WhatsApp Away Message Templates: 5 Out of Office Examples for WhatsApp Business, Ready to Copy

Short answer: a WhatsApp away message is set up in the free WhatsApp Business app (Business tools, then Away message), where you write the text, choose when it goes out (always, on a custom schedule or outside business hours) and who receives it. Regular WhatsApp has no auto-reply at all. The message itself needs three things, in under 300 characters: your return date, who to contact in the meantime, and when you will reply. Never the reason. Below are five templates to copy with one click: classic professional, short and private, for the team, company closure, and outside working hours.

For a lot of small teams, WhatsApp is where work actually happens: the restaurant group chat, the client who sends a voice note at 11pm, the colleague asking "are you in tomorrow?". More than three billion people use it every month and the WhatsApp Business app alone has passed 200 million monthly users, which means that for many customers and coworkers your WhatsApp number is the first door they knock on, long before email. So when you take time off, the email auto-reply is only half the job: the phone keeps buzzing, and a message left on "read" for ten days looks worse than any out of office. This guide shows how the WhatsApp away message works, what to write, and five WhatsApp away message templates you can paste in thirty seconds. It is the messaging twin of our out of office email templates.

What a WhatsApp away message should say

A chat is not an email. People read it on a phone, between two other things, so the rules of the email auto-reply get stricter. Keep the three essentials: the return date, written in full ("Monday 12 May", not "12/05", because your contacts may be in another country), an alternative contact for things that cannot wait, and a promise about when you will reply. Then cut everything else. No reason for the absence: a holiday, a sick day or family leave is nobody's business, and health details are personal data under GDPR. No links, which look like phishing in an automatic message. No apologies. And, since the message goes to every single person who writes to you (customers, suppliers, strangers, the occasional scammer), nothing you would not say to a stranger. Two or three lines is the right length: under 300 characters fits on one screen without "read more". One thing the email never had to solve: your alternative contact's phone number. Give the office line or a colleague who agreed to it, never a personal number without asking.

How to set up an away message on WhatsApp Business

Away messages are a WhatsApp Business feature. The app is free, works with a normal phone number and sits next to the personal app on the same phone if you use two numbers. The setup takes two minutes:

1. Open Business tools. On Android, tap the three dots at the top right, then Business tools; on iPhone, tap Settings, then Business tools. Newer versions show a Tools tab at the bottom.
2. Tap Away message and switch on "Send away message".
3. Write the text. Paste one of the templates below and replace the placeholders in brackets.
4. Choose the schedule. Three options: Always send (for a holiday: switch it off when you are back), Custom schedule (from a start date and time to an end date and time, the best choice for leave because it stops by itself), or Outside of business hours, which uses the opening hours set in your business profile.
5. Choose the recipients: everyone, everyone not in your address book (customers but not colleagues), or everyone except selected contacts (your team, your family). Save.

Two details that catch people out. The away message is sent from your phone, so it needs an active internet connection: a phone switched off for a fortnight sends nothing. And each contact receives it at most once every 24 hours, so nobody gets the same reply four times in an afternoon. If your company answers customers from a shared number through the WhatsApp Business Platform (the API used by customer-messaging tools such as Callbell), the away message is configured in that tool as an automatic reply rule instead, usually with proper opening hours and routing to whoever is on duty.

And on regular WhatsApp?

There is no auto-reply on a personal WhatsApp account, and no setting is coming. Your options are three. Move the number to WhatsApp Business (free, chats are migrated, but contacts will see a business profile and the "Business account" label). Update your "About" line ("Away until Monday 12 May") and set a status: cheap, but nobody checks it before writing. Or pin a message in the work groups that matter before you leave, which is what most people actually need. What you should not do is install one of the third-party "auto-reply for WhatsApp" apps: they work by reading every notification on your phone, which is a privacy problem for you and for everyone who writes to you, and a breach of WhatsApp's terms that can get the number banned.

Template 1: the classic professional

For a client-facing number: polite, complete, no personality risk. Works for one day and for three weeks.

Hello, thank you for your message. I'm out of the office until [return date] and will reply as soon as I'm back.
For anything urgent, please contact [colleague's name] on [phone number] or at [email address].

Template 2: short and private

The safest version, and the one we would pick by default: a return date, a contact, nothing to give away. Remember that this reply reaches strangers too.

