows right away they've been seen, even if an operator doesn't reply instantly.
- After hours — fires when a message arrives outside your configured schedule (by day of week and time, accounting for time zone). To avoid flooding a customer with the same text during an active conversation at night, this scenario fires again for the same conversation no more than once every 12 hours.
Both scenarios can be turned on for every channel at once, or for specific ones — for example, an after-hours auto-reply only for calls, and a new-contact one for every messenger.
If both scenarios fire at once (a new contact writes at night), the customer gets the after-hours message — that's treated as more useful in this situation than a generic greeting.