Ask Questions & Save Answers

Ask questions and save answers

The biggest upgrade in Flows V2 is that your bot can ask for information and save what the customer sends. Every answer is checked automatically, so you only collect clean data — and you can reuse it later to personalize messages or make decisions.

Ask blocks

Add an Ask block whenever you need something from the customer. There's one for each kind of answer:

Ask block	What it captures
Ask Text	Any typed reply (a name, a message, a note)
Ask Number	A number — with an optional minimum and maximum
Ask Email	A valid email address
Ask Phone	A phone number
Ask URL	A website address
Ask Date	A date
Ask File	An uploaded photo, video, or document
Ask Location	The customer's shared location
Ask Buttons	A choice from up to 3 buttons
Ask List	A choice from a list of options
Ask Keyword	A reply that you route based on matching words

What happens with a good or bad answer

Every Ask block checks the reply:

• If the answer is valid, the flow continues down the success path and the answer is saved.
• If the answer isn't valid (for example, "abc" when you asked for an email), the bot can politely ask again. After a few tries, it follows the invalid path — so you can send a helpful message or hand the chat to a person instead of getting stuck.

tip

Always connect the invalid path to something useful — a friendly retry message, or a hand-off to your team. Don't leave it as a dead end.

Branch on each button or list option

When you use Ask Buttons or Ask List, you don't have to send every answer down the same path. Each button or list option has its own output on the block, so you can send the conversation somewhere different depending on what the customer picked — and the choice is still saved into your variable at the same time.

For example, an "How can we help?" question with buttons Sales, Support, and Billing can route each one straight to the right part of your flow, without needing a separate Condition block.

Alongside the per-option outputs, an Ask Buttons or Ask List block always has two catch-all outputs:

• Any other answer — the customer replied with something valid that you didn't wire to its own path (this is the same as the old success path).
• No valid answer — the reply couldn't be matched after a few tries (the invalid path).

note

Nothing changes for flows you've already built. If you only connect the Any other answer output, the block behaves exactly as before — it captures the answer and continues. Wiring individual options is simply a new option, not a requirement.

Saving answers as variables

When a customer answers, the value is stored in a variable — a labeled box you can reuse later. You can also create variables yourself in flow settings to hold values you set along the way.

Each variable has a scope that decides how long it's remembered:

• For this conversation — the value lasts only for the current chat (great for "what did they just pick?")
• Saved to the contact — the value sticks to that contact and is remembered the next time they message you (great for things like a name or a preference)

Variables can hold text, numbers, yes/no values, dates, and lists.

Using a saved value

To drop a saved answer or a contact detail into any message:

• Type / in the text field — a picker opens with everything you can insert, or
• Click the {} button next to the field

Pick a value and it's inserted for you, like {{contact.first_name}} or the email a customer just gave you. When the message sends, Waplify swaps in the real value.

You can insert:

• Answers the customer gave earlier in this flow
• Contact details you already have, like {{contact.first_name}} or {{contact.phone}}

note

Use the picker (or /) rather than typing the {{ }} by hand — it inserts the value in the exact format the flow needs, so it always fills in correctly.

A simple example

1. Send Text — "Hi! What's your name?"
2. Ask Text — save the reply as a name, scoped to the contact
3. Send Text — "Thanks, {{contact.first_name}}! What's your email?"
4. Ask Email — save the email (the bot re-asks if it's not a valid address)
5. Send Text — "All set — we'll send your guide to that address shortly."

Tips & best practices

• Ask one thing at a time — short, single questions get better answers than a wall of text
• Pick the right Ask block — using Ask Email instead of Ask Text means WhatsApp-side mistakes get caught for you
• Save to the contact for anything you'll want next time (name, preferences); keep one-off answers scoped to the conversation
• Personalize sparingly but warmly — a first name in the greeting goes a long way

Frequently asked questions

Where are saved answers stored?

In the flow's variables. Answers scoped to the contact also show up against that contact, so they're remembered across conversations.

Can I use an answer in a decision later?

Yes. Saved values can be used by a Condition or Switch block to branch the conversation. See Logic & branching.

What if the customer never replies?

A flow waits at an Ask block until the customer answers or the flow's session expiry passes (set in flow settings). After that, the conversation times out.

Can I send a saved answer to another system?

Yes — a Connector can send saved values to an API or write them into a Google Sheet.