Hi, I'm away until [return date] and will get back to you then.
Urgent matters: [colleague's name], [phone number].

Template 3: for the team

If your WhatsApp is mostly colleagues, the away message is really a handover note. Name who covers what, and point to the one place where everyone can check who is in: the team leave plan or the wall chart. Send it to "everyone except" your customers if you use the same number for both.

Hi! I'm on leave until [return date] and not reading messages.
[Colleague's name] is covering [project or area]; everything else can wait for me. Who's in and who's out is on the team calendar, as always.

Template 4: company closure

For the shared number of a shop, a restaurant, a studio or a clinic that closes for the holidays. Dates in full, a reopening date, and one emergency channel that someone really monitors.

[Company name] is closed for the holidays from [start date] to [end date]. We reopen on [reopening date] and will answer every message in order of arrival.
For emergencies only: [phone number or email]. Thank you for your patience!

Template 5: outside working hours

Not for leave, for every evening and weekend: the away message as a right-to-disconnect tool. Set it to "Outside of business hours" and define your hours in the business profile once; the reply then explains, politely and automatically, that the message will be read tomorrow. Several European countries (France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Portugal among them) recognise a right to disconnect by law, and for an HR team this template is the cheapest policy you will ever roll out.

Thanks for your message! You've reached me outside working hours ([opening hours], Monday to Friday). I'll read it first thing on [next working day].
If it can't wait: [alternative contact].

The auto-reply is for outsiders; your team should already know

Here is the HR finding hidden in this article. An away message is a fine way to tell a customer you are off. It is a terrible way for your colleagues to find out: if a coworker learns about your week of leave from an automatic reply on WhatsApp, the company has no process, only a chat. The same goes for the request itself. "Can I take Friday off?" sent on WhatsApp at 23:14 gets a thumbs-up, is forgotten by Thursday, and never reaches the person doing the rota. That is the problem a leave tracker solves. With Bueggio HR, people book time off from their phone in about ten seconds (a web app, nothing to install), the manager approves with one tap from the notification, from Slack or from Microsoft Teams, and the absence lands on a shared wall chart everyone can read. Approved leave syncs to Google Calendar and Outlook, so meeting organizers see it before they hit send, and with Slack connected it sets a generic "out of office" status with the return date and clears it when you are back, never revealing the type of absence. The WhatsApp away message becomes the last step of a process instead of the only one. If your team still tracks who is away in a group chat, our guides on how to track vacation time and leave management software cover the upgrade, which costs €1.30 per user per month with the first month free, no card required. Slack-first teams may also like our pick of the best Slack apps for remote teams.

Frequently asked questions

Can I set an automatic away message on regular WhatsApp?

No. Personal WhatsApp has no auto-reply feature, only a status and an "About" line that nobody reads before writing to you. Away messages, greeting messages and quick replies live in the free WhatsApp Business app. You can move your existing number to WhatsApp Business in a few minutes and keep your chats, with the caveat that your contacts will then see a business profile. Third-party "auto-reply" apps that read your notifications on a personal account are a privacy risk and against WhatsApp's terms: avoid them.

Should the WhatsApp away message say why I am absent?

No. A return date and a contact for urgent matters are enough; the reason for an absence is personal information, and whether you are on holiday, on sick leave or on parental leave is nobody's business outside your team. Under European privacy rules health-related details deserve extra care, and a WhatsApp away message goes to everyone who writes to you, including strangers. "I'm away until [date]" is complete, professional and safe.

Does the away message go out if my phone is switched off?

Not reliably. WhatsApp Business sends away messages from your device, so it needs an active internet connection: with the phone off or in flight mode for a week, nobody receives the reply. Keep the phone on Wi-Fi at home, or leave the number linked to WhatsApp Web on a computer that stays on. The same contact also receives the reply at most once every 24 hours, so someone who writes twice in a day will not be spammed.

The bottom line

Pick the template that matches your number, replace the placeholders, choose a custom schedule with an end date and save: two minutes, and the phone answers for you until you are back. Then ask the uncomfortable question: is this auto-reply the only part of taking time off that your company has a process for? If so, Bueggio HR takes care of the rest (requests, approvals, the wall chart, calendars and Slack) so the WhatsApp away message is genuinely the last thing you do before leaving. Try it free for a month.