Anti-Ban Guards
Automated replies are convenient, but a number that fires instant, identical responses all day looks like a bot — and WhatsApp bans bots. Loopwave runs four guards before any auto-reply goes out. An automation must clear all four, or the reply is silently skipped.
The four guards
- Per-chat cooldown (default 5 min)
After replying to a chat, Loopwave won’t auto-reply to that same chat again until the cooldown passes. The default is 5 minutes and is configurable per automation (0–1440 minutes). This stops a back-and-forth from triggering a rapid-fire loop.
- Global rate cap (~8/min)
Across all chats, Loopwave sends at most about 8 auto-replies per minute. Even if a hundred messages arrive at once, replies are metered so the number never spikes.
- Ready-check
Loopwave only sends through a number whose status is ready. If the target number is disconnected, the reply is skipped rather than queued against a dead connection.
- Human-like delay (3–9s)
Before sending, Loopwave waits a random 3 to 9 seconds, so replies don’t land suspiciously instantly. Only after this pause is the message sent.
Why this order matters
The cooldown and rate cap are committed before the delay, so two messages arriving at the same instant can’t both slip through — the throttle is claimed first, then the human-like pause happens, then the message sends. This prevents race conditions from doubling up replies.
What gets skipped
An auto-reply is not sent when:
| Reason | What happened |
|---|---|
from_me | The message was sent by your team, not the customer. |
no_match | No enabled rule matched. |
cooldown | The chat is still inside its per-chat cooldown window. |
rate_limited | The global per-minute cap was already reached. |
session_not_ready | The number isn’t connected. |
Skips are quiet and safe — they never throw errors back into your inbox; the reply is simply not sent.
Group chats are excluded unless an automation explicitly opts in with reply to groups. Outbound messages from your own team never trigger auto-replies.
Tuning safely
- Raise the cooldown for chatty audiences to avoid over-replying.
- Keep the response personal with
{{name}}so even automated replies don’t look mass-produced. - Scope to one number if only a specific line should auto-reply.
Configure triggers, responses, and scope.