WhatsApp Flows,
explained honestly.
WhatsApp Flows are Meta’s in-chat forms: a guided, form-like screen that opens inside a WhatsApp conversation so a business can collect structured information without the customer leaving the chat. This page explains what they are, when you actually need one, and what Chatly uses instead today.
- Flows are a Meta feature, not a Chatly one — this page explains them.
- Chatly uses interactive menus and guided steps to collect the same details.
- That covers browsing, ordering, checkout and payment today.
- The Flows API itself is on our roadmap, not in the product yet.
What is a WhatsApp Flow?
A WhatsApp Flow is an interactive screen — think of a small guided form — that a business can open inside a normal WhatsApp chat. Instead of typing everything out, the customer taps through structured fields on a single screen: choosing a service, picking a date, entering an address.
Because the information comes back structured rather than as scattered free text, the business can act on it immediately. Flows are part of the official WhatsApp Business Platform, and they need to be designed, submitted to Meta and approved before they can be used.
How Chatly does this today
Chatly does not use the Flows API. It uses the two building blocks that need no approval and work on every WhatsApp account from day one: interactive list menus, and a guided step-by-step conversation.
A customer messages your number and gets a tappable menu of your products. They tap to add items, the cart builds itself, and checkout produces a Paystack link. If they want to pay an amount that is not a listed item — a quote, an invoice, a deposit — they tap “Pay an amount”, Chatly asks for the figure, and sends a payment link for exactly that. Every one of those steps is structured, so what lands in your dashboard is an order or a payment, not a thread you have to decipher.
For most South African retail and service businesses this covers the same ground a Flow would, and it goes live the day you sign up rather than after a Meta review cycle.
When you genuinely need a Flow instead
Flows earn their complexity when you need to collect many fields at once on a single screen — a detailed intake questionnaire, a multi-field application, a date-and-time picker tied to real availability. A menu-driven conversation can ask those questions one at a time, but a Flow asks them all on one screen, which is a better experience past roughly five or six fields.
That is the gap we are building towards. If your business depends on a long structured intake form today, tell us on a setup call and we will be straight with you about whether Chatly is the right fit yet.
Frequently asked questions
Are WhatsApp Flows an official WhatsApp feature?
Yes. Flows are part of the WhatsApp Business Platform — Meta’s own way of running guided, form-like interactions inside a chat. They are not something Chatly invented.
Does Chatly support WhatsApp Flows?
Not yet. Chatly uses interactive list menus and a guided step-by-step conversation to collect structured details, which covers browsing, ordering, checkout and payment. The Flows API is on our roadmap and we would rather say so than imply otherwise.
So how does Chatly collect details from my customers?
Through tappable menus and guided questions in the chat. Product selection, quantities, a cart, checkout and custom payment amounts all come back as structured records in your dashboard.
Do customers need anything special?
No. Everything runs inside the WhatsApp app your customers already have — they just tap through the options.
Ready to automate this on WhatsApp?
Set it up yourself in an afternoon. No technical skills, no lock-in, no setup fee.
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