Flows
Build interactive WhatsApp Flows in Lynkist — multi-screen forms for booking, lead capture, and surveys, right inside the chat.
A Flow is an interactive form that runs inside WhatsApp. Instead of a back-and-forth of typed questions, the customer taps a button and gets a structured screen with inputs — dropdowns, text fields, dates — and submits it without leaving the chat. Think appointment booking, lead capture, feedback surveys, or order forms.
Flows are powered by Meta's WhatsApp Flows feature; Lynkist gives you a builder so you don't have to write the underlying JSON by hand.
When to use a Flow vs. a Template vs. the inbox
- Template — one-way structured message (an alert, a promo, an update).
- Inbox reply — free-form human conversation inside the 24-hour window.
- Flow — when you need the customer to give you structured data back: a date, a choice, a filled-in form. Flows collect clean, validated responses instead of parsing free text.
Creating a flow
Go to Flows → Create flow. You'll set:
- Flow name — internal, e.g. Appointment booking.
- Categories — pick at least one. Categories describe the flow's purpose (Meta uses them for review and the UI uses them for filtering).
This creates a Draft flow and opens the builder.
Building screens and fields
A flow is made of one or more screens. Each screen has:
- A screen title — what the customer sees at the top, e.g. Book an appointment.
- A set of form fields under Text & inputs.
For each form field you configure:
- Display — the label the customer reads.
- Field name (in responses) — the key the answer is stored under, e.g.
full_name. This is how the submitted value comes back to you, so name it clearly. - Options — for choice-style fields (dropdowns/radios), the list the customer can pick from.
End the screen with a Submit button label (e.g. Submit). When the customer taps it, their answers are sent back to Lynkist keyed by the field names you defined.
Keep field names stable and descriptive (preferred_date, party_size). If you connect a flow
to automation or the API later, those keys are what you read the responses from.
Publishing
Flows move through a lifecycle, shown in the Flows list:
- Draft — editable, not yet usable in production.
- Published — live and ready to attach to a message.
- Deprecated — retired; kept for reference but no longer sent.
While building, save as a draft and iterate. When the flow is ready, publish it. Published flows can then be sent to customers (for example, triggered from a template button or the inbox).
Test a flow on your own number before publishing it to customers. Once people are mid-flow, you don't want to discover a field name typo or a missing dropdown option.
Managing your flows
The Flows list supports filtering by category and status, so a workspace with many flows stays navigable. From here you can edit a draft, publish, deprecate, or delete a flow.