Contacts and the send queue
Import people you already know, draft a personal message for each, and send them one by one over WhatsApp, SMS, Telegram or email.
Your first users are often people you already know: friends, former colleagues, clients, people from a meetup. The Contacts tab helps you tell them about your project personally, one message at a time, from your own phone or email.
Using it mainly for WhatsApp? WhatsApp outreach is the short version, with tips for keeping your number safe.
#Add people
Paste a list or upload a file:
- Paste CSV lines like
Name,Phone,Email,Note, for exampleJane Doe,0712 345 678,[email protected],Asked about it at the meetup - Upload a CSV with name, phone, email, telegram and note columns, or a
.vcfexport from your phone's contacts
Set your country code (for example 254) so local phone numbers like 0712… become international ones that WhatsApp understands. Telegram usernames go in without the @.
The Note is how you know them, or why they'd care. It's what makes each message personal, so it's worth filling in.
#CSV format
Download the sample CSV and replace the rows with your own. The first row is the header:
| Column | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Name | A person's name, or a business name. Messages greet people by first name. |
| Phone | Best with the country code, like +447700900123. A local number like 07700 900123 also works if you set your country code when importing. WhatsApp and SMS need this. |
| Optional. Needed for the email button. | |
| Telegram | Optional. The username, with or without @. |
| Note | One or two sentences about this person: how you know them, what they do, something specific you noticed. Up to 500 characters. |
Each row needs at least a phone number, an email or a Telegram username. Other columns are ignored, and the order of columns doesn't matter. Headers like Mobile, WhatsApp or Comment are recognised too. Rows whose phone number or email is already on the list are skipped, so importing the same file twice is safe.
#Draft the messages
Describe what you want to tell people, for example: I just launched it, it's free, I'd love feedback from people who play games online. Larvabot drafts a short, personal message for each contact based on your goal, their name and your note about them. Click Write messages. To redraft messages that already exist, tick rewrite existing ones first.
Each message opens with something specific from your note (a compliment, a project of theirs), says in a sentence or two what your project does for them, and ends with an easy yes/no question. There's no sign-off, since your name already shows in the chat. It leaves out links and prices, so the first message reads like a person starting a conversation. Businesses are greeted with a plain "Hi," rather than their company name. If your note mentions something wrong with their website, the message adds a short, friendly heads-up as a PS.
Read a few. Click any message in the list to edit it, so you never have to redraft everyone to fix one.
#Send, one by one
The send queue shows the next person with their message and a button for each way you can reach them:
| Button | Opens |
|---|---|
| Open in WhatsApp | WhatsApp with the message filled in |
| Open in SMS | Your phone's messages app with the text ready |
| Copy & open Telegram | Copies the message and opens their Telegram chat |
| Open in Email | Your email app with subject and body filled in |
You press send in your own app. Larvabot never sends these for you.
Opening a channel marks that person as sent and moves on to the next. If you didn't actually send it, find them in the list later and reset them. The tab keeps count of how many you've sent today.
#WhatsApp pacing
WhatsApp restricts or bans numbers that start lots of new chats quickly, especially with people who don't have the number saved. To protect your number, Larvabot paces WhatsApp sends by default:
- At least 60 seconds between two WhatsApp messages. The WhatsApp button counts down until the next one is safe.
- At most 20 WhatsApp messages in 24 hours. After that, the button waits until the oldest one is a day old.
The limits count across all your projects, because they all go out from the same phone. SMS, Telegram and email aren't paced.
Use the time between messages to read and edit the next draft. A message that clearly comes from a real person also lowers the risk of being reported.
If you're only messaging people who already have your number saved, you can turn pacing off under Settings → Usage & limits → WhatsApp pacing. Leave it on for cold messages. New numbers are the most at risk: use a number for normal chats for a few weeks before you message people who don't know you.