Contextual replies | Developer Documentation

Contextual replies

Updated: Oct 21, 2025

Contextual replies are a special way of responding to a WhatsApp user message. Sending a message as a contextual reply makes it clearer to the user which message you are replying to by quoting the previous message in a contextual bubble:

Limitations

You cannot send a reaction message as a contextual reply.

The contextual bubble will not appear at the top of the delivered message if:

The previous message has been deleted or moved to long term storage (messages are typically moved to long term storage after 30 days, unless you have enabled local storage).You reply with an audio, image, or video message and the WhatsApp user is running KaiOS.You use the WhatsApp client to reply with a push-to-talk? message and the WhatsApp user is running KaiOS.You reply with a template message.