Creating a behavior rule
Open the Behaviors view
Open the Whatsy app and click Behaviors in the left sidebar. You’ll see a list of your existing rules, each showing its condition type, trigger value, and current enabled/disabled state.
Add a new rule
Click the + New Rule button in the top-right corner. The rule editor opens as a sheet on top of the Behaviors view.
Name the rule
Enter a descriptive name in the Rule Name field so you can identify it at a glance (e.g. “Skip newsletter keywords”, “Work contacts – formal persona”, “Quiet hours 10pm–8am”).
Choose a condition type
Open the Condition dropdown and select one of the four condition types:
- Keyword Match — triggers when the message text contains a specific word or phrase
- Contact Label — triggers for contacts tagged with a specific WhatsApp label
- Time of Day — triggers during a specified hour range
- Message Type — triggers for a specific media type (e.g.
image,video,any)
Enter the condition value
Fill in the value field that appears below the condition picker. The label updates to guide you — for example, Keyword to match, Contact label, or Hours range (e.g. 9-17). Enter the exact text, label name, hour range, or message type you want to match.
Choose an action
Open the Action dropdown and select what Whatsy should do when the condition matches:
- Skip Reply — ignores the message; no reply is sent
- Reply with Persona — uses a specific persona instead of the currently active one
- Notify Only — logs the message without sending a reply
- Archive — archives the conversation automatically
Condition types
| Condition | What it matches |
|---|---|
| Keyword Match | Any incoming message whose text contains the specified word or phrase (case-insensitive) |
| Contact Label | Messages from contacts that have been tagged with a specific label inside WhatsApp |
| Time of Day | Messages that arrive within a specified hour range, entered as start-end (e.g. 22-8 for 10pm–8am) |
| Message Type | Messages of a specific media type; use any to match all types, or values like image or video |
Action types
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Skip Reply | Whatsy takes no action; the message is received but not replied to and not logged as an auto-reply event |
| Reply with Persona | Whatsy replies using the persona whose ID you specify in the Persona ID field, overriding the active persona for this message only |
| Notify Only | The message is logged in the activity feed but no reply is sent; useful for monitoring certain contacts without automating responses |
| Archive | Whatsy archives the conversation; no reply is sent; useful for suppressing known spam or marketing threads |
Example rules
Here are three real-world rules you can create right away: 1. Ignore marketing messages| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Skip unsubscribe keywords |
| Condition | Keyword Match |
| Condition value | unsubscribe |
| Action | Skip Reply |
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Work contacts – professional persona |
| Condition | Contact Label |
| Condition value | work |
| Action | Reply with Persona |
| Persona ID | the-professional |
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | No replies 10pm–8am |
| Condition | Time of Day |
| Condition value | 22-8 |
| Action | Skip Reply |
Rules are evaluated from top to bottom in the order they appear in your Behaviors list. The first rule whose condition matches a given message is the one that gets applied — subsequent rules are not checked. If you need more specific rules to take priority, drag them above more general ones.