What patients send a practice on WhatsApp
Most WhatsApp messages to a small practice, such as a physiotherapy, dental, GP or therapy practice, are about logistics. Patients want to move an appointment, ask about opening hours, send a photo of a referral letter or say they are running late. These questions are short and easy to answer for whoever manages the agenda. Clinical questions are different: they need the practitioner, the patient file and often a conversation.
| Message | Example | Who should handle it |
|---|---|---|
| Book or move an appointment | "Can I come Friday instead of Thursday?" | Assistant or reception |
| Running late or cancelling | "Stuck in traffic, 10 minutes late" | Assistant or reception |
| Practical question | Opening hours, parking, what to bring | Assistant or reception |
| Paperwork | A photo of a referral letter or insurance card | Assistant, then into your own system |
| Medical question | "Is this swelling normal after treatment?" | Practitioner, by phone or in the patient portal |
| Urgent complaint | Pain, bleeding, shortness of breath | Not WhatsApp: phone or emergency number |
Health information needs extra care
Health information is sensitive personal data under the GDPR, and many professions have their own rules on top of that. This page is not legal advice. Whether and how you may use WhatsApp depends on your country, your profession and your professional body, so check with them or with your data protection officer. What many practices do in practice:
- Use WhatsApp for appointments and practical questions only. Keep diagnoses, results and treatment advice in your patient file system or patient portal.
- Say so up front. Put a line in the business profile or greeting message, for example: "For appointments only. Please do not send medical details. For urgent complaints, call us."
- Do not copy chats into the patient file by screenshot unless your own procedures allow it. Write a short note in your own system instead.
- Limit who sees what. The fewer phones that hold every patient conversation and number, the better.
Be aware that forwarding through InBetween means messages pass through a linked device on our servers in Germany (Hetzner, EU). Session data is encrypted with AES-256-GCM and there is an optional memory-only mode. InBetween is not a medical records system and does not make WhatsApp suitable for clinical content.
Your options, from free to a full platform
- Reception holds the phone. Free and fine if someone is always at the desk. It stops working when the assistant is off or the number lives on the owner's phone.
- Linked devices. Assistants log in to the practice account as a linked device (WhatsApp allows up to 4). Every device sees every chat and every patient number, also outside working hours. See WhatsApp access for a coworker.
- A patient portal or an appointment system with messaging. If you want online booking, reminders and secure messages in one place, software built for practices is the better fit. A Business API platform can add automatic reminders over WhatsApp, at a higher cost.
- Automatic forwarding to one person with InBetween. Patient messages go to the assistant on duty, with numbers hidden by default.
How it works in a small practice
Say the practice number is on the owner's phone and an assistant manages the agenda three days a week. You connect that number by QR code or pairing code, like WhatsApp Web, and enter the assistant's number. A patient writes "Can I move Thursday's appointment to Friday?" The assistant receives it in their own WhatsApp as "Customer 3", without the patient's phone number, checks the agenda and replies "Friday at 10:30 is free, I've booked you in." The patient receives that from the practice number. The owner can read along in the dashboard.
On the assistant's days off you change the coworker to whoever covers the desk. Outside opening hours you press Pause: messages wait and are forwarded when you switch it back on. Combine this with an away message that gives the phone number for urgent complaints.
How it works, in 3 steps
- Create an account at app.in-between.tech with your email address and a password. No card needed.
- Connect WhatsApp: scan the QR code or enter the pairing code, exactly like WhatsApp Web. Your phone keeps working as normal.
- Enter your coworker's number. From then on every customer message reaches your coworker. When they reply, the answer goes back to the customer from your business number.
Photos, locations, voice notes and documents come along. With Pause you stop forwarding temporarily, for example in the evening. Messages wait until you switch it back on.
Forward customer messages automatically. Replies go back from your number.
Try free for 30 daysHonest limits
- One coworker per patient. A patient stays with the coworker who accepted them, with up to 2 coworkers on Pro and 20 on Pro+. It is not a team answering the same chats side by side.
- No booking or reminders. InBetween does not connect to your agenda and sends no appointment reminders. It forwards messages and replies, nothing more.
- Not for medical content. Keep clinical questions and results out of WhatsApp, with or without InBetween.
- Not an official Meta product. It uses linked-device technology, not the WhatsApp Business API, and the app dashboard is currently in Dutch.
Frequently asked questions
Can a practice use WhatsApp with patients?
Often for practical things such as appointments, but it depends on your country, profession and professional body, so check with them. Health information is sensitive personal data under the GDPR. Many practices limit WhatsApp to logistics and keep medical questions on the phone or in a patient portal.
Does the assistant see patient phone numbers?
Not by default. The assistant sees "Customer 1", "Customer 2" and so on, and replies go out from the practice number. You can choose to show numbers in the dashboard if the assistant needs them to find a patient in the agenda.
What happens to messages outside opening hours?
With Pause on, messages are not forwarded and wait until you switch forwarding back on. Use an away message in WhatsApp Business to tell patients when you reply and which number to call for urgent complaints.
How much does it cost?
New accounts get 30 days of Pro+ free without a card. After that you can stay on free Basic (25 customer messages per month), or choose Pro at €87 per month (2,000 messages) or Pro+ at €142 per month (unlimited). Cancel monthly.