What is WhatsApp Flows?

The definition in two minutes

Meta describes WhatsApp Flows as structured interactions for business messaging. A Flow is a small multi-screen form that opens inside WhatsApp when the customer taps a button.

Each Flow is made of screens and components: text fields, dropdown menus, date pickers, photo or document upload. It can also rely on an endpoint, meaning a server run by the business that supplies live data to each screen, such as free time slots.

When the customer finishes, their answers come back to your software in a message in the conversation.

What it is for

Among the uses, Meta lists booking appointments, browsing products, collecting customer feedback and generating leads. Its documentation also details examples such as insurance quotes and pre-approved loans.

For a small business, that could be:

• booking an appointment: service, date, time slot, contact details;
• asking for a quote: type of work, address, photos;
• collecting feedback after a visit: a rating and a comment;
• qualifying a request before handing it to the right person.

How a Flow is sent

In a conversation the customer started

An interactive message of type Flow, sent through the API during the 24-hour window. It carries a button that opens the Flow. It is a service message.

On the business’s initiative

A Meta-approved template that carries a button of type Flow. It follows the rules for templates: category, customer consent, sending limits.

The answers arrive the same way as every other incoming message. They contain the fields the customer filled in, which your software reads to complete a record or trigger an action.

• The 24-hour window explained →

What Meta requires

• Creating a Flow: an account on the WhatsApp Business Platform, the Cloud API and WhatsApp Manager, where the Flows Builder, Meta’s Flow editor, sits.
• Sending a Flow to your customers: the business must be verified by Meta and keep a high message quality.
• Linking a Flow to an endpoint: exchanges with WhatsApp must be encrypted. That is developer work. A Flow without an endpoint needs no server.
• Maintaining a Flow: Meta evolves the Flow format and retires older versions, which takes a little upkeep.
• Using WhatsApp Web: Meta announced support for Flows on WhatsApp Web from early December 2025.

On its pricing page, Meta has no separate line for Flows. The message that carries the Flow is charged by its type: a service message within the 24-hour window, the template’s category outside it.

• What is free and what is paid →

Flows or button questions?

A Flow suits cases where you need several details at once: a date, a time slot, a name, a type of request. For a single question with choices, a message with buttons or a list is enough, without the requirements of a Flow.

In WYP.chat, scenarios ask the questions one at a time, with buttons or a list, and the customer’s answer decides what happens next. That also works on Messenger, Instagram, Telegram and the website chat, which a Flow does not.

• WYP.chat WhatsApp scenarios →

Example

Illustrative case: a hair salon sends its customers a “Book an appointment” Flow. The customer picks the service, the date in a calendar and then a time slot, and leaves their name. The answer lands in the conversation and the team only has to confirm.

Frequently asked questions