Let the inbox assistant reply by itself

On Auto with brake, the inbox assistant sends its reply without waiting for you, but only when every check passes. If anything is uncertain, or you have joined the conversation, it steps back and leaves a draft for you instead. Use it once you have read a week or so of its drafts in Assist and are happy with them.

Before you start

• You are an owner or an admin.
• The inbox assistant is set up and you have tried it in Assist (see Set up the inbox assistant to draft your replies).
• Your plan includes automatic replies. The card says how many a day: "Up to 200 automatic replies a day on your plan", for example.

Steps

1. Open AI Agents › Agents › Inbox assistant.
2. Scroll to When it may send by itself. Nothing here does anything until a channel is set to Auto with brake, so set it up first.
3. Under Working hours, switch each day on or off. For an open day, set the time it opens and the time it closes, for example Bright Dental: Monday to Friday 08:00 to 18:00, Saturday 09:00 to 13:00, Sunday closed. Outside these hours it drafts but does not send.
4. Under Quiet hours, set the start and end, for example 21:00 to 08:00. These are read in the customer's own local time. A reply to a message someone has sent always goes out; quiet hours only hold back a follow-up nobody asked for.
5. Leave Say it is an assistant on unless you have a reason not to. The first automatic reply in a conversation then tells the customer it is an assistant and that they can reply HUMAN for a person. The exact sentence is shown under the switch.
6. At the top, press Auto with brake for Text messages, Email or both. WhatsApp only offers Off and Assist, because Meta can close a number that sends automatic messages.
7. Press Save. The status line at the top now names the channels that send by themselves.

What happens next

On an auto channel, a new message gets a reply within seconds when every check passes. It stands down and leaves a suggested reply in Conversations for you when:

• the customer asks for a person, or sounds unhappy,
• the answer is not in what you told it,
• the message arrives outside your working hours,
• today's automatic replies for your plan are used up,
• you, or anyone on your team, has already replied in that conversation.

The last one is the brake: the moment a person answers, the assistant stops sending by itself in that conversation. The suggested reply carries a line saying why it did not send, for example "You had already replied here, so the assistant stood down."

Once it has sent something by itself, a Sent by itself, last 30 days panel appears at the bottom of the page, per channel: how many were sent automatically, how many were handed to a person, and the reasons it stood down.

For agencies

Automatic replies go out under the client's name and from the client's own number or address. Set them up from inside the client's account, and agree the working hours with the client first.

Troubleshooting

There is no Auto with brake button on WhatsApp. That is deliberate. WhatsApp stays on Assist.

"Your plan does not include automatic replies. Assist drafts them for you instead." Your plan has no automatic replies. The channel keeps drafting for you.

It stopped sending by itself in the afternoon. Today's automatic replies are used up. New messages get a draft with the line "Today's automatic replies are used up, so this one is for you."

It sent nothing overnight. The messages came in outside your working hours. Check the times under Working hours; they are in your business's time zone.

"Saturday ends before it starts. Close the day instead if you are shut." The closing time is earlier than the opening time. Fix the time, or switch the day off.

"Quiet hours need a start and an end that differ." Set two different times, or leave the defaults.

It stopped replying in one conversation only. Someone on your team replied there, so the assistant stood down. That is the brake working.

Related

• Set up the inbox assistant to draft your replies
• Build a knowledge base
• Read agent logs and usage
• Why AI stopped: the switch, the limit and the wallet