WhatsApp Flows for Pro+ tenants — multi-step forms inside the chat

Pro and Enterprise tenants connected to Meta WhatsApp Cloud API can now send multi-screen interactive forms — Meta's native WhatsApp Flows. A customer sees a single card in the chat ("Open form"), taps it, an in-app sheet slides up in under a second, they tap through 1-5 screens of structured inputs (text, dropdown, radio, checkbox, date picker, photo upload), and submit. The response lands back in the same WhatsApp conversation as a synthesised user message your AI processes in context.

Flows is a meaningful upgrade over the current "AI types five questions, customer answers one" pattern. Sub-second open from the chat, no Typeform / Google Form link, no separate browser tab, no re-typing email and phone. The friction between "interested customer" and "qualified lead" goes from minutes to seconds.

Botline v1 ships paste-only authoring — you build the Flow JSON in Meta's visual Flow Builder at business.facebook.com, validate it inside their previewer, and paste the JSON into Botline at Dashboard → WhatsApp → Flows. Give the Flow a memorable slug (e.g. lead_capture, support_intake, post_purchase_nps), pick a category, and click Submit to Meta. Approval is fast: utility/support flows usually return Published within minutes, marketing flows within hours. A drag-and-drop editor inside Botline ships in v2.

The responder AI gets a new prompt block listing every published Flow on your account by slug. When a customer signals an intent that matches — "I want to book a demo", "I have a complaint", "can you help me with my order?" — the AI emits an XML-like tag in its reply: <flow id="lead_capture" />. Botline strips the tag from the customer-visible text, resolves the slug, and sends the Flow card. The same XML-tag pattern that powers <button-menu />, <list />, and <catalog /> in the rest of the interactive library.

Open Broadcasts → + New broadcast and pick template kind Flow send — the third option alongside Marketing Templates and Catalog Drops. The 4-step composer is identical to a regular broadcast: pick the published Flow, pick an audience (filter active conversations or upload an E.164 CSV), schedule, review with cost preflight. Quality-rating guardrails apply (Yellow soft warning, Red blocks marketing-category Flows), opted-out contacts auto-skip.

Every Flow submission writes to both the customer's WhatsApp conversation (as a synthesised user message your AI processes in context, with the structured payload attached) and the Flow detail page /dashboard/whatsapp/flows → tap any Flow → Responses tab. Every submission is logged with timestamp, contact phone, and the full JSON. Export to CSV from there for analysis or import into your CRM.

WhatsApp Flows are included on the Pro and Enterprise plans at no upcharge from Botline. You pay Meta directly per Cloud API conversation rate (Flow sends are billed as marketing-tier or utility-tier depending on the category you author with) — Botline takes nothing on top.

Read the full how-to with use-case worked examples and a troubleshooting checklist: Multi-step WhatsApp Flows: forms inside the chat, no external links.