Replify routes each inbound customer turn through one ordered response path. This reduces the risk of a guided flow, automation, AI, and teammate replying to the same message.
The response order
- Active human or admin owner. If a human task is open, the message stays with that owner. Automated responders remain silent.
- Active guided flow. A flow may consume a button, list, collected value, or expected reply. It can continue the guided path, finish it, or create a real human handoff.
- Automation reply waits and response-claiming automations. A waiting automation or a customer-facing step can claim the turn. Silent record updates do not block the next responder.
- AI agent. If the selected response mode permits AI and no prior layer claimed the response, AI evaluates the message.
- Human queue. If nobody sends a safe reply, Replify creates human work. When auto-assignment is enabled, an eligible teammate receives it; otherwise it remains unassigned.
What the three response modes mean
AI replies only
New content-triggered message and keyword automations cannot send customer replies. Silent operational updates can still run, and already-active guided replies or automation waits may continue. AI answers other unclaimed messages and hands off when needed.
Automations only
AI never replies automatically. Automations can claim the response. If none does, the message goes to the team queue.
Both — automation priority
Automations run first, but a match alone does not suppress AI. Only an automation that actually claims the customer response wins the turn. This allows silent tagging or CRM updates to happen before AI without losing the reply.
Where flows fit
Flows are supporting routers for structured WhatsApp journeys, such as menus, list choices, and controlled data collection. They are not the default tool for every conversation. Use an automation for deterministic business actions and AI for grounded conversational answers.
Duplicate-reply protection
The shared inbound orchestrator uses a per-message turn claim before automations, AI, or the human fallback take ownership. Guided flows are evaluated first and use active-run, node-pointer, and provider-message guards. Replify also checks whether a human or bot replied after the inbound message to reduce duplicate replies during retries.
Failure and fallback
- If AI is disabled, out of replies, outside the active subscription, or over a plan limit, the message moves to human work.
- If AI cannot ground an answer, chooses handoff, or fails at the provider, the case moves to human work with a reason.
- If an automation can fail after claiming a response, give it an explicit failure branch or human assignment and monitor its execution log; do not assume every continuation can retry safely.
- If a flow handoff or fallback is reached, Replify creates a human task and pauses AI for that case.
Recommended default
Use Both — automation priority when you have a small set of tested deterministic automations and want AI to handle the conversational remainder. Use Automations only during early setup or strict controlled operations. Use AI replies only when content-triggered automations must not speak to customers.
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