WhatsApp & Instagram DM Auto-Reply with OpenAI + Google Sheets

Turn WhatsApp & Instagram DMs into instant AI replies—while automatically handing off to your team

This n8n workflow connects to Meta webhooks for WhatsApp and Instagram, uses OpenAI to generate short support/booking responses, and logs every conversation to Google Sheets. For corporate or group inquiries, it captures leads and alerts staff—then switches to a timed human handoff mode to pause the bot when needed.

What this workflow does

• Receives messages via Meta webhook endpoints (including separate GET verification handling).
• Normalizes each event into a common format: platform, sender ID, message type, and message text.
• Looks up the sender in a Google Sheets Contacts tab.
• If the sender is new, stores the contact and sends a predefined welcome message back on the originating platform (WhatsApp or Instagram).
• If the contact is marked as handed off within the defined time window, the workflow stops without replying.
• Otherwise, it sends the user message to OpenAI, then parses returned JSON for intent and reply text, routing the conversation accordingly.
• Corporate/group lead handling: when required details are present, it saves the lead to a Leads tab and emails staff, then replies to the customer on the originating platform.
• Human handoff: marks the contact as handed off in Google Sheets, emails staff with the customer message, replies to the customer, and logs the exchange to a Conversations tab.

Use cases

• Auto-replying to WhatsApp/Instagram inquiries with OpenAI while keeping a clean conversation history in Google Sheets.
• Capturing corporate or group booking requests into a Leads sheet and alerting your team immediately.
• Timed “pause bot” behavior so staff can take over without conflicting responses.

Technical details

• Integrations: Meta webhooks (WhatsApp Business Cloud API & Instagram DM), OpenAI, Google Sheets, staff email alerts.
• n8n nodes used: webhook, if, set, code, no op, switch.