Answer your salon's WhatsApp 24/7 without being glued to your phone

• The free app replies outside your opening hours with a fixed text. It doesn't book or answer questions.
• The booking link from your software lets clients book on their own at any hour, but outside the chat.
• An AI receptionist answers WhatsApp at any hour and creates the appointment in your calendar. With heydiga it's an add-on at €39 a month excl. VAT on top of any plan.
• After a week of counting, you'll know whether an away message is enough for you.

What can you do for free with the WhatsApp Business app?

With the free app you can say you're away, greet people and save replies to the usual questions. You can't let anyone book.

The WhatsApp Business features page describes it like this:

• Away message: “Automatically respond to messages received outside your business hours”.
• Greeting message: sent to new customers when they start a conversation.
• Quick replies: “shortcuts for messages you send regularly”. A person triggers the shortcuts, one at a time.
• Catalogue: shows products and services; useful for keeping your service menu in view.
• Labels: organise and filter important conversations.

A client messages at 11 pm: “Have you got a slot on Saturday for highlights?” The away message tells her someone will reply tomorrow. She still has no appointment until someone reads the chat.

No booking feature appears on that Meta page, and quick replies still need a person. For a small salon that just wants to stop apologising for replying late, that is sometimes enough.

How to get it set up in an afternoon:

1. Check the hours on your business profile, because the away message relies on your business hours.
2. Write the away message with three details: when you reply, the booking link if you have one, and the phone number for anything urgent.
3. Save five quick replies: prices, how long each service takes, address, how to get there and how to change an appointment.
4. Label whatever is still pending when you close. In the morning, you start there.
5. Do the 11 pm test: message your salon from another phone outside opening hours and see what a client receives.

Can clients book on their own with your calendar's booking link?

Yes, if your appointment software offers online booking. That way clients can book at any hour without you having to reply, though outside the chat.

Here is what the pages of two programs widely used in salons say:

If you use Koibox, check in your account which online booking options it offers, because this guide didn't read its page.

The limitation is the chat: a client who asks “how long does a balayage take?” doesn't want to open an app; she wants an answer. And a booking link doesn't answer questions.

If your software gives you a link, paste it into the away message and your profile. It's the cheapest improvement after the first step. Check whether your software offers that link; neither of the two pages describes it.

When is an AI receptionist on the salon's WhatsApp worth it?

It's worth it when your out-of-hours messages are questions with an appointment at the end and you don't want them to wait until the morning. It replies in the chat itself, checks the slots that are actually free and creates the appointment.

On heydiga's WhatsApp page, this is what the channel does:

• Replies at any hour: “Messages are answered right away, at any hour”, including at night and at the weekend.
• Books: it “checks the free slots, confirms the appointment and creates it in the calendar”.
• Uses a single calendar for the phone and WhatsApp, with no duplicate appointments.
• Works with the number your clients already have saved, and receives the photos and documents they send.
• Hands the conversation to the team when needed: someone can join a chat that heydiga is handling, with the whole history.

The limits, stated plainly: heydiga doesn't improvise, and it never makes up a price, opening hours or an appointment. Anything that needs a person's judgement goes to the team.

One more thing: it doesn't replace your appointment software. It works on top of the one you already use, such as Booksy, Treatwell or Koibox.

How much does each option cost?

The app is free and the link depends on your software. heydiga's AI receptionist adds €39 a month excl. VAT to your plan.

Source for heydiga's figures: pricing, 3 November 2026. Conversational WhatsApp can be added to any plan, and each plan comes with a set number of conversations.

Two things the pricing page doesn't say and that are worth asking about: what counts as a conversation and what happens if you run out.

What does each heydiga plan already include, and what is the add-on?

WhatsApp notifications come with every plan. Conversations, meaning heydiga replying and booking by chat, are the add-on.

The pricing page puts it like this: “WhatsApp notifications come with every plan”. Those notifications are messages heydiga sends, such as the booking confirmation. Reminders before the appointment by WhatsApp and by call come with Diga Start and above. Conversational WhatsApp, the channel where clients write and get a reply, is added separately. How reminders work is explained in how to stop clients missing appointments without calling each one.

Where heydiga fits

The AI receptionist in digalook, heydiga's product for salons, handles the salon's WhatsApp and calls with the same assistant and the same information. It doesn't duplicate appointments between the two channels.

• The details of the channel are in WhatsApp and calls.
• A full day at the salon is in hair and beauty salons.
• Calls are covered in how salons handle calls and bookings.

Choose your plan and add conversational WhatsApp

A first step: the 11 pm test and a week of counting

Before paying for anything, do the test and count for a week:

1. Message your salon outside opening hours from another phone and save the screenshot.
2. Every morning, note how many messages came in overnight and how many were an appointment request.
3. Note how many waited until the morning and how many you answered yourself from home.
4. Look at how many were about a question and how many about an appointment.

If most are “on my way” messages or a question about opening hours, the away message is enough. If most are appointments, the AI receptionist takes that work off your hands.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use the free WhatsApp Business app and an AI receptionist at the same time?

This guide hasn't checked that. heydiga works with the number your clients already have saved. The page doesn't explain how it connects. Ask before you sign up.

Can the away message take bookings?

No: it lets people know and sends them elsewhere. It replies outside your business hours with a text you write. For clients to book, add your calendar's booking link if your software offers one.

How quickly does the AI receptionist reply?

heydiga states a reply in 1 second on its WhatsApp page. It's heydiga's own figure, with no study behind it, so test it yourself.

What happens if a client wants to talk to a person?

Someone on the team can join the WhatsApp conversation that heydiga is handling, with the whole history. Anything that needs a person's judgement goes to the team.

Does it reply at night and at the weekend?

Yes: heydiga replies at any hour, including at night and at the weekend, according to its WhatsApp page. Appointments made out of hours are waiting in your calendar the next day.

Do I have to change my calendar?

No. Your software is still your calendar, and heydiga reads the free slots and writes the appointments into it.

Sources

• WhatsApp Business (Meta), app features (opens in a new tab), accessed 3 November 2026.
• WhatsApp Business (Meta), frequently asked questions (opens in a new tab), accessed 3 November 2026.
• Booksy Biz, beauty centres (opens in a new tab) and marketing tools (opens in a new tab), accessed 3 November 2026.
• Treatwell Business, page for professionals (opens in a new tab), accessed 3 November 2026.
• heydiga features and pricing: WhatsApp and calls, hair and beauty salons, digalook and pricing, accessed 3 November 2026.

How it was written: written with the help of AI tools; reviewed and checked by the heydiga team.