Send follow-up messages when someone doesn't reply — and cancel them when they do

Some conversations just stop. A customer asks about your offer, gets your answer — and goes quiet. A friendly follow-up a few hours later often gets things moving again. With AutoResponder you can automate exactly that: send a follow-up only if the person hasn't replied in the meantime.

The trick is the combination of two features: multiple replies within one rule and the rule option "Cancel all delayed replies from other rules for the same contact". It works on WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Telegram, Signal and Viber.

Step 1: Put the follow-up into your rule

Create the rule that answers the initial message, and give it at least two replies (tap the + next to the reply field):

• Reply 1: "Our service costs $9.99 per month. Would you like a free trial?"

• Reply 2: "Just checking in — are you still interested? I'm happy to answer any questions 😊"

Set multiple replies to Send all, and set the delay between the replies to how long you want to wait — for example 10800 seconds for 3 hours (use min/max to set random delays in that range). The first reply is sent right away (but it can also have its own delay); the second one is now scheduled as a delayed reply, visible in the delayed reply notification with its planned send time.

Step 2: Cancel the follow-up when they answer

Now the important part: if the customer responds before those 3 hours are up, the follow-up must not be sent. Open the rules that handle their responses — or simply a wildcard rule matching * that catches everything else — and enable the checkbox "Cancel all delayed replies from other rules for the same contact".

That's it. When the customer writes back, that rule triggers, quietly discards the scheduled follow-up, and sends its own reply. If the customer stays silent, nothing cancels the follow-up and it goes out as planned. You get persistence without ever double-texting someone who already answered — and it works per contact, so every conversation has its own independent follow-ups.

You can even chain it: give the rule three or more replies (answer → nudge after 3 hours → another nudge 3 hours after that) and a single response from the contact cancels everything that's still pending. Note that the delay you set applies between each of the replies, so the reminders are evenly spaced.

More things you can build with it

Honor a STOP request. If contacts have queued messages — reminder sequences, scheduled promotions — a rule for STOP with the cancel option drops everything still scheduled for them and can confirm the opt-out. No awkward "one last message" after the goodbye.

Keep menus and conversation flows on track. In conversation flows with submenus, users change their mind. If someone types "menu" to start over while the support branch still has a delayed "An agent will get back to you shortly…" pending, that message would arrive out of context. Enable the cancel option on your navigation rules and every jump to a new branch cleans up the old one.

Build a "time's up" that knows when to stay quiet. Ask a quiz question with a second reply after 60 seconds: "⏰ Time's up!". Give the answer rules (A, B, C…) the cancel option — answering in time cancels the timeout message. The same pattern handles reservations: "Your table is held for 15 minutes — reply YES to confirm", where YES cancels the pending "We've released your reservation."

How it works

AutoResponder keeps track of all pending delayed replies per contact (group chats count as one contact). When a rule with the cancel option triggers, all of that contact's pending replies are removed — no matter which rule scheduled them — and only then is the new rule's own reply sent or scheduled. So the triggering rule's replies are safe, including their own delays and follow-ups. Other contacts' pending replies are never touched.

Good to know

• Pending delayed replies appear as notifications (if Delayed reply notifications is enabled in the general settings) with Cancel and Send now buttons — the cancel option simply automates what you could do there by hand.

• Cancellation only happens when the rule actually triggers; a message that doesn't match cancels nothing.

• Cancelled replies are gone for good — they are not sent later.

• If the follow-up should sound natural, use a delay range (min/max) so it isn't sent at a suspiciously exact interval.