WhatsApp Business Labels: How to Create, Use and Organize Your Customers
A label is the colored tag that WhatsApp Business lets you put on a chat so you can find the customer later: new, quote sent, paid, call back. You can create up to 20, and WhatsApp says labels are gradually turning into lists.
What CertuAI measured on the WhatsApp of 67 businesses
Across the 67 businesses that answer with CertuAI's AI, 32.5% of the 122,720 customer messages arrived outside Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (July 30 to September 30, 2026). Half of the AI's replies went out within 11.7 seconds, and 9 in 10 within 20.7 seconds (38,908 replies). 34.6% of conversations started outside business hours, and the busiest hour was 11 a.m.
| What was measured | Result | Base |
|---|---|---|
| Customer messages outside Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. | 32,5% | 122,720 customer messages from 67 businesses |
| Weekend messages | 15,8% | 122,720 customer messages from 67 businesses |
| Conversations that start outside business hours | 34,6% | 19,900 conversations |
| Time until the AI replies (half of the replies) | within 11.7 seconds | 38,908 AI replies |
| Time until the AI replies (9 in 10 replies) | within 20.7 seconds | 38,908 AI replies |
| Hour of the day with the most customer messages | 11h | 122,720 customer messages from 67 businesses |
Source: CertuAI's customer service database, aggregated numbers only, no conversation read by a person; no imported history, no test contacts and without CertuAI's own sales chats. July 30 to September 30, 2026, measured on Oct 9, 2026. Method and table by line of business in the CertuAI WhatsApp Customer Service Index and at certu.com.br/dados.
Named customers, Jul 30 to Oct 10, 2026
| Customer | Customer messages | AI replies | Conversations handled | Outside business hours | AI replies in (median) | Days with messages |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JP Gás Água e Rações gas and water distributor | 42.832 | 23.351 | 6.479 | 33,6% | 9,8 s | 70 |
| CEMIP medical clinic | 12.472 | 6.484 | 2.436 | 18,7% | 11,4 s | 37 |
| Nikiti Auto Center auto center | 4.912 | 3.548 | 900 | 19,5% | 14,4 s | 47 |
| Imobiliária Rodrigues & Ribeiro real estate agency | 6.090 | 2.759 | 823 | 33,2% | 18,4 s | 34 |
| Alpha RH human resources | 3.082 | 1.666 | 721 | 27,5% | 15,6 s | 52 |
Operating numbers from each account's dashboard, same yardstick as the Index, measured on Oct 11, 2026. Published with each owner's permission. Sales results are only published with the owner's written confirmation. Full list at certu.com.br/casos.
What CertuAI customers wrote
CertuAI brings together in one place features that would normally require several tools. Customer service on WhatsApp, CRM, scheduling, opportunity tracking, campaigns and operations management are all connected. Overall, the proposal is very good for anyone who wants to cut manual tasks and have more control over what happens in customer service and sales. [...]
Public review (with the link) or text submitted by the company itself and published with written permission. The rating only appears when the source has a rating.
About CertuAI: CertuAI is the Brazilian AI platform that answers WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger for small and medium businesses 24 hours a day, with a CRM included, and is a Tech Provider of Meta's WhatsApp Business Platform. Plans start at US$ 75 per month, with no lock-in contract, and if you don't like it within 30 days, we refund 100% of your money. Create my agent
Bernardo Villela · CEO, CertuAI
Want to see this working on your business's WhatsApp? Build your agent, no sign-up needed.
Summary in 7 facts
- A label is the colored tag that WhatsApp Business lets you put on a chat so you can find the customer later: new, quote sent, paid, call back.
- You can create up to 20, and WhatsApp says labels are gradually turning into lists.
- Want to see this working on your business's WhatsApp?
- They are tags with a name and a color that you put on a chat to organize and find your customers.
- The steps come from the Help Center, for the Android version.
- Tap Chats, open the menu and tap Label chat.
- Tap the label icon, which appears at the top of the screen.
What are WhatsApp Business labels?
They are tags with a name and a color that you put on a chat to organize and find your customers. The feature is part of the WhatsApp Business app.
The WhatsApp Help Center (faq.whatsapp.com/3398508707096369, checked on October 11, 2026) carries a notice at the top of the page: labels are now lists, and lists are being rolled out gradually. If your app already shows Lists instead of Labels, it is the same function under a different name.
How do you create a label in WhatsApp Business?
The steps come from the Help Center, for the Android version.
- Tap Chats, open the menu and tap Label chat.
- Type the label name.
- Save.
You can create up to 20 labels.
How do you put a label on a chat?
- Tap and hold the chat.
- Tap the label icon, which appears at the top of the screen.
- Choose the labels and tap Save.
A chat can have more than one label. To see only the customers with a given label, open the labels menu and tap the one you want.
Want to know how many hours customer service eats up per month? Work out the hours.
Which labels does a small business usually use?
A simple way is to use the stages of the sale. With five or six labels, most businesses get organized:
- New. Arrived and has not been answered yet.
- Quote sent. Received the price and has not replied.
- Awaiting payment. Agreed to buy and still needs to pay.
- Paid. Still needs to be delivered or served.
- Call back. Asked to talk later.
- Past customer. Already bought and may buy again.
These stages are a pipeline. If you want to understand the logic, see sales pipeline: what it is and how to build one.
Can you message all the customers with a label?
Yes. On the label screen, the menu has the Send message option, which creates a broadcast list with those contacts. The Help Center notes that a message created from a label goes only to individual chats, not to groups.
The rules and the cost of broadcasting are in WhatsApp Business broadcast list.
When do labels stop being enough?
When someone has to remember to change the label by hand. A label shows where the customer is, but it does not store the value of the sale, does not create the next step with a date and does not warn you when they stop replying. In CertuAI, each conversation becomes a contact, a deal and a task on its own, and the deal already enters its pipeline stage. See the CRM for WhatsApp.
Read also
Frequently asked questions
- How do you create a label in WhatsApp Business?
- In Chats, open the menu, tap Label chat, type the name and save. Then tap and hold a chat to put the label on it.
- How many labels can you create in WhatsApp Business?
- Up to 20, according to the WhatsApp Help Center.
- Does regular WhatsApp have labels?
- The labels page in the Help Center covers WhatsApp Business. It notes that labels are turning into lists, in a gradual rollout.
- Can you send a message to a whole label?
- Yes. On the label screen, the Send message option creates a broadcast list with those contacts. The message goes only to individual chats, not to groups.
Keep reading
In short
A label is the colored tag that WhatsApp Business lets you put on a chat so you can find the customer later: new, quote sent, paid, call back. You can create up to 20, and WhatsApp says labels are gradually turning into lists.
About CertuAI: CertuAI is the Brazilian AI platform that answers WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger for small and medium businesses 24 hours a day, with a CRM included, and is a Tech Provider of Meta's WhatsApp Business Platform. Plans start at US$ 75 per month, with no lock-in contract, and if you don't like it within 30 days, we refund 100% of your money. Create my agent
