Flows
A flow defines how your chatbot interacts with users. The platform supports two distinct flow types — each suited to different kinds of experiences. Understanding the difference helps you pick the right tool for your use case.
Both flow types share the same editor shell: a visual canvas, a JSON IDE, a live Chat Preview, and the same Save → Validate → Publish workflow.
What it is
A Conversation Flow is a state-machine chatbot. You define a set of states (steps in the conversation) and transitions that move the bot from one state to another based on what the user says. It works across all channels — WhatsApp, Web Widget, REST API, and SMS.
Use this when you need a scripted conversation: gathering information step by step, answering FAQs, routing users to the right department, or orchestrating backend calls based on user input.
What you can do
- Design multi-step conversations using a visual node-and-arrow canvas
- Add states that send messages, call webhooks, or query a Knowledge Base
- Create transitions triggered by keywords, regex patterns, or NLU intents
- Train intent detection with example phrases for natural language understanding
- Edit the underlying JSON directly in the built-in Monaco IDE
- Simulate the full conversation in the live Chat Preview before publishing
- Validate then publish — errors are shown as inline markers in the editor
What it is
A Meta Flow is a WhatsApp Business Flow — a screen-based interactive experience rendered natively inside WhatsApp. Instead of back-and-forth text messages, users tap through rich UI screens with forms, buttons, date pickers, and carousels, all without leaving the WhatsApp app.
Use this when you need structured data collection — booking a service, completing a registration, running a survey, or any scenario where a polished in-app form experience is better than a text conversation.
What you can do
- Design screen-by-screen interactive experiences rendered natively in WhatsApp
- Choose from 20+ component types: text inputs, date pickers, checkboxes, carousels, and more
- Wire screens together with click actions: Navigate, Complete, Data Exchange, Open URL
- Submit form data to your backend mid-flow with the Data Exchange action
- Undo and redo up to 50 steps during editing
- Preview the full flow interaction in the Chat Preview panel
- Validate against the WhatsApp Business Flows specification, then publish
Quick comparison
| Conversation Flow | Meta Flow | |
|---|---|---|
| Interaction model | Text messages | Interactive screens |
| Works on WhatsApp | Yes | Yes |
| Works on Web Widget / REST | Yes | Coming soon |
| Best for | Scripted chat, FAQs, routing | Forms, bookings, surveys |
| Undo / redo | No | Yes (50 steps) |
| NLU / intent detection | Yes | No |
| LLM Agent | Yes | No |