Let a secretary take messages

Coming in the next update

This lesson needs askTheodor 0.9.283 or later.

When you’re heads-down, messages pile up. In secretary mode, askTheodor takes a note of each one, tells the sender it was received, and hands it to you with a short code. You answer in your own words from your phone. The secretary never replies on your behalf and never acts on what people ask.

What you’ll learn

• How to switch your WhatsApp number to secretary mode.
• What the sender sees, and how to change the acknowledgement.
• How to answer with reply or file a message with done.

Before you start

You need WhatsApp paired and the phone console on with your own number. Run your team from WhatsApp walks you through both. Secretary mode is a setting of the WhatsApp channel.

1. Switch it on

1. Open Settings → Channels, find your WhatsApp row and click ▾ Configure.

2. Under Messages other people send to this number, choose 🗂 Secretary.

3. Send a short acknowledgement (once per person per 12 h) is ticked by default. Leave it on, or untick it if you’d rather people get no reply at all.

4. Optionally write your own acknowledgement in the text box. If you leave it empty, senders get the default:

   Hi! This is an automated assistant 🎩 — I’ve noted your message and passed it on. You’ll get a personal reply as soon as possible.

5. Click 💾 Save.

Keep it honest

The default text says plainly that an automated assistant answered. If you write your own, keep that part: people should know they haven’t reached you yet.

2. What happens when someone writes

1. The message is stored as a request.

2. If the acknowledgement is on, the sender gets it, but at most once per person every 12 hours. Five messages in a row get one reply, not five.

3. The request reaches your phone with the next push, batched once a minute:

   📥 +4917612345678 wrote
   Can we move Thursday's call to 15:00? → reply 7c01e2 <your answer> · done 7c01e2

The sender can’t command your workers, can’t get information out of askTheodor and can’t trigger any tool. Only the numbers in your phone-console list can do that.

3. Answer, or file it

You write	What happens
reply 7c01e2 Sure, 15:00 works.	Your text goes to the sender over WhatsApp, exactly as you wrote it. You get ”✅ Sent to +49…”.
done 7c01e2	Files the request without answering. You get ”✅ Filed.”
show 7c01e2	The whole message, if the push cut it short.

Missed a push? tasks lists every open request under 📥 Messages people sent you, with its code.

4. Read it in the app

In the Inbox, click the WhatsApp chip to open the chat window. Each conversation shows its messages with a status: request — waiting for you, you answered or filed. Your own “Message yourself” thread is pinned at the top as 🎩 You ↔ askTheodor.

Try it

1. Ask a friend to send your WhatsApp number a message.
2. Check that they got the acknowledgement, and that the request reached your “Message yourself” chat.
3. Answer with reply <code> Thanks, I'll call you tonight.
4. Ask them to write again: they get no second acknowledgement within 12 hours.

Recap

Secretary mode turns your WhatsApp number into a polite front desk. Senders get one honest acknowledgement, you get each message with a code, and you decide: reply <code> <text> to answer in your own words, done <code> to file it. Nothing is ever acted on.

📖 Reference in the docs: Channels · Phone console

➡️ Next: Back to the curriculum