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Scheduled messages and follow-up batches

You can send automated follow-up messages to individual customers or dispatch bulk messages to entire groups of customers using schedules and batches.

Where scheduled messages live

You can view and manage upcoming and past scheduled messages in three places in the dashboard:

• Schedules page: This is the main page for managing all scheduled messages. Here, you can create new schedules, view active runs, toggle them on or off, delete them, and expand their fire history to see detailed results (such as sent, skipped, or failed counts) for the last 10 occurrences.
• Inbox conversation header: When viewing a customer conversation, you can use the Schedule message option to set up a follow-up message specifically for that individual customer.
• Inbox contact pane: You can expand the collapsible Scheduled messages section in a customer's contact details to see any upcoming schedules that will message them, along with the reason (such as matching a specific phase, an individual schedule, or all clients).

Scheduling options

When setting up a scheduled message, you can configure how and when it sends:

Recipients and filters

You can target scheduled messages using three different filters:

• Individual: Targets a specific customer or list of hand-picked phone numbers.
• Phase: Targets all customers currently in a specific conversation phase (for example, "qualified" or "new lead").
• All clients: Targets every contact in your address book.

Timing and timezones

Scheduled messages are sent at a specific time of day (hour and minute). You can choose between two timezone modes:

• Recipient's local time (Default): The message sends at the specified wall-clock time in each customer's own timezone. Note: If a customer changes timezones, it may take up to 24 hours for the schedule to reflect the new timezone.
• Account time: The message sends at the exact same moment for everyone, based on your business's set account timezone.

Message types: AI vs Templates

You can schedule two types of messages:

1. AI-generated messages

Instead of a pre-written message, you write instructions (a description of what you want the assistant to do, such as "check in in 3 days"). When the scheduled time arrives, the assistant reads the conversation context and writes a personalized message.

• Benign skips: If the assistant decides there is nothing relevant to say, it will skip sending (recorded as "no reply"). If generating the message would trigger an escalation to a human, the message is skipped rather than escalating.
• 24-hour reply window: Because WhatsApp and other messaging networks limit free-form messaging, AI-generated scheduled messages will only send if the customer has messaged you within the last 24 hours. If the window has closed, the message is skipped.

2. Template messages

To send messages outside the 24-hour reply window, you can schedule pre-approved template messages (such as WhatsApp templates).

• Templates page: You can also send templates immediately to a list of individual phone numbers, a phase, or all clients from the Templates page.
• Missing variables: If a template uses placeholders (like the customer's first name) and a contact's profile is missing that information, the template message will be skipped for that customer.

Gating, safety, and opt-outs

To ensure a great customer experience, Yapper automatically evaluates safety gates before sending any scheduled message:

• Active conversation safety: If you or the customer sent a message within the last 10 minutes, AI-generated scheduled sends are skipped. This prevents the assistant from interrupting an active conversation with an out-of-band message.
• Opt-outs: Customers can request to opt out of scheduled messages or template categories. Yapper honors these preferences automatically and skips any scheduled sends for opted-out contacts.
• Conversation status: Scheduled messages are skipped if the conversation is paused, or if a team member has already replied.