Power Platform Community Forum Thread Details

🔧 We’re facing a persistent issue in Copilot Studio regarding message order, particularly when integrating with WhatsApp (via API/Twilio) and Live Chat channels.

🔎 Context
Our Copilot bot sends:

A text message (e.g., “I’m ready to help you!”)
Immediately followed by a question to capture a user input (either from options or free text)

This works fine in Teams and Web Chat.
But in WhatsApp and Live Chat, the steps execute out of order:

The question appears before the message
Or messages are duplicated or mixed up, which confuses the user
Live Chat:
Whatsapp:
Correct Order:

🧠 Technical Analysis
From what we’ve researched so far:

The issue seems to be caused by the asynchronous nature of API-based channels like WhatsApp and Azure Communication Services (Live Chat).
Even though Copilot Studio triggers the actions sequentially, these channels do not guarantee ordered delivery.
This behavior is already documented: WhatsApp APIs do not ensure message ordering unless controlled manually from the sender’s side.

🛠️ Workarounds Tried

Merging the message and the question into a single node:
This reduces the risk of message disorder, but was discarded because it doesn’t meet the expectations set by our CX/UX team.
Using the Delay activity (Send an event or activity) in Copilot Studio:
We tried inserting a 1000 ms pause between the two steps, but the delay didn’t work correctly during testing, and the message order was still affected.
Sending messages from Power Automate with delay and order tags:
We are currently exploring this method, where:
- Messages are sent with a custom delay
- Each message carries an explicit order index
- The flow is controlled from a single source to avoid race conditions

This gives more control but introduces complexity and moves away from Copilot Studio’s low-code philosophy.

❓What We’d Like to Know

Is Microsoft aware of this behavior and planning improvements for ordered message delivery in API-based channels?
Are there any official best practices for ensuring correct sequencing in WhatsApp and Live Chat integrations?
Is this issue part of the Copilot Studio product roadmap, especially for asynchronous channels?

We're currently evaluating a quick workaround while waiting for a more robust solution from the product side.
Any help or guidance from the product team or community would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
🔧 We’re facing a persistent issue in Copilot Studio regarding message order, particularly when integrating with WhatsApp (via API/Twilio) and Live Chat channels.