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Quick replies are saved responses your team can insert into any conversation by typing a forward slash in the composer, with the customer's name, phone number and email filled in automatically wherever the reply uses those placeholders. This article covers how to find and insert one, and what to do if your organisation needs a new one added.
Quick replies: first 5 of 6 steps
- 1Open a conversation
- 2Type a forward slash, then start typing
- 3Review the suggestions
- 4Click a suggestion to insert it
- 5Edit if needed, then send
Before you start
- Quick replies are available on every plan, including Free, and work across every channel in the inbox: WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and your web chat widget.
- Using a quick reply requires the same "Send messages" permission (
inbox:send) as replying at all; every role that can send a message can also insert a quick reply. - Quick replies only surface if your organisation already has some saved. If the slash shortcut shows nothing, your workspace has none configured yet; see the note on creating them below.
- Inserting a quick reply fills the composer, it does not send the message by itself, so you always get a chance to review or edit before pressing send.
Steps
- Open a conversation and click into the message composer, the same box you type a normal reply into.
- Type a forward slash, then start typing. For example, typing "/ref" would match a quick reply whose shortcut or title contains "ref," such as one for "refund policy."
- Review the suggestions. Up to six matches appear in a dropdown above the composer, each showing its shortcut in a small pill, its title, and a preview of the body text.
- Click a suggestion to insert it. The composer fills with the reply's full text, and any of the three supported placeholders it contains are already replaced: "{{name}}" becomes the contact's name, "{{phone}}" becomes their phone number, and "{{email}}" becomes their email address, if one is on file for that contact.
- Edit if needed, then send. Because inserting a quick reply only fills the composer rather than sending immediately, you can adjust wording for this specific customer, add extra detail, or delete it entirely before pressing send.
- Repeat the slash search any time mid-conversation; it works the same way whether you are replying for the first time or the fiftieth time in a thread.
Why a slash shortcut instead of a menu
A quick reply is only useful if reaching for it is faster than typing the answer yourself. VGraple CRM puts the search directly in the composer rather than behind a separate button or panel, so an agent who already knows the shortcut never has to break flow: they type "/" and the two or three characters they remember, and the reply is one click away without leaving the keyboard or opening anything else. This matters most for questions a team answers dozens of times a day, opening hours, pricing ranges, appointment booking links, refund policy, where a typed-out answer costs real seconds multiplied across every conversation.
Example
A clinic's front desk gets the same three questions constantly: "What are your timings," "Do I need to book in advance," and "Where are you located." Three quick replies with shortcuts like "timings," "booking" and "location" mean an agent answers each in under two seconds by typing "/tim," "/book" or "/loc" and clicking the match, rather than retyping the same paragraph by hand fifteen times in a shift.
Because quick replies are organisation-wide rather than per-agent, a new teammate benefits from every quick reply the team has already built up, from their very first shift, without needing to be taught the answers to common questions by a colleague first.
What you will see
Typing a forward slash and a few letters shows a floating list directly above the composer, narrowed live as you keep typing, with the matched shortcut highlighted in a small code-style pill next to each option's title and body preview. Selecting one replaces whatever you had typed in the composer with the reply's full text, variables already resolved, ready to send or edit. If no quick replies exist yet for your organisation, typing a slash shows no suggestions at all rather than an error, since the search simply has nothing to match against.
Settings and options
| Setting or behaviour | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Slash trigger | Typing "/" followed by text searches quick reply shortcuts and titles | Always on for any teammate who can send messages |
| Suggestion limit | Up to 6 matching quick replies shown at once | Fixed |
| "{{name}}" placeholder | Fills with the contact's name from their contact record | Blank if no name is on file |
| "{{phone}}" placeholder | Fills with the contact's phone number | Blank if unavailable |
| "{{email}}" placeholder | Fills with the contact's email address | Blank if none on file |
| Scope | Shared across every channel and every teammate in the organisation | Organisation-wide |
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Typing a slash shows nothing at all | Your organisation has no quick replies saved yet | Contact VGraple CRM support to have your first set added |
| A placeholder like "{{name}}" appears literally in the sent message | The contact record has no name (or phone, or email) on file for that placeholder | Add the missing detail to the contact record, or edit the message manually before sending |
| A quick reply I expected is missing from the results | Your search text does not match its shortcut or title closely enough | Try a shorter or different fragment of the shortcut or title |
| The same quick reply looks different on mobile than on web | This should not happen since both read the same organisation list; check you are viewing the same organisation on both devices | Confirm you are signed into the same workspace on the Android app as the web session |
| I need a new quick reply added or an existing one changed | There is no self-serve creation screen in the web app yet | Contact VGraple CRM support, Monday to Friday, 10 AM to 7 PM IST, with the shortcut, title and body text you want |
Related reading
Quick replies work well inside the 24-hour messaging window; once that window closes, see sending a template from the inbox for how the composer switches to Meta-approved templates instead.