Building your WhatsApp menu
Guide · 8 min read
The menu is what a customer sees the moment they message you. A good one sends every customer to the right place before a human even looks. Yapp gives you two ways to build it — a built-in menu that assembles itself, and a custom menu you design.
1.Two menu styles
Under WhatsApp menu in the left menu, you pick a style:
- Built-in menu — assembles itself from your branches. Zero setup. Great for retail.
- Custom menu — you design your own options, like "1 Sales, 2 Locations, 3 Support". More control; a Pro feature for the advanced bits.
A live preview always shows exactly what your customer will see, so you're never guessing.
2.The built-in menu (the easy path)
The built-in menu adapts to how many branches you have — you don't build anything:
- One branch → no menu at all. The customer is connected straight through and a person replies.
- A few branches, one region → a simple list: tap the branch you want.
- Branches across provinces → the customer picks their province first, then their nearest branch.
- Head office + branches → an entry menu: "talk to an agent" or "find a store" (province → branch).
Add, rename, or mark a head office under Branches and the menu updates itself. Nothing else to do.
3.The custom menu (full control)
Switch to Custom menu to build your own. Every option you add does one of four things:
- Connect to a team — hands the chat to your staff. Use it for anything a person must handle — "Talk to sales", "Support". You can add an optional intro message like "Pop your order number here and we'll check."
- Send an auto-reply — an instant written answer, no staff needed. Perfect for FAQs — "Opening hours", "Where are you?", "Delivery & returns".
- Open a submenu — another list underneath this one, to group things ("More options" → each item).
- Find a store — runs the built-in store finder (province → nearest branch) from inside your custom menu.
You also set a welcome message shown above the menu the first time a customer messages you.
4.Start from a template
Not sure where to begin? Drop in a ready-made menu and tweak it:
- Simple — a flat 3-option menu (talk to us + two auto-replies). Fits the Free plan.
- Full — head office, a "find a store" flow, and an FAQs submenu. Uses submenus and the store finder, so it's Pro.
Everything is editable afterwards — labels, replies, and routing.
5.Keep it short
WhatsApp shows a maximum of 10 options per level. Keep your first screen to a few clear choices and group the rest under a submenu. A short, obvious menu gets more customers to tap the right thing.
6.Why the menu matters: routing
The menu isn't decoration — it's how a chat gets to the right branch. When a customer taps an option, Yapp routes the chat to that team, and only that team sees it (plus your managers). A customer who never picks an option stays unrouted — no branch owns it yet.
To keep customers on track, Yapp gently nudges anyone who types random text instead of using the menu ("Please choose one of the options below"), so messages don't slip past unrouted. If chats do pile up unrouted, your managers get an alert so nobody's left waiting. Tip: a clear menu with an obvious "talk to a person" option keeps the unrouted pile small.
7.Customers can always get back
A customer can type menu at any time to start over and pick a different option — handy if they chose the wrong branch. No one gets stuck.
Plan note: on Free you can build one menu with up to 3 options (connect to a team or send an auto-reply). Pro adds submenus, the store finder, and unlimited options. Start free.
8.What's next
Menu built? Learn how your team works the chats it routes: Handling chats as a team.