Greeting message vs away message
A WhatsApp Business greeting message is an automatic reply sent when someone messages you for the first time, or after 14 days without contact. An away message is an automatic reply sent while you're unavailable, on a schedule you choose. Both are free, built into the WhatsApp Business app, and each holds one fixed text.
| Greeting message | Away message | |
|---|---|---|
| Sends when | A customer messages you for the first time, or after 14 days of inactivity in that chat | A customer messages you during the times you set |
| Schedule | Always on once enabled | Always send, custom schedule, or outside business hours |
| Recipients | Everyone, everyone not in your address book, everyone except selected contacts, or only selected contacts | |
| Best for | A welcome, what you can help with, how fast you reply | When you'll be back, and where to find answers now |
| Needs | The WhatsApp Business app on a phone with an internet connection | |
Neither message is available in the personal WhatsApp app, and neither can use the customer's name or answer their actual question. That's covered at the end of this guide.
How to set up a greeting message in WhatsApp Business
Setting up a greeting message for WhatsApp Business takes about a minute. These are the steps in the current app, per WhatsApp's Help Center as of September 2026. Older versions of the app put the same screens under Settings > Business tools.
- Open the Tools tab and tap Greeting message.
- Turn on Send greeting message.
- Tap Greeting message to edit the text, then tap OK.
- Tap Recipients and choose Everyone, Everyone not in address book, Everyone except… or Only send to…
- Tap Save.
If the greeting doesn't send, check four things. The customer may have written to you in the last 14 days, which skips the greeting. Your recipient setting may exclude them. Your phone needs an internet connection, because the app sends these messages from the device. And if you've connected Meta Business Agent, Meta's AI agent for the app, greeting messages are switched off automatically.
How to set up an away message and its schedule
The WhatsApp away message sits next to the greeting in the Tools tab. The steps, per WhatsApp's Help Center:
- Open the Tools tab and tap Away message.
- Turn on Send away message.
- Under Away message, tap the text to edit it, then tap OK.
- Tap Schedule and pick Always send, Custom schedule (only during a period you set) or Outside of business hours.
- Tap Recipients and choose who gets it, with the same four options as the greeting.
- Tap Save.
Outside of business hours only appears once you've added opening hours to your business profile, so set those first. It's the option most businesses want: the away message covers nights and weekends by itself, and nobody has to remember to switch it on.
Use Custom schedule for holidays, trips and closures, and put the reopening date in the text. When the period ends, check that the schedule ended with it. A holiday message still running a week after you reopen tells customers nobody is watching the chat.
Greeting message examples by industry
A good welcome message for WhatsApp Business does three jobs in two or three lines: it says who's answering, sets a response time you can keep, and offers one next step. App messages don't support variables, so the text is the same for everyone. Replace the parts in square brackets with your own details.
Online store
Restaurant
Salon and spa
Clinic and dental practice
Real estate
Education and coaching
Hotel and travel
Agency and B2B
Gym and fitness
Auto repair and home services
Away message examples: after hours, holidays and out of office
An away message should answer the one question every customer has when nobody replies: when will I hear back? These WhatsApp Business away message samples cover the situations that come up most. An out of office message on WhatsApp is simply an away message on a custom schedule.
After hours
Weekends
Holidays and festivals
Out of office
Busy periods and closures
Short, formal and friendly versions
The same message can be written short, formal or friendly. Pick the tone your customers already hear from you in person, and keep it consistent with your away message.
Short
Formal
Friendly
Two languages
What makes a greeting or away message work
- Say who's answering. Your business name shows at the top of the chat, but a line like 'You've reached the team at [Store name]' tells people they're in the right place.
- Promise a response time you can keep. 'Within 2 hours' kept beats 'right away' broken.
- Give one next step. A link to track orders, a menu, a booking page, or the details you need from them.
- Ask for what you need up front. An order number, a date, a service or a property address saves a round of back-and-forth.
- Keep it to two or three lines. It's the first thing a new customer reads, on a phone.
- Keep sensitive data out of the chat. Don't ask for card numbers, passwords or medical records. WhatsApp's Business Messaging Policy bars businesses from asking for full card or account numbers.
- Update it with the seasons. Holidays, new hours and new addresses all go stale. Put a reminder in your calendar.
- Pair it with quick replies. In Tools > Quick replies you can save answers to common questions and send them by typing a shortcut such as /hours in any chat.
Where the WhatsApp Business app stops
Greeting and away messages are one text for everyone. They can't:
- answer the question the customer actually asked,
- use the customer's name or order details,
- reply in the customer's language,
- send anything while your phone is off or offline,
- greet a returning customer who wrote in the last 14 days.
Two 2026 changes matter here. Meta now offers Meta Business Agent, an AI agent you set up from the Tools tab, for eligible businesses in select markets. Connecting it turns greeting messages off.
And if you connect your number to a platform through coexistence mode, Meta's documentation lists greeting and away messages as unchanged in the app but not available through the API. They keep working from your phone alongside any automation, so turn the app's away message off once an AI or automation handles after-hours replies. Otherwise customers get two answers to one message.
Going beyond the app: AI replies and working hours
When you need replies that answer questions instead of acknowledging them, you need the WhatsApp Business Platform and a tool on top of it. The WhatsApp auto reply guide compares the options: keyword triggers, rule-based menus and AI.
Recoverly's AI chatbot runs on Anthropic's Claude and answers from your guidelines, FAQs and product or service data, in the customer's language. You set its working hours and a fallback message for everything outside them. It hands the chat to a person when it should, and it steps back when you reply yourself, from the shared inbox or from the WhatsApp Business app on your phone. The chatbot and inbox are on the Lite plan at $19/month.
A note on cost. Chats, greetings and away messages sent from the WhatsApp Business app are free. Replies sent through the API inside the 24-hour customer service window are free until September 30, 2026; from October 1, 2026, Meta charges for them per message, at the same rate as utility messages in each country (Meta pricing update). The WhatsApp Business API pricing guide shows how the categories add up.