Broadcasts
The Inbox and Tickets are mostly about inbound conversations — the customer reaches out and you respond. Broadcasts are the opposite: outbound messages you send to customers.
Use broadcasts for marketing, for live order updates ("your order has been dispatched," "out for delivery"), for confirmations ("your refund request was accepted"), and for any other proactive outreach.
Broadcasts are WhatsApp-specific today. Email broadcasts are planned.
Templates
Everything starts with a template. Templates are predefined messages you must define and register on WhatsApp before you can send them.
A few things to know:
- Templates have categories — for example, utility templates and marketing templates.
- After you create a template, WhatsApp must approve it. Not every template is approved; you can only send approved templates.
- The Templates page lists your configured templates so you can see what's available to send.
You can also manage message templates from Settings → Message Templates.
Events
Once templates exist, you automate them with Events. An event maps an event name to a template — "when this happens, send this template."
For each event you can configure:
- The template to send.
- Conditions — only send when criteria are met (for example, only if the order contains a particular tag).
- A delay — send some time after the event. For example, a product-review request shouldn't fire when the product is delivered; you might trigger it 7 days later.
Where do events come from? They can be sourced automatically (for example, from Shopify) or configured to arrive from your backend. Once an event reaches Flowcall, the Events configuration decides which template(s) go out.
Template Hooks
Template Hooks attach automation to a template. Handlings react when the customer replies — for example, run an execute action when they tap a specific button. A follow-up sends another template or runs an execute action after a delay if the customer does not reply; any inbound message from the customer cancels it.
See Template Hooks for setup, trigger options, and cancellation rules.
Event Hooks
Event Hooks run an execute action after an event. The current event fires when a customer starts a new WhatsApp conversation session after inactivity and no workflow is active. You can delay the action, limit it by the task associated with the closest ticket, and map ticket, event, or data-point values into its inputs.
See Event Hooks for setup instructions and ticket-selection behavior.
Campaigns
A campaign is a bulk send. You upload a CSV of customers (potentially thousands), choose the template to send, set the time to send it, and launch.
See Sending Campaigns from a CSV for the CSV format, variable mapping, and step-by-step walkthrough.
Flows
Flows let you build structured, multi-step outbound sequences rather than a single message.
Contacts and Segments
Broadcasts need an audience, and that's what Contacts and Segments provide.
- Contacts are your customer records. They can come from CSV uploads, ecommerce/CRM integrations, Google Sheets, or customers discovered through conversations.
- Segments group contacts by shared conditions — for example, customers with recent orders, delayed deliveries, abandoned checkouts, or high-value accounts.
Use segments to target the right customers for a campaign and to avoid over-messaging.
Before You Send
| Check | Why |
|---|---|
| Template is approved | You can only send WhatsApp-approved templates. |
| Audience is correct | A wrong segment sends the wrong message to the wrong people. |
| Template variables have values | Missing customer or order data causes sends to fail. |
| Contact details are valid | Messages need reachable phone numbers. |
| Test recipient is ready | Verify the content before sending broadly. |
Logs
Logs are important for troubleshooting — "why didn't this template go out?" is a common question. There are two related kinds of logs:
| Log | What it records |
|---|---|
| Event log | That an event was received by Flowcall. |
| Template log | That a template was triggered, with a reference back to the event that triggered it. |
The two exist separately because one event can trigger multiple templates. For example, receiving a product can trigger an immediate "you've received your product" message and a "how was the product?" follow-up seven days later — two template logs tied to one event.
When a message doesn't arrive, the debugging path is: first check whether the event log exists (did we receive the event at all?), then check the template log (was the template triggered, and what happened?).
Related
- Template Hooks — react to template replies and schedule no-reply follow-ups.
- Event Hooks — run an execute action after a new WhatsApp conversation session.
- Sending Campaigns from a CSV — run a campaign from an uploaded contact list instead of a Shopify segment.
- Integrations → Ecommerce — a common source of order events.
- Settings → Message Templates — manage templates.
- Insights → Overview — broadcast performance, send counts, and failures.