WhatsApp Flows
A WhatsApp Flow is a form that opens inside the WhatsApp chat: the customer fills in screens with text fields, choices, dates and photos, and taps a button to finish. Use Flows to book appointments, collect leads, run surveys or take a delivery address without sending the customer to a website.
MonoChat includes a visual designer for Flows, so you can build one without writing Flow JSON. Flows are available for WhatsApp Business (Cloud) channels.
This page is about WhatsApp Flows. Automation flows are a different feature.
Create a flow
- Go to Settings › Chat › Channels.
- Open the ⋮ menu of your WhatsApp Business (Cloud) channel and choose Flows.
- Click Create.
- Enter a Name and the Categories of the flow.
- Under Start from, pick a template and click Save. The flow opens in the designer.
| Template | What it contains |
|---|---|
| Blank | A single empty screen. |
| Appointment | Service, date and time, contact details. |
| Lead form | Contact details and what the customer is interested in. |
| NPS survey | A 0–10 score and comments. |
| Sign up | Account details, consent and preferences. |
| Feedback | Rating, comments and photos. |
| Delivery address | Address and preferred delivery time. |
Picking a template also picks its category, and you can change it. The last screen of every template finishes the flow and sends all of the flow's answers.
Design the flow
The designer has three tabs.
Design
- Screens: the list on the left. Use Add screen to add one, and the screen's settings to change its title and Screen ID, mark it as the Last screen, or remove it.
- Add component: the palette groups components into Text, Text inputs, Choices, Date, Media, Buttons and links and Logic.
- Canvas: a phone preview of the screen. Click a component to edit it in the property panel, and use the arrows, Duplicate and Remove to move, copy or delete it.
- Issues: the badge at the top shows how many rules the flow breaks, or No issues. Click an issue to jump to the component.
Things the designer does for you:
- A field's Field name is generated from its label, and renaming a field updates every reference to it.
- A button that finishes the flow with Send all answers stays in sync when you add, remove or rename fields.
- When two screens use the same field name, the answers are sent as
<screen>_<name>.
The preview follows WhatsApp: optional fields show (Optional), a button is dimmed while the screen has required fields, and ${data.…} references show the __example__ value declared in the screen data.
JSON
Shows the Flow JSON in an editor with the validator's errors marked on their lines. Changes made here are reflected in the designer. While the JSON is invalid, Preview, Save and Publish are disabled.
Settings
- Flow name and Categories.
- Flow JSON version: newer versions add components and features. Versions that WhatsApp no longer accepts for new flows are marked send only.
- Endpoint: use an endpoint when screens need live data, such as available time slots. Connect a custom function, choose the Data API version and set the Routing model. Most flows don't need an endpoint.
Preview, save and publish
- Save sends the flow to WhatsApp. WhatsApp's own validation errors are listed under WhatsApp reported these errors.
- Preview saves the flow and opens WhatsApp's preview in a new tab. Allow pop-ups for MonoChat if the tab does not open.
- Publish makes the flow usable. A published flow can't be edited anymore, and the designer only shows it. Fix every issue before you publish.
If you leave the designer through the breadcrumb with unsaved changes, MonoChat asks you to confirm.
Duplicate a flow
To change a published flow, open the flows list, click Duplicate, give the copy a name and edit the copy. The copy keeps the original's categories.