Create your first flow
Set up a flow step by step — pick a number, when it starts and a template, then build, test and publish it, and make it the number's Welcome, Default or Out-of-hours flow.
The guided setup takes you from nothing to a live flow in six steps: Number, Trigger, Starter, Build, Test and Publish. Nothing reaches a customer until the last one.
Start the guided setup
Any of these opens it:
- Automation, with no flows yet: Create your first flow.
- Automation → New flow, then Guided setup. (Blank flow names a flow and opens an empty builder instead.)
- Automation → Numbers: Set up this number on a number's card. That number is ticked for you.
You need permission to create and edit flows, and a connected WhatsApp number.
1. Number
Choose Only the numbers I choose and tick one or more, or All numbers. A flow on all numbers also answers on numbers you connect later, so it can answer messages meant for another flow. You can change this later in Flow settings (see Flows and WhatsApp numbers).
2. Trigger
Choose when the flow starts:
| Choice | What it does |
|---|---|
| When someone sends a keyword | Starts when a message is exactly one of your keywords, such as "menu" or "price". Type them separated by commas. |
| When a new customer messages | Answers a contact's first conversation on the number. At publish you put it in each number's Welcome slot. |
| Any message we don't otherwise handle (Default) | Answers whatever no keyword or other flow caught. At publish you put it in each number's Default slot. |
| Outside business hours | Answers only while the number is closed or on a holiday, by its business hours. At publish you put it in each number's Out-of-hours slot. A number with no hours is always open, so this flow would never answer there. |
3. Starter
Pick a template to start from. The one that fits your trigger best is marked Suggested:
- Welcome menu: greets by name with three buttons — what you offer, talk to someone, opening hours.
- Out-of-hours reply: tells customers when you open next, with a holiday message too.
- Collect details and hand to an agent: asks for a name and an email, then hands the chat to your team, and says when you open if you're closed.
- FAQ by keyword: answers common questions from a list.
For a template that hands chats to your team, choose Who takes the chat (a department), or leave it for the builder. Check the Flow name, then click Create and open the builder.
4. Build
The builder opens with your template loaded and a Create your first flow panel at the top showing where you are. Edit the messages so they sound like you; the line under the templates said what's left, such as choosing who takes the chat. See Build a flow.
5. Test
Click Test it to run the flow against your own phone. A test messages only that contact and never a customer; its page says "This was a test." Back to the draft returns to the guided setup. If you change the flow after testing it, the panel asks you to Test again. See Test and publish a flow.
6. Publish
Click Review and publish. The review shows, before anything goes live:
- What changes: on a first publish, that the flow starts answering. On a later one, the steps added, changed or removed since the live version.
- Numbers it serves.
- Slots it fills: in the guided setup, Set as Welcome for +91 … (or Default, or Out-of-hours) for each number, ticked for you. A slot another live flow already holds is left unticked and says which flow it would replace; tick it to replace that flow. Leave a box unticked to skip that number. A When a new customer messages flow left out of the Welcome slot answers any message nothing else caught there, like a Default flow.
- Let the bot answer first: tick Bot handles messages first on +91 … to send every new chat on that number to your flows first. A chat reaches the inbox only when a flow hands it over, someone takes it over, or nothing matches. See Let the bot handle messages first.
- Things to check: warnings such as a keyword another flow also uses, a number with no Default flow, a flow on all numbers, or an out-of-hours flow on a number with no hours.
- Runs in progress (when you publish again): they finish on the version they started on; only new runs use the new one.
Slots and Bot handles messages first need One flow answers each message on; if it's off, the review links to the Numbers page instead.
Click Publish. The flow is live, the slots and settings you ticked are applied, and the panel links to the Numbers page so you can see it answering. If one of them can't be applied, you see which, and you can set it on the Numbers page. Done closes the guided setup.
The same review appears whenever you click Publish on any flow, without the slot and bot-first boxes.
Still need help?
Write to us at [email protected] and tell us what you were trying to do. Already a customer? Sign in to IconEngage — the same articles are under Help in the app.