WhatsApp 24-hour window, explained
The 24-hour window, which Meta calls the customer service window, is a rule of the WhatsApp Business Platform, the API used by CRMs and larger businesses. Each time a customer sends a message to a business number, a 24-hour window opens, or restarts. Inside it, the business can reply with free-form messages: any text, images, documents or voice notes, just like a normal chat.
Once 24 hours pass without a new message from the customer, the window closes. From then on, the business can only start the conversation again with a template message, a pre-written format that Meta has reviewed and approved. The template might be a reminder, an order update or a follow-up asking whether the customer still needs help. If the customer replies, a new window opens and free-form messages are allowed again.
This catches out sales teams used to the WhatsApp Business app, which does not apply the same rule. A rep who tries to send a normal follow-up to a lead who last wrote three days ago will see it fail on the API. The fix is to keep a small set of approved templates for reopening conversations, and to reply quickly while a window is open. DigiPix Flow allows free-form WhatsApp text only inside the 24-hour window.