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WhatsApp — Lifecycle Automation, Real Media, Real Ticks

WhatsApp now runs the appointment lifecycle for you — confirmations, reminders, reschedule requests, completed-visit reviews — and patients can pick a new slot themselves over the chat, including after a no-show. We rewrote the module because the previous “send a template manually” model required a receptionist to remember to send the right template at the right time, which they rarely had time to do.

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What’s new

  • Lifecycle automation. WhatsApp messages fire automatically on Confirm, Cancel, No-Show, Reschedule, a new booking request, a new manually-scheduled appointment, and a completed visit (with an optional Google Review survey one day later). OdontoX fills patient name, date, doctor and clinic from the appointment — no manual copy-paste.
  • Templates auto-bind to the right trigger event. The first time a template fires on an event, it binds itself to that event. No more “No WhatsApp automation bound for this event” gatekeepers.
  • Inbound media renders properly. Photos as full-bleed thumbnails you can click to expand. GIFs and short videos with native controls. Voice notes as an in-bubble pill player. Stickers float bubble-less the way they do in WhatsApp itself. PDFs and documents show as a file chip with the original filename. The old [Image] and [sticker message] placeholders are gone.
  • Real ✓ / ✓✓ / blue ticks. Outbound messages show the familiar sent / delivered / read ticks. When a staff member opens a thread, the inbound messages are reported back to Meta as “read” so the patient sees double-blue on their phone.
  • Markdown rendering. *bold*, _italic_, ~strike~ and inline code render in the chat thread. URLs autolink. XSS sanitisation runs on every render.
  • Reschedule via WhatsApp, even after a no-show. Patients who cancelled or no-showed can reschedule by replying “reschedule”. The bot picks up their most recent cancelled or no-show appointment as a fallback if no upcoming visit exists. Picking a new slot revives the appointment to Scheduled automatically.
  • Available slots respect the doctor’s schedule. The slot list in the WhatsApp reschedule flow always reflects the clinic’s operating hours and the assigned doctor’s working schedule — no generic 9 AM / 9:30 AM defaults.
  • Daily Meta reconcile. Once a day OdontoX checks every active automation against Meta. Automations whose template has been deleted or renamed are auto-disabled. Language codes that have changed sync automatically.
  • Per-tab toggles. Admins can independently enable or disable the Inbox, Templates, Automations, Quick replies, Analytics and Events tabs inside the WhatsApp module — useful when you want specific roles to see only the parts they need.
  • No more duplicate sends. The old direct-send code paths used to run alongside the lifecycle dispatcher, so admins occasionally received the same template twice. That has been removed.

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How to use it

  1. Open Settings → WhatsApp.
  2. On the Templates tab, make sure each operational template (confirmation, reminder, cancellation, reschedule, completed-visit) has been approved by Meta.
  3. On the Automations tab, check that the right template is bound to the right trigger. If you have just shipped a new template, send a test message — the binding happens automatically on the first fire.
  4. Use the Per-tab toggles at the bottom of the page to hide tabs that specific roles do not need. Receptionists usually want Inbox and Quick replies; admins keep everything.
  5. Watch the inbox. Inbound photos, voice notes, GIFs, stickers and documents all render in-place. Reply directly — your message is delivered with real ticks and stored against the appointment.

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What changed since the last revision

  • Lifecycle automation replaces manual template sends for the six core appointment events.
  • Patients can reschedule themselves over WhatsApp, even after a cancellation or no-show.
  • Inbound media is now real media, not placeholder text.
  • Delivery and read receipts mirror what the patient sees.
  • The daily reconcile against Meta keeps your automations healthy without manual intervention.
  • Per-tab toggles let admins hide parts of the module from staff who do not need them.

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Need help?

If anything is unclear, write to [email protected] or open a ticket from Settings → Support.