Waitlist

When an appointment goes unconfirmed and its date gets close, the slot is offered over WhatsApp to another patient who already asked for something sooner. Nobody gets cancelled unless that patient accepts the slot.

Off by default for every clinic.

Turning it on

In Settings → Booking → Waitlist:

Enable waitlist — the main switch.
Hours before release (1 to 23) — how far ahead of the appointment, still unconfirmed, the slot starts being offered.
Max offers per slot (1 to 20) — how many different patients the same slot can be offered to before it's left alone.
Minutes to respond — how long each patient has to accept before the slot moves to the next one.
Minimum improvement (minutes) — how much sooner the slot has to be before it's worth offering at all. Defaults to 60 minutes. Accepting a slot cancels another patient's appointment, so moving someone 20 minutes earlier almost never justifies it. Set it to 0 if you'd rather offer any improvement, however small.

How a patient gets on the waitlist

It always needs an existing booking first — that's the basis for everything else, so read the section below carefully. Two paths get a patient there:

The bot, when the patient asks for something earlier than what's available. It books the slot that does exist first, then offers the waitlist afterward — never the other way around.
Your team, from an appointment's detail view in the dashboard, with the Add to waitlist button.

You can see who's currently waiting in Waitlist, in the dashboard menu: patient, requested doctor, and the appointment they're holding as a backup. That menu item only appears when the feature is turned on, so if you can't find it, check the switch in Settings.

What happens when a slot frees up

The waiting patient gets a WhatsApp message with the date, time, and doctor of the new slot, and two buttons: Accept the slot and No, thanks.

They accept — their appointment moves to that time. It isn't a new booking: it's the same one, so if they already completed an intake form, they aren't asked again.
They decline, or don't respond in time — they stay on the list, waiting for the next slot that opens up.

The original patient — whose appointment was reassigned — gets a WhatsApp message telling them their slot was released and that they can message back to find another time.

When a patient leaves the waitlist

A patient stops waiting when:

They accept a slot — they got what they asked for.
The appointment they were holding gets cancelled — without it there's nothing to improve on, so the request closes itself.
That appointment's date has passed — the request closes automatically. You don't have to tidy it up by hand.

In all three cases the patient disappears from the Waitlist screen, which only shows live requests.

Why the 24-hour reminder changes

If your clinic has the waitlist turned on, the 24-hour reminder adds a line naming the exact deadline to confirm, before the slot can be offered to another patient. A clinic without the feature on never gets that line, because it doesn't apply.

What this isn't

It doesn't cancel anything on its own. A slot only changes hands if a waiting patient actively accepts it. If the waitlist is empty, or nobody accepts, the original appointment stands with nobody needing to do anything.
It isn't a guaranteed first-come-first-served queue. Who asked first is respected, but the requested doctor, the procedure's duration, the per-slot offer cap and the minimum improvement can all skip someone whose request doesn't fit the freed slot.
It never cancels anyone without telling them. If for any reason we can't deliver the WhatsApp message to the original patient, the reassignment doesn't happen: their appointment stays exactly as it was and the slot can be offered later instead. We'd rather move nothing than leave someone without their appointment and without notice.
It doesn't replace a phone call. Your team still decides whether it's also worth calling a patient who hasn't confirmed.