WhatsApp without paying for every reply
From 1 October Meta bills every reply an agent sends on WhatsApp once a number has used its free monthly allowance. A new cost control answers up to a budget you set, then moves the person to your web chat with the conversation intact.
What shipped
- Off by default. Turn it on per agent under Channels → WhatsApp cost control; if you are happy to pay Meta, nothing changes.
- Two budgets: answer for a number of hours from the person's first message, and a monthly cap on delivered messages per number — 1,000 matches Meta's free allowance.
- Past the budget the agent sends a short reminder with a private link instead of an answer, a fixed number of times, then goes quiet. A week of silence starts the person fresh.
- The link opens your web chat with the WhatsApp conversation already there, so either side can carry on. In the web chat it shows as a card.
- The reminder comes in the agent's language, or write your own with a {{link}} placeholder.
- Telegram is not affected. Also available as whatsappHandoff on the platform MCP tools and on /v1/products.
Leads without the interrogation
Agents now offer to take a visitor's details at the right moment — after answering, once someone asks about prices, availability or a quote — and collect them through a short form with a consent checkbox instead of spelling out an email in the conversation.
Choose the countries your agent serves
A country rule on the Guardrails tab blocks the countries you list, or serves only the ones you list, so an agent built for one market stops spending on visitors it will never serve.
An inbox your team can work
Conversations now carry a status, an assignee, a priority, tags and internal notes, and the Inbox has views for what needs a person — the groundwork for your team taking over from the agent.