A client in Instagram and confirmations in WhatsApp

The situation: Dasha writes to the studio's Instagram, and the team books her a visit. The owner expects the confirmation and the reminder in WhatsApp, because she gave her number. Talemo sends a notice to one place, the main contact of her card, and the steps show when that place is WhatsApp.

1. The card after her first Instagram message

Her message created a card in Not sorted with her @handle (see Conversation and the person). Writing from it confirmed the handle: the card shows "confirmed {date}: the client wrote from here", and as the first confirmed contact it shows main.

2. Where notices go now

The main contact is the Instagram handle, so the confirmation and the reminder go to her Instagram chat.

• Instagram has no templates. A notice goes as plain text while the chat window is open, a day after her last message. A window with only minutes left counts as closed.
• With the window closed nothing is sent, and the visit says "Reminder not sent" with the reason "the chat window has closed: the client wrote more than a day ago". The reminder is usually due the day before the visit, so it goes only if she wrote in the day before it is due.
• If the online admin booked the visit, the confirmation waits until the online admin finishes replying. If it wrote to her after the booking, the confirmation is skipped, because the booking was confirmed in the chat. If it finished without writing to her, Talemo sends the confirmation itself, within a minute, like any notice. The reminder follows the same window rules, and a skipped notice is not sent later on its own.

3. Staff add her WhatsApp number

On the card the team adds the number as WhatsApp, or talemo_add_contact_point does (see Contacts of a card). The card shows it as "not confirmed: the client hasn't written from here yet".

• Staff cannot confirm it. An exported Instagram chat history does not confirm it.
• An unconfirmed contact cannot be made main: Make main and talemo_set_primary_contact are refused.
• So the main contact stays Instagram, and nothing goes to the number. Talemo does not write to a number the client has not written from, even with a template. On a card with no main contact the notice is not sent at all.
• A number added as a Phone is not a chat channel and is not confirmed itself.

4. She writes from that number

When Dasha writes to the studio's WhatsApp from it, Talemo finds the card by the number, as WhatsApp or as a phone, so the chat joins the same card, and the contact is confirmed with the time of her first message. The card shows it as confirmed, and Instagram stays main: the first confirmed one is kept. If the number was never added, her WhatsApp message makes a second card in Not sorted. If the number is on another card, the chat joins that card.

5. Making WhatsApp the main contact

On the card, Where should reminders go? has Make main beside the confirmed WhatsApp number, and the tool is talemo_set_primary_contact. Only one contact is main, so Instagram no longer gets notices.

6. What goes to WhatsApp

The route takes the chat with that number, the visit's branch first (see Visit notices).

• With the window open, plain text goes with the words of the channel's template.
• With the window closed, an approved template goes, Booking confirmation, Visit reminder or, for a cancelled visit, Booking cancellation, in the language of the card or else the first service language. talemo_list_channel_templates shows their status at Meta.
• With no approved template in either language, or no payment method at Meta, nothing goes. Meta bills these messages to the business, outside the Talemo balance.

7. What the visit shows

Under What happened the visit shows "Confirmation sent" with the way, channel and delivery, or "Confirmation not sent" with a reason (talemo_get_visit returns it). The reasons for this case: "we only message a client ourselves on the WhatsApp number or Instagram account they've already written to you from — this card has neither", "the chat window has closed", "Meta hasn't approved the WhatsApp template yet", "WhatsApp has no payment method at Meta", "the channel is disconnected".

8. STOP

A message that is only "stop", from any channel, turns notices off for the whole card, on every address. Don't send on the card does the same for a client who asked by phone. Queued notices are withdrawn, the visit says "Not sent: the client replied STOP", and the online admin does not start for that message. Removing the address does not lift it, and Send again does, when the client asks (see Turning reminders and confirmations off).

Where nothing is sent

Notices go only to a WhatsApp number or an Instagram handle that the client has written from. A client in Messenger has no address on the card, and one with only a phone, an email or a Telegram has no confirmed contact, so nothing is sent.