If you run a small shop, a home business, or any service in Pakistan, you probably answer the same questions on WhatsApp again and again. What is the price? Where is your shop? What are your timings? Are you open today?
The free WhatsApp Business app has three built-in tools that save you from typing the same replies all day. They are called quick replies, greeting message, and away message. Used properly, they make a one-person business look fast, organised, and professional, even when you are busy with other work.
This guide explains all three tools in simple steps. You will learn what each tool does, how to set it up, what its limits are, and why a greeting or away message sometimes seems to stop working.
Only in the WhatsApp Business App
First, one important point. All three tools exist only in the free WhatsApp Business app. That is a separate app from regular WhatsApp, and it is free to download.
Regular WhatsApp has no auto-reply setting at all. There is no greeting message, no away message, and no quick replies list in the normal app. If you are searching for these options inside regular WhatsApp, you will not find them, because they were never there.
Second, only two of the three tools are actually automatic. The greeting message and the away message send themselves when their trigger is met. Quick replies are different. A quick reply is a saved shortcut for a message you send often. A person still has to open the chat, pick the reply, and press Send. WhatsApp itself describes quick replies as shortcuts for messages you send often, not as auto-replies.
Keeping that difference clear will save you a lot of confusion. If you want a message to go out without you touching the phone, you need the greeting or the away message. If you want to answer faster while you are chatting, you need quick replies.
| Tool | Automatic? | What it does | Best use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quick replies | No | Saves ready-made replies that you pick and send yourself with a shortcut | Prices, address, delivery details, payment details, common answers |
| Greeting message | Yes | Sends one welcome text to a customer who messages you for the first time, and again after 14 days of silence in that chat | Welcoming new customers and setting expectations |
| Away message | Yes | Sends one reply to incoming messages when you are away, closed, or on a set schedule | Nights, holidays, lunch breaks, and closed days |
Where to Find These Tools
On current versions of the app, the Help Center steps start from a tab called Tools. Open the Tools tab, and you will see Quick replies, Greeting message, and Away message there.
Some phones and older versions show a different path. Do not worry if your screen looks slightly different. On Android, the older path is the three-dot menu, shown as â‹®, then Business tools. On iPhone, the older path is Settings, then Business tools. From there, the tool names and the steps inside are the same.
In this guide, the Tools tab path is given first because it is the current one. If you do not see a Tools tab, use the older Business tools path on your phone and follow the same steps.
Quick Replies: Your Saved Shortcuts
Quick replies are for the answers you type every day. Instead of typing your full address, your price list note, or your delivery charges again and again, you save each answer once and reuse it in seconds.
How to Create a Quick Reply
Follow these steps in the mobile app:
- Open the Tools tab and tap Quick replies. On older versions, tap â‹® > Business tools > Quick replies.
- Tap Add, or tap the plus (+) button, to create a new reply.
- You will see three things to complete: Message, Shortcut, and SAVE.
- Tap Message and write the full reply exactly as you want to send it later.
- Tap Shortcut and set a short keyboard shortcut for that reply. Pick a word you will easily remember when you are in a hurry.
- Tap SAVE.
That is the whole process. The reply is now stored in your quick replies list and ready to use.
You can also add media when you create a quick reply on mobile. Instead of writing only text, you can select media, and photos and videos work in the mobile app. This is useful for a price list photo, a product picture, or a short product video that customers ask for again and again.
There is one classic set of shortcut formatting rules that older WhatsApp quoting documents: a shortcut of no more than 25 characters, no spaces, beginning with “/”, and up to 3 keywords per reply. These are the classic documented rules from older quoting, not freshly confirmed wording for 2026, so treat them as a safe guide for naming your shortcuts rather than as a new rule. In practice, short and simple shortcuts are easiest to remember and easiest to type.
How Many Quick Replies Can You Save?
You can store a maximum of 50 quick replies. For most small businesses, 50 is plenty. It covers prices, timings, address, delivery, payment, warranty, and the other answers that come up every week.
Plan your 50 slots well. Give each reply one clear job. One reply for your address, one for delivery charges, one for payment details, and so on. A short, well-organised list is faster to use than a long list of replies that all say almost the same thing.
How to Use a Quick Reply in a Chat
There are two ways to insert a quick reply while chatting.
The first way is the shortcut. In the chat, type “/” in the message field. All your quick replies will appear, including the default replies. Keep typing your shortcut, for example part of the shortcut name, and the list will filter so you can find the right reply quickly.
The second way is the attachment route, and it differs by phone. On Android, tap the paperclip, which is the Attach button, and then tap Quick reply. On iPhone, tap the plus (+) sign and then tap Quick replies.
