The reply window now follows the channel
The 24-hour reply window is counted per channel — the one the customer actually messaged you on. An incoming store order no longer opens it, so the chat box stops offering replies that would be refused.
Released 16 July 2026
WhatsApp and Instagram only let you send a free-form reply within 24 hours of the customer's last message. We now count that per channel — the one they actually wrote to — and only that.
What's new
- The window belongs to the channel the customer messaged — if someone messages your Instagram account, that opens the window on that account. It no longer counts on your other Instagram account, or on WhatsApp.
- An incoming order no longer opens the window — an order arriving from your store isn't the customer messaging you, so it never opened a reply window on our side. The chat box hadn't caught up: it would offer you a free-form reply that was then refused when it tried to send. It now shows the same answer the send does.
- The chat box and the send agree — the reply box is deciding with exactly the same rule the send uses, so what you're offered is what will go out.
- Nothing you have to do — no setting changed, and your existing scheduled messages are unaffected. If a customer has genuinely messaged the channel you're replying on, nothing about your day changes.
Why it matters
The window is Meta's rule, not ours, and they check it again at the moment of sending. Anything we allow past it comes back as a refusal — after we've already set the money aside for it. Counting it per channel is the only reading that matches what actually happens when the message goes out.