TikTok Business Messaging allows you to manage and reply to TikTok user messages directly from SleekFlow’s Inbox. Once connected, your team can handle TikTok conversations just like any other channel — without switching apps.

This feature is especially useful for marketers running TikTok Ads, and agents replying to inbound messages in the Inbox.

In this article, we’ll cover:

• What problems this channel solves
• Common use cases
• Starting a conversation on TikTok Business Messaging channel
• Supported message types and limits
• How to report spam leads to TikTok

Benefits and use cases

Pain points solved:

• Scattered TikTok engagement: No need to check TikTok app separately — messages arrive in one place.
• Slow response time: Team members can reply in real time from SleekFlow’s Inbox.
• Hard to qualify or route leads: Combine Flow Builder and lead capture tools to automate next steps.

Common use cases:

• Replying to users who message your TikTok business profile: Respond directly in SleekFlow when users reach out via TikTok chat.
• Following up with TikTok Lead Ad submissions: Use Flow automation to trigger follow-up messages after leads submit a form.
• Tagging or assigning TikTok conversations: Automatically categorize or route chats for better customer handling.

Starting a conversation

To start a conversation, your customer must message your TikTok Business Account first. TikTok does not allow businesses to initiate chats.

Customers can find your TikTok Business Account and start a conversation by:

• Messaging your business profile directly: Users can tap the message button on your TikTok profile if enabled.
• Submitting a TikTok Lead Ad form
• If your campaign includes messaging call-to-action follow-ups, conversations will start once your potential leads to the first message.

Supported message types

Messages you can send

You can send the following message types through TikTok Business Messaging in SleekFlow:

• Plain text messages
• Emojis
• Images
  • Supported image formats: .JPEG, .WebP
  • Maximum file size per image: 20 MB
  • Sending and receiving image attachments via API are only available when both the sender and receiver are in countries that support image attachments in direct messages. Image sharing is not available in all markets.
     

Messages you can receive

You can receive the following message types:

• Text messages
• Images
• TikTok post shares
• TikTok Ads preview

Unsupported message types

TikTok Business Messaging currently does not support the following message types via SleekFlow:

• Business-initiated messages (first message or bulk broadcasts)
• Video replies
• Voice messages
• Stickers

Message and conversation limits

TikTok Business Messaging have specific restrictions on messaging to ensure compliance with TikTok’s policies and maintain a structured conversation flow. Below are the key limitations that affect how and when you can communicate with customers.

Conversation window

TikTok Business Messaging enforces a 48-hour reply window, meaning businesses can only respond to customer messages within this timeframe. This helps ensure that interactions remain timely and relevant:

• A business can only reply after a customer initiates a conversation by sending a message
• The 48-hour conversation window starts immediately after the customer’s message
• The reply window automatically resets to 48 hours whenever the customer sends a new message

Message limit within the conversation window

Within the active conversation window, businesses are limited in the number of messages they can send to prevent spam and excessive messaging:

• Businesses can send up to 10 messages per conversation window. This count resets each time a new message is received from the customer
• If the 10-message limit is reached, the business will not be able to send additional messages until the customer sends another message, which resets the count

Recalling and editing messages

Once a message is sent or received, TikTok does not allow businesses to modify or remove messages:

• Sent messages cannot be recalled or edited on SleekFlow.
• Received messages cannot be deleted from SleekFlow.

Message costs

There is no additional cost for sending or receiving TikTok Business Messages via SleekFlow at this time. However, this may be subject to future changes depending on TikTok’s pricing updates.

Reporting a contact as spam

If you receive low-quality or irrelevant leads from TikTok Ads, you can report them directly in SleekFlow. This helps TikTok improve its ad targeting by reducing similar leads in the future.

What happens when you report a contact

• The contact will not be notified
• Reported contacts will remain in your inbox unless you delete them manually
• Your TikTok Ad account must be connected to SleekFlow and have lower funnel events enabled to use this feature

When to report a contact

Use the “Report as spam” feature to TikTok action for leads that are:

• Clearly fake or spammy
• Outside your intended target audience
• Irrelevant or suspicious in intent or content

How to report a contact

1. In Inbox, locate the conversation 
2. Click on the icon
3. Select “Report contact as spam to TikTok”
   
4. A pop-up modal will appear
   
5. Click “Report” to confirm the action

What you can do after reporting

• Check your TikTok Ads Manager to see if TikTok has responded or adjusted delivery
• When creating a new custom audience, manually exclude the reported contact to prevent them from seeing future ads