> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.watx.in/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Channels and the 24-hour window
> Scope an automation to a channel, understand which steps each channel supports, and keep a follow-up inside WhatsApp's messaging window.
One automation can run on WhatsApp, Instagram and the website widget. This page covers
what that means in practice: how scoping works, which steps each channel can actually do,
and what a long wait does to a WhatsApp follow-up.
## Scoping to a channel
The trigger panel has a **Channels** setting: WhatsApp, Instagram, Web. It only ever
narrows.
* **None selected means every channel.** That is the default, and what an automation that
never touched the setting means.
* Selecting one or two means the automation only runs when the event came from those.
Two triggers lock it: **Instagram comment** and **Instagram story reply** lock to
Instagram, **Web chat started** locks to Website. The picker shows the lock instead of a
choice.
Twelve triggers carry **no channel at all** — the form, appointment, payment and store
triggers. A form is submitted on a public page and a payment is made on Razorpay's, so
there is no channel to compare against. For those the picker is hidden, any scope left
over from a previous trigger is cleared, and the engine ignores channel scoping. See
[Triggers](/automations/triggers).
## What each channel can do
| | WhatsApp | Instagram | Website |
| ----------------- | -------- | --------- | ------- |
| Plain text, media | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Buttons | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Lists | Yes | No | Yes |
| Templates | Yes | No | No |
Instagram has no template mechanism at all, and no list message. The website widget is
rendered by us, so there is nothing to pre-approve.
Every other kind of step — tags, segments, deals, notes, notifications, HTTP requests,
Google actions, variables — sends nothing through a channel, so no channel can fail to
support it. A Google Sheets row is appended identically whether the run started on
WhatsApp, on Instagram or from a form.
## How the editor reports it
The settings panel's **Runs on** line and the card on the canvas give one of three
answers.
| Answer | Meaning |
| ----------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| *Every channel this automation runs on* | The step works wherever this automation can fire. |
| **This step is skipped on some channels** | It works on some and is skipped on the others. Legitimate and common — one automation that sends a template on WhatsApp and plain text on Instagram is exactly what the **Channel** condition exists for. The step is marked, not blocked. |
| **This step can never run** | It cannot run on any selected channel, or the trigger cannot supply what it needs. This is dead configuration, and the checks panel reports it as a problem. |
An **unscoped** automation is not warned about partial support. Strictly, a template step
in one is skipped on Instagram and the web — but saying so would put a warning on
essentially every template step in the product. A step that works *nowhere* is still
reported.
## Steps that need somebody to talk to
Some steps need a conversation, and some need a contact at all.
* **A hosted form submission, a booking, a payment or a store order** can come from
somebody who has never messaged you. There is no thread, so the sending steps are
skipped — and the tag, segment, deal and notify steps beside them still run. The run
ends **partial** and the log says which step was skipped and why.
* **A scheduled automation** runs for the workspace, not for one person. There is no
contact at all, so every contact-shaped step in it can never run.
**Send an invoice** is the exception among the sending steps: it creates the invoice
anyway and records that it could not deliver it.
## The 24-hour window
WhatsApp lets you reply freely for 24 hours after the customer's last message. After
that, only an approved [template](/whatsapp/templates) will send — see
[The 24-hour window](/whatsapp/messaging-window).
A parked run does not stop that clock. The checks panel adds up every **Wait** along each
path (counting a **Wait until** as up to 24 hours, since its real length depends on when
the run started) and warns on the first sending step that lands past the limit:
> About 2 days of waiting happens before this step, and WhatsApp only allows a free-form
> message within 24 hours of the contact's last one. Use a Send template step here, or
> shorten the wait.
Two ways to fix it: shorten the wait, or make that step a **Send template**.
The same applies to a **Request a payment** step. Inside the window it sends the link
as an ordinary message; outside it, the link is carried by an approved template, and
the step's own **Message sent with the link** is not used — a template's copy is fixed
at approval. Configure the template on the step, or leave it to the workspace default.
## Branching per channel
One automation can behave differently per channel rather than being duplicated. Add a
**Condition** with the **Channel** subject, and put the template send in one branch and
the plain-text send in the other. See [Conditions and branching](/automations/conditions).