WhatsApp chats: answering parents from the system
“WhatsApp chats” gathers everything guardians and students send to the center’s WhatsApp Business number in one inbox inside the system. Your team answers from the system itself, with the center’s number, and sees which student each conversation is about, without any staff member using a personal phone.
Before you start: chats work once the center’s number is connected to WhatsApp Business and enabled, and “Enable conversations” is on under “Center settings” → “WhatsApp Business”. The guide is Connect your center’s WhatsApp Business number.
Who sees the chats
- “WhatsApp chats” shows in the menu of the center’s owner, its administrator and the secretary — never teachers.
- Replying needs the “Reply to WhatsApp conversations” permission; users with only “Read WhatsApp conversations” read without replying.
1. Open the chats
Press “WhatsApp chats” in the menu. The number of unread messages shows next to it, and new messages arrive as soon as they are sent, without reloading the page.
- Pick a filter: “All”, “Unread”, “Assigned to me”, “Unassigned” or “Closed”.
- Search by student name or mobile number.
2. Read a conversation and reply
- Choose a conversation from the list to see its messages.
- Type your reply in “Type a message”, then press Enter to send, or Shift+Enter for a new line.
- To send a photo or a document, press “Attach a file”; you can add a caption.
Each message you send shows its status: “Sent”, then “Delivered”, then “Read”. You receive photos, documents, voice messages, videos and locations; other kinds show as “Unsupported message type”.
3. The reply window (24 hours)
After a guardian’s last message, free replies stay open for 24 hours, and “Reply window open until …” shows. Once it closes, “The 24-hour reply window has closed. You can only send an approved template.” appears: press “Choose a template”, pick the template and the student the message is about, check the “Message preview”, then press “Send”. When the guardian replies, the window opens again.
4. Start a new conversation
Press “New conversation”, search for the student by name, code or mobile number, choose the number, then press “Start conversation”. The conversation starts with the approved “Start a conversation” template, so it is available only once Meta has approved it.
5. Conversation details
Under “Conversation details”:
- The student: “Students linked to this number”, matched with the students’ registered numbers, and “Open student record”. A number that is not on record shows “Number not registered with the center”.
- “Assignment”: choose “Assign to” to hand the conversation to a colleague, or “Unassign”.
- Conversation status: “Close conversation” once it is done, and “Reopen conversation” when needed.
6. Stopping messages to a number
- When the number’s owner sends the word “إيقاف” on its own (or STOP), messages to it stop.
- You can also stop them yourself with “Stop messages to this number”.
After that, no reminders, automatic messages or templates are sent to the number, and you can still answer its messages within the reply window. “Allow messages again” lifts the stop; when the number’s owner asked for it, only the center’s owner or administrator can lift it.
7. Deleting a conversation
“Delete conversation” permanently deletes all of its messages and files; this cannot be undone. It is available to the center’s owner and administrator. Conversations are also deleted automatically 12 months after their last message.
Read receipts
When your center turns on “Read receipts” in the WhatsApp Business settings, the contact sees that their message was read when the conversation is opened. It is off by default.