What you will do

Use Reply to send a text response in an existing customer conversation. Use Internal note or Task for internal CRM work instead. These are separate modes with separate text fields; writing a note is not replying to the customer.

Before you start

Open the workspace that owns the connected account. Its channel must support inbox conversations, and you must have access to the account and the relevant messaging action.
Find an existing conversation in Chats. New message is Coming soon; this flow does not start a conversation with a new recipient.
For notes and tasks, the conversation must be linked to a saved CRM contact and you need write access to the relevant category. Tasks also depend on the CRM settings loading successfully.
Keep a separate copy of important unsent text before changing conversations or leaving the page. A failed send preserves the current text, but the composer is not a promise of a saved, cross-session message draft.

Send a customer reply

Open Chats. In All conversations, use Search conversations… or, when available, All channels to locate the thread. The list narrows to matching participant names or latest-message text.
Select the conversation. The thread opens; on a phone, the conversation replaces the list. Read the participant name and account username above the messages to confirm the recipient and sending account.
Wait for the messages to load. Read the recent exchanges and check any attachments. If You no longer have access to this account. appears, stop and resolve access rather than composing a message for that account.
Select Reply and type into Type a message…. Only non-blank text is sent; leading and trailing whitespace is removed.
Press the paper-plane Send button. Its label becomes Sending… and another send is blocked while the request is in progress.
After the request succeeds, the text field clears and your outbound message appears in the thread. This is the app's successful-send response, not a displayed customer-read or final-delivery receipt.

If sending fails, The message wasn't sent. Your text is still here — try again. appears and the text remains in the current conversation. Review the error, resolve the connection or account issue, and try again. Do not navigate away expecting that unsent message to be saved permanently.

Save an internal note instead

In the selected conversation, wait for the CRM contact lookup. If no contact is linked and you have permission, press Save as contact in the Customer card or the small-screen composer area. A linked contact becomes available after the save succeeds.
If Open contact is offered for an existing record, use that record. If access is restricted or a duplicate belongs to someone else, ask for the appropriate CRM access rather than making another contact.
Select Internal note. Enter the internal information, up to 4,000 characters. This text field is separate from your customer reply.
Press Add note. On success, the note field clears and Note added appears. The note is stored against the contact, not sent to the conversation.

Create an internal follow-up task

With the same saved, writable contact selected, choose Task. The task form appears if contact permissions and CRM settings allow it.
Enter the follow-up text in Add task, up to 200 characters. A task requires text; it is not another message to the customer.
Set a date and time in Due. Both the task text and a valid due date/time are required.
Review the reminder-channel controls shown for your account. The initial selection comes from your CRM task-reminder preferences; email and WhatsApp availability depend on their setup. Selecting a task reminder does not schedule an inbox reply to the customer.
Press Add. On success, the task text and due field clear and Task added appears. Open the contact to continue managing the task in CRM.

Options and rules

Option	Where it goes	Important rule
Reply	The selected customer conversation, through its original connected account	Text only in this composer; no attachment-upload control is offered.
Internal note	The linked contact's CRM notes	Requires note-writing permission; a blank note cannot be added.
Task	The linked contact's CRM tasks	Requires task-writing permission, loaded CRM settings, text, and a valid Due value.
Scheduled send	Nowhere yet	Marked Coming soon; it cannot delay a reply or schedule a message.

The Save as contact action depends on a usable participant identifier and a supported CRM channel. It is not available to a workspace viewer. A saved contact does not automatically make every CRM category writable.

Switching between the reply, note, and task tabs keeps their inputs separate within the open conversation. Switching to another conversation mounts that conversation's own composer; do not use this as a saved-draft workflow.

If something goes wrong

Symptom	Likely cause and next step
We couldn't load this conversation.	The thread request failed. Check your connection and reopen the conversation or page before replying without context.
You no longer have access to this account.	Account access changed. The inaccessible thread cannot be used for sending; ask the owner to restore access and reload afterwards.
Send does nothing with an empty message	Blank or whitespace-only text is not sent. Enter a real reply.
Sending fails but the text is still present	This is intentional draft preservation in the current thread. Resolve the error and retry; do not assume it was sent just because it remains visible in the composer.
Internal note or Task is disabled	Contact lookup may be pending, no contact is saved, the account is inaccessible, or you lack category access. Tasks also need loaded CRM settings.
This conversation has no participant ID to save.	The provider did not supply the identifier required for this save action. Work with the existing CRM record if there is one; the inbox cannot invent an identifier.
A note or task shows an error	It has not reported success. Keep the text, address the displayed permission or validation issue, and retry. For tasks, check Due as well as the description.