# Let your agent reply on WhatsApp, only where you say > Reading is half the job. Sometimes you want the agent to answer too: "tell the building group I'll be late", "confirm Thursday with the plumber". Circles lets it, in the chats you choose, with limits you set. **With Circles, your agent can send WhatsApp messages only in chats you opened for sending,** up to a daily cap you set across all agents (default 5), and a send is never retried automatically. Sending is off until you turn it on, and every send is in your activity log. Sending is on Pro: Free for 2 chats, Pro $29 a month (₪99 in Israel) with 14 days free, as of October 2026. Source: https://usecircles.app/en/use-cases/reply-with-permission · Updated 2026-10-27 ## Try asking - **"Draft a reply to Dana saying Thursday works. Show me before you send."**: The safest habit: the agent writes, you approve, then it sends. - **"Tell the building group I'll be 10 minutes late."**: One line, in a group you opened for sending. - **"Ask Yossi if he can come Thursday morning instead."**: The agent reads the chat first, then writes in context. - **"Send the signed form back to the class teacher."**: A file with a caption, up to about 3 MB. - **"Reply to Avi." (Avi's chat is read-only)**: The agent is told the chat is open for reading only, and tells you. ## Three levels per chat | Level | What the agent can do | Good for | | --- | --- | --- | | Hidden | Nothing. The chat does not exist for agents: not listed, not searched, never named. | Everything private | | Read | Read and search. There is no way to send there. If no chat is open for sending, the agent is not even offered the send tool. | Groups you want summarized, files you want found | | Read and send | Also write there, as you, within the daily cap. | The few chats where you want help answering | Before a chat opens for sending, Circles warns you once: messages will look as though you sent them. Only you can open a chat for sending, in Circles. ## The limits that keep it safe - **Off by default.** Sending is closed until you open a chat for it. - **A daily cap across all agents.** Default 5 messages a day for all your agents together. You can choose 5, 10, 20 or no cap. The slot is taken before the message leaves, so the cap cannot be overrun. - **Never retried automatically.** If a send may have gone out but was not confirmed, Circles tells the agent to check the chat before sending again. The same words never land twice by accident. - **No broadcasts.** One message, one chat, each time. - **Logged.** Every send, and every refused send, is in your activity log. Filter by "Sends only" to see exactly what went out. - **Disconnect at once.** Disconnect an agent in Circles and its access ends immediately. Messages can be up to 65,536 characters, files about 3 MB. Quoted replies and emoji reactions are available to agents through the [HTTP API](https://usecircles.app/en/whatsapp-api-personal-number). Over MCP, the agent sends plain messages and files. ## Start read-only The best way to begin: open your chats as **read** for a week. Ask for summaries, find files, let the agent draft replies that you copy and send yourself. When you trust how it writes, open one or two chats for sending, keep the cap low, and ask it to show you drafts first. You can always turn sending off again. ## Agents that do this best - **[Instinct](https://usecircles.app/en/agents/instinct)**: "Tell the group I'm late" in a WhatsApp message, sent from your number in a chat you opened. - **[Claude](https://usecircles.app/en/agents/claude)**: Reads the whole thread and drafts a reply in context for you to approve. - **[ChatGPT](https://usecircles.app/en/agents/chatgpt)**: Drafts and sends where allowed, alongside your other tasks. ## Questions and answers ### Can an AI agent send WhatsApp messages without my approval? Only in chats you opened for sending, within the daily cap across all agents. In those chats an agent sends without asking Circles each time, so ask your agent to show you drafts first. Circles logs every send. ### Can an AI agent draft replies but only send where I allow? Yes. With Circles, the agent can draft for any chat it can read, and send only in chats you set to read and send. In a read-only chat it is told it cannot write there. ### What is the daily send limit? Circles' default is 5 messages a day across all your agents together. You can choose 5, 10, 20 or no cap. ### What happens if a send fails halfway? Circles never retries a send automatically. If it cannot confirm the message went out, it tells the agent to check the chat before trying again, so the same message is not sent twice. ### Will the people I write to see it came from an AI? No. Messages are sent from your own number and look as though you sent them, which is why Circles asks you to confirm before opening a chat for sending. ## Keep reading - [Security and permissions](https://usecircles.app/en/security): Hidden chats, the activity log, disconnecting. - [A daily digest](https://usecircles.app/en/use-cases/daily-digest): Find out who is waiting, then answer them. - [A small business on a personal number](https://usecircles.app/en/use-cases/small-business): Answering customers, carefully. --- 14 days free. Link your number, pick the chats, then connect Instinct with one tap or Claude, ChatGPT and Codex with one address. Start: https://usecircles.app/start?lang=en