💬 Chat Interface

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The inbox is split into two columns: a sidebar with all your chats on the left, and the active chat window on the right.

4.1 Sidebar & Chat List

The sidebar shows every chat for the connected number, sorted by most recent message.

• Search — filters chats by contact name, group name, push name, phone number, or words in the last message. Search runs both on chats already loaded in your browser and on the server, so you can find old conversations even on a busy account.
• Filters — quick toggles for All, Mine (chats assigned to you), Unread, Favourites, and Archived. These are local labels (private to your platform), not synced to WhatsApp itself.
• Infinite scroll — older chats load automatically as you scroll down.
• Per-chat actions (visible on hover): mark as favourite and archive / unarchive.
• Assignee — assign a chat to a team member so it shows under their Mine filter. Admins can assign or unassign anyone; staff work from their assigned chats.
• Avatars — pulled from WhatsApp when available; falls back to the contact's first initial on a Banaue Jade background.
• Unread badge — the green pill shows how many unread messages are in that chat. A muted chat shows a mute icon (mute state is synced from WhatsApp).

🔍 SEARCH IS SERVER-SIDE

Don't worry if a chat hasn't been loaded yet — the search query is also sent to the server, so old conversations buried under thousands of newer chats are still findable.

4.2 Chat Window

Clicking a chat opens it on the right. The window has three areas:

• Header — avatar, contact name, phone number, the assignee selector, and a ⋯ menu with Clear chat and Delete chat actions.
• Message history — messages newest at the bottom, oldest at the top. Scroll up to load older messages on demand.
• Composer — the message input bar at the bottom.

🧹 CLEAR VS. DELETE CHAT

• Clear chat empties the message history but keeps the chat in your sidebar.
• Delete chat removes the chat and its messages from your platform entirely.

Both act only on your stored copy — they don't delete anything on the recipient's phone.

Message Bubbles

Each message bubble shows:

• Sender name and avatar (in groups)
• Message body, formatted with WhatsApp markdown (*bold*, _italic_, ~strike~)
• Media preview (images / videos play inline; documents show as a download tile; voice notes get a play button)
• Reaction emojis if anyone reacted
• Reply context if it's a reply to an earlier message
• Status ticks and timestamp

Bubble Actions

Hovering a bubble reveals a ⋯ menu with two actions:

• Reply — quotes the message in the composer
• Delete for everyone — only on your own messages, only within WhatsApp's deletion window (~2 days)

😀 REACTIONS & FORWARDS ARE DISPLAY-ONLY

Incoming reactions and forwarded messages are shown in the chat (a forwarded message carries WhatsApp's arrow flag, a reaction appears as an emoji on the target bubble), but the inbox does not provide a button to send a reaction or forward a message yourself.

4.3 Message Composer

The composer is the bar at the bottom of the chat window, with several power-user buttons. The + button opens the attach menu (image, document, video, location, contact):

Button	What it does
+ (attach)	Open a menu to attach an image, video, audio file, document, location, or contact card.
Formatting	Toolbar that wraps the selected text in WhatsApp markdown for bold (*), italic (_), or strikethrough (~).
😀 (emoji)	Full emoji picker with search.
@ (merge fields)	Type @ to open the merge-field autocomplete and drop a CRM token like {contact_first_name} or {company_name} into the message. Resolved per recipient when sent.
Canned replies	Popover of saved reply templates you can insert into the composer.
🎙️ (microphone)	Record a voice note that sends as a true WhatsApp voice message.
Shift + Enter	Insert a newline without sending.
Enter	Send the message.

🧩 MERGE FIELDS RESOLVE PER RECIPIENT

A merge token like {contact_first_name} is only resolved when the message is actually sent, using the chat contact's CRM record. If that field is empty, the token resolves to blank — so check your data before sending personalised messages.

🔒 READ-ONLY USERS

A team member can be granted read-only access to the inbox — they can open and browse every chat but the composer is disabled, so they cannot send messages. Assign this via the user's role permissions.

4.4 Message Types You Can Send and Receive

Type	Send	Receive	Allowed Extensions	Max Size	Notes
Text	✓	✓	—	—	Up to 4096 characters. Markdown formatting supported.
Image	✓	✓	.jpeg, .png, .jpg	5 MB	MIME types: image/jpeg, image/png.
Video	✓	✓	.mp4, .3gp	16 MB	MIME types: video/mp4, video/3gpp.
Audio	✓	✓	.mp3, .m4a, .amr	16 MB	MIME types: audio/mpeg, audio/mp4, audio/amr.
Voice note	✓	✓	—	—	Recorded straight in the browser, sent as a true WhatsApp voice message (not a generic audio file).
Document	✓	✓	.pdf, .doc, .docx, .txt, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx	100 MB	All standard Office and PDF MIME types accepted.
Sticker	—	✓	.webp	0.1 MB	MIME type: image/webp. Animated WebP supported on receive.
Location	✓	✓	—	—	Pin a point on a map; optionally add a name and address.
Contact card	✓	✓	—	—	Pick one or more contacts from your CRM. Sent as vCard.
Reaction (emoji)	—	✓	—	—	Incoming reactions are shown as an emoji on the target bubble. Sending reactions isn't supported.
Reply / quote	✓	✓	—	—	Includes a snippet of the original message above the reply.
Forward	—	✓	—	—	Forwarded messages are flagged with WhatsApp's standard arrow icon.
Delete for everyone	✓	n/a	—	—	Only your own messages, only within WhatsApp's deletion window.

📎 FILE VALIDATION

Allowed extensions and size limits are enforced at upload time. Files that don't match the extension or exceed the size cap are rejected before sending — you'll see an inline error on the composer.

4.5 Message Status

Each outgoing message goes through a series of states, shown as ticks on the bubble:

State	What it means
Pending · clock icon	The message has been created but hasn't reached WhatsApp yet.
Queued · clock icon	The message is waiting in the send queue (used for background/async sends). It moves to Sent once the worker delivers it.
Sent · single tick	WhatsApp accepted the message. The recipient's phone hasn't received it yet.
Delivered · double tick	The recipient's phone got the message. They haven't opened it.
Read · double blue tick	The recipient opened the chat. Hidden if they have read receipts disabled.
Failed · red icon	WhatsApp rejected the message. Hover for the error reason.

👁️ READ RECEIPTS ARE OPT-IN ON THE RECIPIENT'S SIDE

If a recipient has read receipts disabled in their WhatsApp settings, messages will never show the blue double-tick — even if they've actually read them. This is a WhatsApp privacy setting and there's no way around it.

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Now that you know the inbox, head to Managing Your Connection for connection statuses and reconnect flows.