The rule
Once a customer messages your business, Meta allows 24 hours of free-form replies — text, media, voice notes, interactive messages, anything. After that, only a pre-approved template will send. A free-form message outside the window is rejected by Meta outright. Each new message from the customer restarts the 24 hours. Your own outgoing messages do not: only a message from the customer reopens the window.Two ways it can be closed
They need different answers, so Watx distinguishes them.Where you see it
- In the inbox. The thread header carries a countdown pill showing the time left in the window. When it expires, a strip above the composer says “24-hour session expired. Use a template to re-engage.” with a Templates button beside it. See Sending messages.
- In broadcasts. A broadcast is always a template send, because most of its audience will be outside the window.
- In automations and flows. A step that sends free-form text will not reach a contact whose window has closed. The automation editor’s pre-flight checks flag it before you activate — see Channels and the 24-hour window.
- In payment links. Watx decides how to deliver before it creates the link: plain text inside the window, an approved template outside it. If the window is closed and no usable template is nominated, the link is refused rather than created and sent nowhere. See Razorpay payments.
- In sales documents. An invoice or receipt goes out as your nominated template every time. The plain document message is the fallback for a workspace with no template, and only while the window is open. See Creating and sending.
What counts as an incoming message
Any message from the customer, including a tap on a template’s button — a quick reply arrives as a real inbound message and reopens the window like typed text does.What a template can and cannot do
A template re-opens a conversation. It does not exempt you from anything else:- Every template must be approved by Meta before it can be sent, and Meta can reject or pause one later. See Message templates.
- A template send costs against your messaging limit and affects your quality rating. See Messaging limits and quality.
- Contacts who have opted out are skipped by broadcasts regardless of the window — see Broadcasts.