The 24-hour window on WhatsApp Cloud
You can send a free-form message to a client within 24 hours of the last message they wrote. After that, only an approved template is accepted. Corteksa shows the time left and refuses a free-form message before it’s sent.
The rule
A free-form message (text, photo, file, audio, buttons, list) only arrives within 24 hours of the client’s last incoming message. Outside that, WhatsApp only accepts approved templates.
The client’s reply to your template opens a new 24-hour window.
What do you see in the chat?
What happens if you send a free-form message outside the window?
Corteksa refuses it before it reaches Meta, and the message shows as failed with the reason: the client hasn’t written in 24 hours, so send a template. That’s better than it looking “sent” and then disappearing.
There’s no extension for a teammate’s reply on WhatsApp Cloud, unlike Messenger and Instagram.
Automations follow the same rule. Use a send-template action in automations for messages that might fall outside the window.
If something goes wrong
A real example
A teammate sends a quote to a client 2 days after their last message, and it fails.
- The company created a “Ready quote” template in the Utility category.
- The teammate now sends the template first, then sends the file after the client replies.
All the quotes arrived, and the team now checks the countdown before typing.