---
title: A client in Instagram and confirmations in WhatsApp
summary: Visit notices go only to the one main contact of a card, and only a contact the client has written from can be main. Step by step, with where notices go and where they do not.
tools: [talemo_get_contact, talemo_find_contacts, talemo_add_contact_point, talemo_set_primary_contact, talemo_remove_contact_point, talemo_get_visit, talemo_list_channel_templates, talemo_turn_off_contact_notices, talemo_turn_on_contact_notices, talemo_get_contact_history]
related: [../clients/contact-points.en.md, ../clients/reminders-opt-out.en.md, ../clients/contact-card.en.md, ../booking/visit-notices.en.md, ../booking/booking-rules.en.md, ../conversations/channel-window-and-templates.en.md, ../conversations/conversation-and-person.en.md, ../conversations/ignore-spam-and-stop.en.md]
search: [how to automate client booking in Instagram, reduce no-shows with reminders, Instagram DM booking, WhatsApp appointment confirmation, reminder to a different messenger]
---

# 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](../conversations/conversation-and-person.md)).
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](../clients/contact-points.md)). 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](../booking/visit-notices.md)).

- 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](../clients/reminders-opt-out.md)).

## 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.