Whichever way you use, one point matters a lot: selecting a quick reply does not send it. The saved message appears in the text input field first. You can read it, edit it for that customer, add a name or a specific price, and only then tap Send. This edit step is very useful. A saved reply gives you a ready start, but you can still personalise it before it goes out.
Editing and Deleting Quick Replies
To edit a saved reply, open Tools > Quick replies, or Business tools > Quick replies on older versions, tap the reply you want to change, edit it, and tap Save when you are done.
To delete a reply, open the same Quick replies list and delete the reply you no longer want from there.
Be careful with deleting. Deleting a quick reply is permanent. A deleted reply cannot be recovered. If a reply contains useful wording, such as a long payment note or a carefully written warranty answer, keep a copy of it outside the app before you delete it, for example in your phone notes.
There is also no global on/off switch for quick replies. The on/off toggles belong to the greeting and away messages in their own screens. Quick replies are managed one by one, from the list itself.
The Default Quick Replies WhatsApp Creates for You
You may notice some replies in your list that you did not create. WhatsApp auto-generates some default quick replies from your business profile, to make communication easier. These can include a reply containing your business hours, one containing your address, or even one containing your profile itself.
Check these default replies when you set up the app. Make sure your profile information is correct, because a wrong address or old timing in your profile will also appear in these auto-generated replies.
Quick Replies on WhatsApp Web and Desktop
You can use quick replies from WhatsApp Web and Desktop once they have been created on the phone. Open any conversation on Web or Desktop, type “/” or use the Attach > Quick Reply route, select the reply, edit it if needed, and send it.
But creating and editing is mobile-only. You can only add or edit quick replies in the mobile Business app, not on WhatsApp Business Web. If you need a new reply while working on a computer, create it on the phone first, then use it on the computer.
There is also a media limit to remember. Media files in quick replies are not supported on WhatsApp Web or Desktop. A media quick reply created on mobile, with a photo or video, cannot be sent with its media from Web or Desktop. For media replies, use the mobile app to send them.
Greeting Message: A Welcome That Sends Itself
The greeting message is one fixed welcome text that the app sends automatically. It is meant for the start of a conversation, not for every message.
When the Greeting Message Fires
The greeting has two triggers, and only two.
The first trigger is a customer’s first-ever message to your business. When someone messages you for the very first time, the greeting goes out automatically.
The second trigger is silence. If a customer messages again after 14 days of inactivity in that chat, the greeting fires again. Inactivity means neither side has messaged in that chat for a full 14 days. Messages inside those 14 days do not trigger it again, and simply editing your greeting text does not resend it to active chats.
The greeting fires at any hour. It ignores your listed business hours. A brand-new contact who messages you at 2 a.m. will still receive it. This is why many businesses pair the greeting with an away message. The greeting welcomes the person, and the away message, on its schedule, explains that you are closed right now and will reply later.
Do not expect the greeting to fire again just because a few days have passed, or because the shop was closed. Unless it is a first message, or the chat was silent for a full 14 days, it will not send.
How to Set Up the Greeting Message
Using the current path, follow these steps:
- Open the Tools tab and tap Greeting message. On older versions, use â‹® > Business tools > Greeting message on Android, or Settings > Business tools on iPhone.
- Turn on Send greeting message.
- Tap the message and edit the text.
- Confirm the text. On Android you tap OK for the edited text. On iPhone you tap Save.
- Tap Recipients and choose who should receive it.
- Tap Save to finish. On Android, this final Save after choosing recipients is needed to complete the setup.
To edit the greeting later, reopen Tools > Greeting message and tap the message text. To turn it off, switch off Send greeting message in the same screen. The greeting and away messages are controlled independently, so you can turn the greeting off while the away message stays on, or the other way round.
You Get Only One Greeting Text
In the free app, you get one greeting text at a time. There is not a set of greetings for different occasions.
When the occasion changes, you change the saved text yourself. For Eid, a sale, or a holiday period, open the greeting screen and replace the text with the wording you want for those days. When the occasion ends, edit it back. It only takes a moment, but you have to remember to do it.
A note on length: WhatsApp does not state a character limit for the greeting message in its setup steps. Keep your text short anyway. A short welcome that a customer can read in a few seconds works better than a long paragraph.
How to Test Your Greeting Properly
Many shop owners set up a greeting, send themselves a message from their personal number, see no greeting, and think the feature is broken. Usually, it is not broken. Their test number has simply messaged the business before, and the chat is not old enough.
