Automations: Conversation Starter

When is the Conversation Starter used?

Only on unlock. When a conversation has been quiet for 24 hours, the free-text reply window closes and the chat is locked. Clicking Unlock reopens it, and the message that goes out is built from your Conversation Starter.

There is no manual send button for it and no second trigger. That is deliberate: you cannot fire it by accident, and every reopened chat starts the same way.

What does it consist of?

The message the contact receives is assembled from four parts, in this order.

1. Greeting - the opening text you store in advance.
2. Your message - the text you write at the moment you unlock the chat.
3. Closing - the sign-off, for example a signature.
4. Stop notice - appended by Keaz, always, and not editable.

You only maintain the Greeting and the Closing. The middle changes with every conversation, and the stop notice is out of your hands.

How do I personalise it?

Both fields accept dynamic variables. Click Variables to insert a placeholder such as First Name; it appears as a blue tag in the editor and is replaced with the contact's own data when the message is sent. A greeting that names the person reads very differently from a generic one.

Both fields also have a formatting bar with bold, italic, strikethrough, monospace and emoji.

What is the automatic stop notice?

Every Conversation Starter ends with a fixed line telling the contact they can reply STOP to end the communication. You cannot edit it or switch it off. That keeps a reopened conversation compliant without you having to remember the wording each time.

Sending STOP is what actually changes the contact's opt-in state - Opt-in levels describes what happens on the record. The notice handles the exit, not the entry: if you are still working out how consent should be collected before any of this, collecting WhatsApp opt-in the GDPR-compliant way covers that side.

How do I check it before saving?

The preview panel on the right shows the complete message as the contact will see it: greeting, a placeholder standing in for your text, closing and the stop notice. Use it to check spacing and where the variables land, then click Save changes at the top right.

How does it relate to the other automations?

Keywords and the Default Reply react to something your contact does. The Conversation Starter reacts to something you do. The Automations overview puts the three side by side, and the Keywords overview covers the word-based ones in detail.