WhatsApp Flows: Collect Forms, Bookings and Feedback Inside the Chat

Many WhatsApp conversations stall on the same chore: collecting details. “What is your name? Which branch? What date? What time?” Each question is a message, and each message is a chance for the customer to drop out. A WhatsApp Flow replaces that exchange with a short form that opens inside the chat.

What a Flow is

A Flow is a set of screens that Meta renders inside WhatsApp. A screen can hold text, input fields, date pickers, radio buttons, checkboxes and dropdowns. The customer moves from screen to screen and submits at the end. Meta’s own examples include pre-approved loan offers, insurance quotes, purchase intent forms and personalised offers.

Typical uses for a business:

• Lead qualification: name, email, what they want to buy, budget.
• Appointments: branch, service, date, time. See WhatsApp appointment booking.
• Satisfaction surveys: a score from 1 to 5 and a comment after a conversation closes.
• Order or return requests: order number, reason, preferred solution.

Two ways to send a Flow

	Template with a Flow button	Interactive Flow message
Who starts the chat	You, at any time	The customer wrote first
Needs approval	Yes, the template must be APPROVED	No template
Button text	Up to 25 characters	Up to 30 characters, no emoji advised
Typical use	Follow-ups, surveys, reminders	Answering a question with a form

The template route is the one to use when the 24-hour customer service window is closed. Opt-in rules still apply: see WhatsApp opt-in and how to create a WhatsApp template.

A Flow button has an action. Navigate opens a screen you choose and needs no server. Data exchange talks to your endpoint for live data; Meta times such requests out after 10 seconds.

Adding a Flow to a template in MonoChat

MonoChat’s template builder, under Settings › Chat › Channels › Template Messages › Create, supports the WhatsApp Flow button next to quick reply, website, phone, coupon code, call and contact request buttons.

1. Create the Flow itself in Meta’s tools (Flow JSON, the playground or the Flows API).
2. In MonoChat, create a template and add a WhatsApp Flow button. Choose the flow, its action and its first screen.
3. Check the live preview. Meta’s rules are checked as you type, and you see the issues to fix before you submit.
4. Submit the template to Meta. When it is approved, send it in a bulk message or from a flow.
5. Read the submissions in the team inbox: the answers arrive in the conversation as a form message.

You can also create the template in Meta WhatsApp Manager and use Sync to bring it into MonoChat.

Design rules that keep completion high

Meta’s best practices for Flows are short and worth following:

• Aim for a task that takes five minutes or less, and keep one task per screen.
• Show no more than 10 options per screen, and use a dropdown only for 8 options or more.
• Put the most common option first as the default.
• End a multi-step Flow with a summary screen.
• Make the first screen endpointless, and keep endpoint answers fast.
• Set the Flow token to expire in two to three days.

Ask only for what you will use. A form that wants ten fields to book a haircut will lose people the same way a long chat does.

Start with one Flow

Pick the conversation your team repeats most, write down the three to five fields you always ask, and build that as the first Flow. You can start on the free Basic plan at app.monochat.ai; see the pricing page for plans with more agents and channels.

Sources

• WhatsApp Flows overview (Meta for Developers) (opened 27 Oct 2026)
• Sending a Flow (Meta for Developers) (opened 27 Oct 2026)
• Sending a Flow in a template (Meta for Developers) (opened 27 Oct 2026)
• Flows best practices (Meta for Developers) (opened 27 Oct 2026)
• MonoChat help center: Template Messages (opened 27 Oct 2026)
• MonoChat changelog, 20 Oct 2026 (opened 27 Oct 2026)