WhatsApp Flows explained, with ten examples for Indian businesses

WhatsApp Flows are forms that open inside a WhatsApp chat. The customer taps a button, fills in fields such as their name, a date or a choice from a dropdown, and submits, without leaving WhatsApp or opening a website. Businesses use them for lead forms, booking requests, feedback, sign-ups and quotes, and the answers come back as tidy data instead of a long chat.

How does a WhatsApp Flow work?

For the customer:

1. 1A message arrives with a button, such as “Book a visit”.
2. 2Tapping it opens a form over the chat.
3. 3They fill it in and press submit.
4. 4The chat shows a short summary of what they sent.

For the business, a Flow is built, then published with Meta, then sent. Meta’s lifecycle has three states you control (Meta: lifecycle of a Flow):

Meta’s own introduction is in Get started with WhatsApp Flows.

Why use a Flow instead of chat questions?

Ten WhatsApp Flow examples

These are the ten ready-made forms in Fliok. The fields shown are suggestions; change them to fit your business.

1. 1Qualify a lead. What they need, budget, timeline and city, before your team calls. Good for real estate, B2B and services.
2. 2Book an appointment. A preferred day and time, and the service. Your team confirms. Clinics, salons and consultants use this.
3. 3Ask for feedback. A rating and a comment after an order or a visit.
4. 4Sign someone up. Name, email and a tick box for updates, for a class, a programme or a membership.
5. 5Net Promoter Score. How likely they are to recommend you, from 0 to 10, and why.
6. 6Request a quote. Product, quantity and delivery location. Useful for wholesalers, manufacturers and printers.
7. 7Register for an event. Name, number of people and a session choice, for a workshop or a launch.
8. 8Job application. The role, experience and a phone number, when hiring for a shop or a team.
9. 9Request a call back. A good time to call and the topic, so the right person rings at the right time.
10. 10Return or exchange. Order number, the item and the reason, before a person takes over.

What fields can a Flow have?

Fliok’s form builder offers Short answer, Long answer, Number, Email, Phone number, Dropdown, Pick one, Pick several, Date and Tick box (consent). For a form with several pages, the Advanced editor takes Meta’s Flow JSON directly and shows a phone preview. Meta’s full list of components is in Flow components.

How to build and send a Flow in Fliok

1. 1Open Chatbots, then the Forms tab. Start from one of the ten forms above or a blank one.
2. 2Edit the fields in the simple editor: label, type, and whether each is required.
3. 3Publish. An admin publishes the form to Meta from Fliok. Once published it is fixed, so to change it later, make a new form and retire the old one.
4. 4Send it from the inbox with Send a form, in a chat where the customer has written in the last 24 hours, or from a chatbot with the Form step, for example straight after a customer taps “Book a visit”.
5. 5Read the answers. Each submission shows on the message in the chat, is saved on the contact, and is listed under Responses in the form. On Pro, a signed webhook can pass it to your own systems as it arrives.

Forms are on the Basic plan and above. More on the WhatsApp Flows page.

An example journey: a chatbot that books a visit

Flows are at their best inside a chatbot, where the customer never has to type a date:

1. 1A customer messages “site visit” after seeing your ad.
2. 2A chatbot answers with three buttons: Book a visit, Price list, Talk to us.
3. 3They tap Book a visit, and the bot’s Form step sends your Book an appointment form.
4. 4They pick a day, a time slot and the project, and submit.
5. 5The answers are saved on the contact, and a Hand to team step assigns the chat to the sales person for that project, who confirms the slot.

The same pattern works for a clinic (service and preferred time), a coaching institute (class, subject and a demo slot) or a wholesaler (product, quantity and city for a quote).

What a Flow in Fliok does not do yet

• No Flow buttons on templates. Fliok sends forms inside open chats, not as part of a broadcast.
• No live availability. The ready-made booking form collects a preference; it does not read your calendar.
• No changes after publishing. A published form is fixed; make a new one to change it.

Tips for Flows customers finish

• Ask only what you will use. Every field is a reason to stop.
• One screen if you can. Multi-page forms are for things that really need them.
• Use choices instead of typing wherever the answers are predictable.
• Say what happens next on the button and in your follow-up message: “We will confirm your slot within an hour.”
• Keep consent separate. A tick box for marketing updates, unticked, is the honest way to ask.

Frequently asked questions

What is a WhatsApp Flow?

A form that opens inside a WhatsApp chat. The customer fills in fields such as a name, a date or a dropdown and submits it without leaving WhatsApp, and the business receives the answers as structured data.

Do WhatsApp Flows cost extra?

Meta charges for the message that carries the form like any other message: inside the 24-hour window that is a service message, charged at the utility rate since 1 October 2026 once a number has used its first 1,000 free service messages of the month. In Fliok, forms are on the Basic plan and above.

Can I send a WhatsApp Flow to someone who has not messaged me?

Meta allows a Flow to be attached to an approved template. In Fliok, forms are sent in open chats, from the inbox or a chatbot, so the customer needs to have written to you in the last 24 hours.

Can a WhatsApp Flow book from a live calendar?

A Flow can do that if it is connected to a booking system through an endpoint. Fliok’s ready-made Book an appointment form collects the customer’s preferred day and time for your team to confirm; it does not check a live calendar.

Where do the answers go?

In Fliok, each submission appears in the chat, is saved on the contact, and is listed under Responses in the form. On Pro, a signed webhook sends it to your own systems.