HeyBirdy and WhatsApp terms explained
Quick answer
HeyBirdy terms such as Instant Answers, Knowledge Hub and chat alerts describe how your AI assistant learns and hands chats to your team. WhatsApp terms such as WABA, templates and the 24-hour window come from Meta and decide what you can send and when.
The words you meet in HeyBirdy come from two places. Some are ours and describe how your AI assistant and your team work together. Others come from Meta, which runs WhatsApp, and decide what you are allowed to send and when. This page explains both in plain terms, grouped by where you meet them.
Your AI assistant
AI assistant
The AI that replies to your customers on WhatsApp on your behalf. It answers from what you have taught it in Instant Answers and your Knowledge Hub, and passes anything else to your team. You shape its tone and limits in AI Assistant Settings.
Instant Answers
Your list of common customer questions, each with the answer you want given, such as opening hours or the refund policy. The assistant understands different wordings of the same question and replies from your answer. See Instant Answers.
Knowledge Hub
Where you upload documents such as your menu, price list or policies (PDF, DOC, DOCX, TXT or MD) for the assistant to learn from. A document helps only after it has been trained. See Knowledge Hub.
Unanswered Questions
Questions customers asked that the assistant could not answer. Each one points to a gap in what you have taught it, so reviewing them is the quickest way to make the assistant better. See Unanswered Questions.
Chat Alerts
A chat alert is raised when the assistant passes a chat to a person because it did not have the answer. The alert goes to the agent already looking after the chat, or to whichever agent on shift has the lightest load, who replies and then marks it resolved. Chat Alerts in the sidebar lists them all. See Chat Alerts.
Owltobot
HeyBirdy's portal assistant, at the bottom of the sidebar. It helps you and your team use HeyBirdy: it answers "how do I" questions, takes you to the right page and fills in forms for you to check. It does not talk to your customers. See Ask Owltobot for help.
Replying to customers
Smart Compose
An AI writing aid. In a chat, it rewrites the message you have typed in three tones for you to pick from. In Instant Answers, it turns a rough note into a full answer. See Rewrite a reply with Smart Compose.
Quick Responses
Saved replies your team can insert into a chat instead of typing them out again. Type / at the start of a message to search them. See Quick Responses.
Automated Messages
Messages HeyBirdy sends for you without anyone typing them, such as the reply customers get outside your working hours. See Automated Messages.
Labels
Tags you put on contacts to group them, for example by interest, outlet or priority. Labels let you pick the right audience for a campaign. See Labels.
Campaigns and WhatsApp rules
Campaign
A WhatsApp template message sent to many contacts at once, such as a promotion or a festive greeting. HeyBirdy tracks delivery and lets you download a log of every recipient. See Campaigns.
Template (message template)
A message format that Meta has approved in advance. You need a template to message a customer who has not written to you in the last 24 hours, and every campaign uses one. See Templates.
24-hour customer service window
After a customer's last message, you have 24 hours to reply with any normal message. Once that window closes, you can only reach them with a template until they write to you again. Often shortened to the 24-hour window. See What is the 24-hour customer service window?.
WhatsApp and Meta
WABA (WhatsApp Business Account)
The account at Meta that holds your business's WhatsApp number, templates and messaging settings. HeyBirdy connects to it so messages flow in and out of your inbox. See WhatsApp Business.
Meta Business Manager
Meta's tool for managing your business's assets, including your WhatsApp Business Account and payment details. You sign in to it with your Meta account when you connect WhatsApp to HeyBirdy. See WhatsApp Business basics.
Quality rating
Meta's rating of how customers have received the messages you sent recently. You see it as Quality Rating on the WhatsApp Business page. See WhatsApp quality rating and messaging limits.
Messaging limit
The number of different customers you can start conversations with in a rolling 24-hour period. HeyBirdy shows it as Message Limits on the WhatsApp Business page. See WhatsApp quality rating and messaging limits.
Your team and workspace
Workspace
Your business's space in HeyBirdy: its WhatsApp number, contacts, chats, AI assistant and team. One person can belong to more than one workspace and switch between them. See Switch between workspaces.
Admin
The access level with full access to the workspace, including settings, campaigns, reports and managing the team. See Admin or Support Agent: what each can see.
Agent and Support Agent
An agent is any team member who handles customer chats. Support Agent is the access level for people who mainly reply to customers: they do not see Campaigns, Reports, Settings, Manage Team Members, Knowledge Hub or AI Assistant Settings. See Admin or Support Agent: what each can see.
Business Clock
Your workspace's time zone. It decides your weekly schedule, when off-hour messages go out and how reports are dated, wherever you happen to be. Each person's own time zone only changes how they see times. See Set your workspace time zone.
Agent Assignment
A weekly calendar where you decide which agents handle chats during which hours. See Agent Assignment.
Default Agents
The agents who handle chats during any hours that have no slot in Agent Assignment. You choose them in Workspace Settings. See Choose default agents.
Reports
Chat Analysis
HeyBirdy's review of finished chats: whether the customer was satisfied, whether their question was resolved and what they were asking about. See Chat Analysis.
Scorecard
The Weekly AI Insights scorecard: a summary of your customer conversations, emailed every Monday morning for the previous week, which you can share. See Weekly AI Insights scorecard.