Instant Replies: Answers Your AI Can't Get Wrong

Certain answers have to leave your system character-for-character the same on every send: a price, a bank account, the address, the return policy. That is precisely what instant replies do. The moment a customer message carries one of your keywords, the stored reply goes out untouched, with no AI in between and nothing reworded. They ship on the Pro plan (5 rules) and Business (10 rules), and here are ten worth copying.

When you don't want the AI to answer

For questions that arrive in a hundred different phrasings, an AI assistant is the right tool. For answers that must never vary, it is the wrong one. A model that rewords your IBAN has not made a small mistake, and neither has one that rounds a delivery fee or invents a warranty month. Instant replies exist for that second category: fixed answers to predictable questions, delivered in under a second on every channel where your assistant works, website widget included. We shipped them in the September 2026 release for exactly this reason.

What an instant reply actually does

Every rule is made of three parts: a keyword list, a saved reply, and optionally attachments. When an incoming message contains one of the keywords, the reply goes out instead of the message ever reaching the AI. Your customer sees an answer that is fast and accurate, while the wording stays entirely under your control. One piece of advice: keep the mechanism to yourself. Customers have no need to know a rule fired, and the best setup is the one they never notice. If you are still mapping out what the AI side should cover, the complete WhatsApp auto-reply guide is where to start.

Ten rules worth copying

Below, each rule comes with example keywords and a note on what belongs in the reply. For the plain text wording of everyday canned messages, these ready-to-copy templates save you the writing.

1. The price list

Try keywords like price, prices, how much, cost. Reply: a one-line intro plus the price list attached as a PDF. Letting a model paraphrase numbers is a liability you do not need during a sale.

2. Location and directions

Keywords: location, address, where are you. Reply: the official address and your maps link. With one canonical version in place, no customer ever gets last year's address.

3. Bank details for transfers

Keywords: transfer, IBAN, bank account. Reply: the account details as fixed text. This is the rule where character-for-character accuracy matters most. One wrong digit and the money goes somewhere else.

4. Working hours

Keywords: hours, working hours, when do you open. Reply: the official statement, day by day. The assistant still answers "are you open right now" dynamically, but the formal version of the hours should come from you, word for word.

5. Delivery fees and coverage

Keywords: delivery, shipping, delivery fee. Reply: the fee table as text, or as a PDF when coverage spans many zones. Fees change on a date, not mid-sentence, and a fixed reply behaves the same way.

6. Returns and exchanges

Keywords: return, exchange, refund. Reply: the policy exactly as your lawyers approved it. Policies are among the few texts where a friendly paraphrase turns actively dangerous.

7. The catalogue

Keywords: catalogue, products, collection. Reply: a short line and the catalogue PDF attached. The full document reaches customers in the chat instead of a summary the model assembled.

8. Warranty terms

Keywords: warranty, guarantee. Reply: the terms, durations and what voids them included. A warranty is a promise with a number attached, and the number should come from you.

9. Accepted payment methods

Keywords: payment, pay, methods of payment. Reply: the list as you accept it today: card, cash on delivery, bank transfer, whatever applies. When the list changes, update the rule and every channel answers correctly at once.

10. Asking for a human

Keywords: agent, representative, human. Reply: a fixed acknowledgement that a member of your team will pick up the conversation here. The message shows in your inbox; the customer gets certainty instead of another AI round.

How the matching works before you write a single keyword

Matching runs on whole words and understands Arabic, so السعر, سعر, and سِعر all trigger the same rule without you listing every form. Each rule holds up to 25 keywords, and the reply text can be in Arabic, English, or both, up to 1,024 characters. You can also attach up to 5 files per rule, images, video, or PDF, each up to 4 MB, and the customer receives them together with the text.

Order matters: the first match wins

Rules sit in an ordered list, and the topmost one whose keyword appears in the message is the rule that fires. Keep specific rules above broad ones: your delivery-fee rule belongs above a generic pricing rule if their keywords overlap. Any rule can be switched off without deleting it, which is how you run seasonal answers. Switch on for Ramadan, switch off after.

Nobody gets the same file twice

Once a rule has answered a contact, it stays quiet toward that contact for 24 hours. If the customer writes again inside the window, the assistant takes the message instead, so nobody receives the same PDF three times in an afternoon. After the window, the rule is live for them again.

Limits, attachments, and which plan you need

Instant replies are a Pro and Business feature: 5 rules on Pro ($29/month), 10 on Business ($59/month). The limits that matter day to day: 25 keywords per rule, 1,024 characters of reply text, 5 attachments at 4 MB each. Rules apply on every connected channel, so a rule written once answers on WhatsApp, Telegram, Messenger, Instagram, and the widget alike. Downgrading deletes nothing: rules above the new limit simply stop firing until you upgrade again.