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A Canned Reply is a saved piece of text your agents can drop into a conversation with one click. No AI is involved — the text is stored as-is and inserted as-is. Use canned replies when:
  • The same answer appears in dozens of conversations (“Our hours are…”, “Here’s our pricing PDF…”).
  • You want consistent wording across agents.
  • You need a fast way to handle high-volume questions.
Canned replies are static. If the answer needs to adapt to the customer’s specific question, use an AI Prompt instead.

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Where canned replies live

Canned replies are managed inside Chat. Open the Live Inbox, then open the secondary panel and choose Canned Replies to see the full library.

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Create a canned reply

1

Open the canned reply library

Go to Chat → Canned Replies in the secondary panel.
2

Click 'Create Canned Reply'

A small form opens with two fields.
3

Enter a title

A short, recognisable name — for example “Business hours”, “Pricing PDF”, “Refund policy”. The title is what agents search by in the picker.
4

Enter the description (the reply text)

Type the full message body that should be inserted into the composer. Plain text. You may use WhatsApp formatting (*bold*, _italic_) if you want.
5

Save

Immediately available to every agent — no reload needed.
Canned replies in Xobito have exactly two fields: title and description. There are no shortcut aliases, categories, or variables — what you write in the description is exactly what gets inserted.

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Using a canned reply

1

Open any conversation

Go to Chat and pick a conversation.
2

Click the canned-reply icon

In the chat composer, next to the paperclip attachment button, click the canned-reply icon (chat-bubble icon). A picker opens listing every saved reply.
3

Search by title

Start typing to filter — the list narrows as you type against the reply titles.
4

Click a reply to insert

The description text drops into the composer exactly as written.
5

Edit if needed, then send

Canned replies are a starting point — edit freely before pressing send.
Pick short, distinctive titles. “Hours” is easier to search than “Standard business opening hours statement”. Agents will skim and click.

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Editing and deleting

  • Edit — open the reply from the library and change the title or description. Changes apply instantly. Conversations that already used an older copy keep their pasted text.
  • Delete — removes the reply from every agent’s picker. Past usage in conversations stays as regular sent text.

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Permissions

Access is controlled by these permissions, granted per role in Roles & Permissions:
PermissionWhat it unlocks
tenant.canned_reply.viewSee and insert canned replies from the composer picker
tenant.canned_reply.createAdd new canned replies to the library
tenant.canned_reply.editEdit existing canned replies
tenant.canned_reply.deleteRemove canned replies from the library
Typical setup: agents get view; managers and admins get all four.

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Best practices

WhatsApp users skim. A canned reply that’s 300 words will feel like a wall of text. Aim for 2–4 short sentences per reply.
Since the picker searches on titles only, make each title easy to find. “Refund policy”, “Shipping ETA”, “Office hours” — not “Reply 1”, “Reply 2”.
Canned replies drift out of date — prices change, hours move, the returns policy gets updated. Put a quarterly calendar reminder to review the library.
"We'll get back to you in 2 hours" becomes a lie the first time your team is swamped. "We'll get back to you shortly" is safer.
Xobito doesn’t group replies by language. If you support multiple languages, create one reply per language and include the language in the title, e.g. “Hours (EN)”, “Hours (ES)”.

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Troubleshooting

The icon appears next to the attachment paperclip in the chat composer. If it’s missing, check that your role has the tenant.canned_reply.view permission.
Confirm the reply is saved (not still open in the editor). Reopen the picker — the list refreshes each time it opens.
WhatsApp formatting needs clean asterisks and underscores: *bold* with spaces around. *bold text* works, * bold text * and text*bold*text often don’t.

AI Prompts

For replies that need to respond to the actual customer question.

Live Inbox

Where your canned replies get used.