A valid test needs a number that has never messaged you before, or a chat that has been inactive for 14 or more days. Repeated test messages from a recent, active conversation are not a reliable test, because of the 14-day rule.
If your greeting seems not to work, check the recipient setting described in the next sections before you assume anything else. A restrictive recipient choice is a very common hidden reason.
Away Message: A Reply for When You Are Closed
The away message is the second automatic tool. When it is on and its schedule allows, it replies to customers who message you while you are away, so they know you have received their message and when to expect a real reply.
How to Set Up the Away Message
Using the current path, follow these steps:
- Open the Tools tab and tap Away message. On older versions, on Android use the three-dot menu > Business tools > Away message. On iPhone, use Settings > Business tools > Away Message.
- Turn on Send away message.
- Tap the message to edit it, then tap OK. On iPhone, tap Save after editing.
- Tap Schedule and choose one of the three schedule options explained below.
- Tap Recipients and choose who should receive it.
- Tap Save.
To edit or disable it later, reopen Tools > Away message, or Business tools > Away message on older versions. Edit the text, schedule, or recipients there, or switch off Send away message to turn it off. Like the greeting, it is controlled in its own screen.
The Three Schedule Options
The away message has three schedules. Pick the one that matches your situation.
Always send means the away message is sent at all times while the tool is on. This suits an extended absence, such as a holiday closure of several days, when you are away all the time.
Custom schedule means the away message is sent only during a particular time period you define. You choose the specific times and days. This suits a regular daily pattern, such as every night after a fixed hour.
Outside business hours means the away message is sent when your business is not in operation, based on the opening hours in your business profile. This is the most useful option for a normal shop with regular timings, because it follows your profile hours automatically.
There is one catch with the third option. Outside business hours only appears after business hours are set in your business profile. The option only becomes available once those hours exist. If you open the away screen and do not see it, do not panic. Add your opening hours in your business profile first, then come back to the away screen, and the option will be there.
You also get only one away text at a time, just like the greeting. For a long holiday, edit the saved away text to mention your return date. When you are back, edit it again for normal closed hours.
WhatsApp does not state a character limit for the away message in its setup steps either. Keep it short and clear. Say you are closed, say when you will reply, and, if it helps, point the customer to your catalogue or your timings.
The Away Message Is Not a Broadcast
This point is often misunderstood. An away message only answers an incoming message. It replies to a chat that a customer opens with you.
It does not start a conversation at a chosen time. It is not a scheduled broadcast, and it is not a campaign tool for sending a message to your whole list. If nobody messages you, the away message sends nothing. It waits for the customer to write first, and then it answers.
Recipients: Who Gets Your Greeting and Away Messages
Both automatic tools use the same recipient choices. When you set up the greeting or the away message, you choose from the same four options.
| Recipient option | Who receives the message |
|---|---|
| Everyone | Everyone who messages you |
| Everyone not in address book | Customers who are not in your address book. On iPhone, this same choice is worded “Exclude my contacts” |
| Everyone except… | All customers except the specific people you select |
| Only send to… | Only the specific customers you select, and nobody else |
Read the last two options carefully. With Everyone except…, almost everyone still receives the message, except the few you pick out. With Only send to…, the opposite happens. Only the people you selected receive it. A customer who is not in that selected set will never receive the greeting.
That last point causes many “my greeting does not work” reports. A business owner chooses Only send to… for a small test list, forgets about it, and then wonders why new customers get no greeting. Before you test or troubleshoot, open the Recipients screen for the tool and confirm it is set the way you actually want. For most businesses, Everyone is the right choice for both the greeting and the away message.
Your Phone Must Be Online for Auto Messages
This is the condition many people miss. In the free Business app, the phone itself does the replying. The Help Center condition for both the greeting and the away message is clear: your device must have an active internet connection in order to send them.
If your phone battery is dead, if mobile data is off, or if the phone has no signal, the automatic messages cannot go out. Nothing is sitting on a server sending them for you while the phone is off. The reply comes from your device, so your device has to be online.
For a Pakistani shop, this has practical meaning. Load shedding, a dead battery at closing time, or a phone that loses data at night can all stop your greeting and away messages without any warning inside the app. If customers tell you they got no reply at night, check the simple things first. Was the business phone charged? Was its data on? Was it connected at all?
Keep the business phone charged and connected, especially during the hours when your away message matters most. That one habit makes both automatic tools far more reliable.
The 2026 Change: Meta Business Agent Turns These Tools Off
There is one newer change you should know about, because it can switch off both automatic tools without you realising.
