WhatsApp Away Message Generator
Three lines that keep you in the running while you are closed, on a job, or with a client in the chair.
Free, no sign-up. Everything happens in your browser - we never see what you type.
No price field, on purpose. A number with no context invites a comparison you are not in the room for.
The short one
197 characters
Three lines. This is the one most owners should paste.
Hi, thanks for your message. We do have space this week. In the meantime, tell us what you need and when, and we can get straight to it. We read everything at 09:00 and we’ll come back to you then.
With a reason
225 characters
Same three lines, plus why nobody is answering. Reads warmer.
Hi, thanks for your message. We’re closed at the moment. We do have space this week. In the meantime, tell us what you need and when, and we can get straight to it. We read everything at 09:00 and we’ll come back to you then.
Holding only
117 characters
No question. For when you cannot act on the answer until you are back anyway.
Hi, thanks for your message. We’re closed at the moment. We read everything at 09:00 and we’ll come back to you then.
What this generator actually writes
It writes the same three lines every time, because those are the three that keep you in the running. Line one says what you can do. Line two asks for the one thing you still need to know. Line three gives them a time. We call it the Three-Line Reply, and an away message is the version of it that works while your hands are full.
Most bookings are not won on quality. They are won by whoever answered first. Your customer messaged four businesses on the same evening, because that costs them nothing, so you are not being judged against the studio down the road on work. You are being judged on who was there while they were still deciding.
Two things it leaves out on purpose
There is no price field and there is no apology. Both feel professional and both make a first reply weaker.
- The price. A number with no context invites a comparison you are not in the room for. Price it when you are talking.
- The apology. “Sorry for the late reply” tells them you are slow. They had not noticed until you said it.
The same goes for your full list of services and a link to a contact form. One is a brochure when they asked about one thing, and the other asks someone to do admin in order to give you money.
Where to paste it
Away messages are a WhatsApp Business app feature. They do not exist in the normal WhatsApp app, and the Business app is free.
1. Save your opening hours first
Open your business profile and fill in your hours before anything else. The scheduling option most owners want is locked until those hours exist, and that one skipped step is why a lot of away messages never fire.
2. Turn the away message on
In the Tools tab, tap Away message, then turn on Send away message. Tap the message itself, paste what you copied above, and tap OK.
3. Check who receives it
Under Recipients, everyone who is not in your address book is usually the sane setting for a shop or a studio. Your suppliers and your sister do not need an auto-reply.
The longer version, including the second setting that quietly stops all of this working, is in how to stop losing WhatsApp enquiries after hours.
What an away message will not fix
It covers one move out of four. A small business week leaks in a pattern: a message lands mid-job, the thread gets rebuilt from memory the next morning, the same quote gets typed twice, and the lead goes to whoever answered first. An away message touches the first one.
That is still worth fifteen minutes tonight, because move one is where the other three start. But if you have typed the same quote forty times this month, no setting inside WhatsApp fixes that. It is a process problem, and our rule is never automate chaos - diagnose it, put it in your own words, make it happen the same way every time, and only then bring anything clever near it.
Questions owners ask us
Where do I paste the message once I have it?
In the WhatsApp Business app, open the Tools tab, tap Away message, turn on Send away message, then tap the message itself to edit the text and tap OK. Save your opening hours in your business profile first, or the scheduling option stays locked.
Why does the generator not include my prices?
Because a price with no context invites a comparison you are not in the room for. Ask what they need and when, then price it when you are actually talking to them.
Do you store what I type into this tool?
No. The whole thing runs in your browser and the message never leaves it. This is a static site, so there is no endpoint for it to be sent to even if we wanted one.
How long should a WhatsApp away message be?
Short enough to read on a lock screen. Three lines does the job: what you can do, the one thing you need, and when they will hear back. Anything longer gets skimmed.
Can I use the same message for Facebook and Google Business Profile?
The wording carries over, the settings do not. Facebook Pages and your Google Business Profile each hold their own messaging hours, and each one has to be saved separately.
My away message is set up but nothing sends. What is wrong?
Almost always one of two things. Your opening hours are not saved in the business profile, so the outside-of-hours schedule cannot run. Or the phone is off or offline, and WhatsApp sends nothing while it is.
If the same reply keeps getting typed by hand
I built this because I was sick of rebuilding yesterday’s messages from memory. If you want to work out where your own enquiries are going, we can have a short conversation about it. No slides, no PDF from abroad, and nothing to buy on the call.
Message us on WhatsApp and tell us what your last missed enquiry looked like. If we can help, we will. If we cannot, we will say so.
Other free tools
- Enquiry Reply Template GeneratorThree replies worth saving as shortcuts: a first enquiry, a hold, and a clean no - all in the same three lines.
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