What Customer Service Window means
The customer-service window is the 24-hour period that opens each time a customer sends a business a message on WhatsApp. While the window is open, the business can reply with free-form service messages — text, media, interactive content — without using a pre-approved template. Every new inbound message from that customer resets the 24 hours.
When the window closes, the business can no longer send free-form messages to that customer and must use an approved message template to reach them again, which reopens a conversation. This is the mechanism that keeps businesses responsive to customers who reach out while requiring consent-based templates to initiate contact.
Understanding the window is central to both cost and workflow: free-form service replies inside it are free today (though Meta plans to begin charging for service messages from 1 October 2026), and utility templates sent inside an open window are free too, so InfiQ's shared team inbox is built around handling these live conversations before the window closes.