In 2026, connecting Meta Business Agent automatically disables your greeting message and your away message. WhatsApp’s own help information lists this as an effect of connecting the agent.
If your greeting and away messages suddenly stopped after you connected that agent, this is very likely the reason. Your texts were not deleted by a fault in the app. The connection itself turned the tools off.
To use the greeting and away messages again, you must delete the Business Agent. Pausing is not enough. Pausing the agent stops its replies, but it does not restore the two tools. Only deleting the agent brings the greeting and away messages back.
So decide which system you actually want. If you prefer the simple, free greeting and away tools that you control yourself, do not connect the agent, or delete it if you already did. If you keep the agent, do not expect the old toggles to keep working at the same time.
Apart from this change, and the newer Tools tab replacing the older menu path in current guides, the core rules of the three tools have stayed the same. The 50 quick reply limit, the first-message and 14-day greeting trigger, and the three away schedules are unchanged.
The Free App vs the WhatsApp Business Platform
Everything in this guide so far is about the free Business app. Larger companies often use something different, called the WhatsApp Business Platform, which is the API side. It is important not to mix the two up.
The built-in greeting, away, and quick reply toggles are a free Business App feature. The Business Platform does not offer the same toggles. On the Platform, there are no in-app switches for these tools. Instead, an equivalent behaviour is built as a provider workflow. For example, a provider can build a welcome message and an away message that triggers according to business hours, using its own workflow tools.
Replies on the Platform are also governed by a rule that does not exist in the free app: the 24-hour customer service window. A message from a user opens or resets a 24-hour window. Inside that window, non-template messages can be used. Outside it, messages must use approved templates. The free app’s greeting and away tools have no such rule. They simply send their one fixed text when they are triggered, as long as the phone is online.
Quick replies also exist on the API side, but only as the provider’s own saved-reply system, and the capacity is far bigger. One example makes the difference clear. The app stores a maximum of 50 quick replies. The provider system we checked stores up to 5,000. On respond.io, those saved replies are called Snippets, they can be categorised, and they can use dynamic variables that fill in customer details automatically.
For a small or medium business in Pakistan, the free app tools are normally enough. They cost nothing, they need no provider, and they cover welcomes, closed hours, and fast daily answers. The Platform route becomes relevant only for bigger teams with many staff, heavy message volume, and a budget for a provider.
A Simple Setup Order That Works
If you are setting all of this up today, this order avoids most mistakes. First, complete your business profile, including your address and your business hours, because the away schedule and the default quick replies both depend on it. Second, set up your greeting message and choose Everyone as the recipient. Third, set up your away message on Outside business hours. Fourth, build your quick replies list slowly, starting with the five answers you send most often. Finally, test the greeting with a number that has never messaged your business before.
After that, your business will welcome new customers on its own, answer politely while you are closed, and reply to daily questions in seconds while you are open.
The quick reply steps, limits, and Web and Desktop notes in this guide follow the detailed quick replies guide published by respond.io, an official WhatsApp API partner whose guide reproduces the Business app steps, including creating a reply with Message, Shortcut, and SAVE, using “/” to insert a reply, and the mobile-only rule for creating and editing replies.
Also read: WhatsApp Business Catalogue Setup Guide and WhatsApp Business Pricing Change Explained
FAQs
Why is my greeting message not sending?
Check four things in order. First, confirm Send greeting message is turned on. Second, check that your phone has an active internet connection, because the greeting cannot send from an offline phone. Third, open Recipients and make sure a restrictive choice, such as Only send to…, is not blocking the customer. Fourth, remember the trigger rule: the greeting only fires on a first-ever message or after 14 days of silence in that chat, so a test from a recent chat proves nothing. Also check whether Meta Business Agent is connected, because connecting it disables the greeting until the agent is deleted.
Is a quick reply an auto-reply?
No. A quick reply is a saved shortcut that a person still uses by hand. You type “/” in the chat, or use the attachment route, select the reply, edit it if needed, and press Send. Only the greeting message and the away message are automatic, and they send themselves when their trigger is met, as long as the phone is online.
How many quick replies can I save, and what happens when I delete one?
You can save a maximum of 50 quick replies in the free Business app. Deleting a quick reply is permanent, and a deleted reply cannot be recovered. If a reply has important wording you may need again, keep a copy outside the app, such as in your phone notes, before you delete it.
Why don’t I see “Outside business hours” in my away message schedule?
Because business hours are not yet set in your business profile. That schedule option only appears after you add your opening hours to the profile. Add your hours in the business profile first, then return to the away message screen, and the Outside business hours option will be available to choose.