> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.dmly.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Overview
> Growth tools are trackable links and QR codes that turn a poster, a bio link or a shop window into a WhatsApp conversation in your inbox.
Everything else in DMLY works on people who are already talking to you. Growth tools are how
they start. A growth tool is a link — or a QR code holding that link — that opens a chat with
your business, tells you where the person came from, and can drop them straight into a flow
before you've read a word.
The job is narrow and worth stating plainly: **turn a thing out in the world into a
conversation in your [Inbox](/inbox/overview).** A poster on the salon window. The link in
your Instagram bio. A card at reception, a flyer, a sticker on a delivery box, an ad. Someone
scans or taps, their chat app opens on your business, they send the first message — and you
know which poster it was.
## Which channels it works on
Growth tools work on **WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and Telegram**. They do not work on SMS,
TikTok or Live Chat.
**Growth Tools** stays in the sidebar under **Messaging** on every channel, but selecting it
while an unsupported channel is active doesn't open it. You get a message instead:
> Growth tools need a channel reachable by a chat link — not available on SMS, TikTok or Live Chat.
That message carries a **Switch profile** button, which moves you to a channel that does
support them and lands you on the page. The reason is not a missing feature — a growth tool is
a link that opens a chat app, and those three channels have no chat app to open. There is no
setting that turns them on.
You need at least one channel connected. With none, the page shows a prompt to connect a
channel rather than your tools. Start at [Channels](/channels/whatsapp) if you're not
connected yet.
If **Growth Tools** isn't in your sidebar at all, that's permissions, not your plan — your
[role](/account/team-members) doesn't include the growth module. There is no limit on how many
growth tools you can create on any plan.
## What a growth tool produces
You give a tool a name and pick its type: **Ref link** or **QR code** — and on a WhatsApp
channel the first is labelled **WhatsApp link**. These are alternatives, not a pair. A ref link
gives you a **Copy link** button and nothing to print. A QR code gives you a scannable image to
**Download QR**. Pick by where it's going: a bio, a button or an ad wants a link; a window, a
menu, a receipt or a table tent wants a QR code.
Either way the destination is the same. What you copy — and what the QR encodes — is a short
tracking link on your DMLY address. Someone taps or scans it, DMLY records the click, then
forwards them straight on to the chat: `wa.me` for WhatsApp, `m.me` for Facebook, `ig.me` for
Instagram, `t.me` for Telegram. That hop is what makes the counting possible.
On WhatsApp there's a second effect worth knowing. The link prefills the message the person is
about to send — they tap, and their WhatsApp opens with your keyword already typed in the box.
They just press send. That prefilled text is what identifies the tool, and it's also plain
text your keyword automations can match on.
A growth tool is the natural partner to a
[WhatsApp chatbot](/automation/bot-setup). The link starts the conversation, the flow handles
it, and nobody has to be at a desk when the poster does its work at 11pm.
## What gets tracked
Two things, and it's worth being clear on which is which.
**Clicks and scans.** Each tool counts how many times its link was opened — labelled **clicks**
on a ref link and **scans** on a QR code. New tools start at zero. This counts the tap, not the
person: someone who opens the link and never sends a message still counts.
**Contacts.** When someone messages you from a growth tool, DMLY can stamp that tool's name
onto the [Contact](/contacts/overview) as their source. That's the signal that matters — the
poster that produced a real conversation, not just a curious tap. Two things to know about
the stamp: it only fills a source that's still empty or still just the channel's own name, so
anything you or your team typed in by hand survives untouched; and on WhatsApp it applies to
brand-new contacts only, so someone already in your list who taps a poster keeps the source
they had.
The per-tool number lives on the **Growth Tools** list itself: every tool carries its own
running total next to it. **Overview** carries a **Growth clicks** tile, which is the total for
the channel you have selected rather than a per-tool breakdown. To see which tool someone came
from, open the [Contact](/contacts/overview) and read the source.
## Tools belong to a profile
A growth tool is created for **the channel selected in the channel bar**, and belongs to it
permanently. There's no channel picker when you create one, and the list only ever shows tools
for the channel you currently have selected.
If a growth tool seems to have disappeared, check the channel selector before you rebuild it.
It's almost always on another profile. A WhatsApp poster and an Instagram bio link are two
separate tools, even if they do the same job — which is what you want, because then the
numbers tell you which one people actually use.
## Starting a flow
A growth tool can just open the chat and leave the rest to you. It can also start an
[automation](/automation/overview) the moment the person arrives — a greeting, a menu, a
booking, a question that qualifies them while they're still interested.
Two ways to connect the two, and you only need one:
* **From the tool.** Point it at a flow with **Starts flow (optional)** when you create it.
This works on every channel growth tools support.
* **From the flow.** The **User clicks a link** trigger in the
[flow builder](/automation/flow-builder) starts a flow on link arrivals. This one is WhatsApp
only — it isn't offered when you're building a Facebook, Instagram or Telegram flow, where
the tool's own **Starts flow** field is the only route. It can watch **A specific link** or
**Any of my links**, meaning any link on that same WhatsApp profile — so one welcome flow
covers every poster and QR code on that profile, without editing it each time you make a new
one.
On WhatsApp, either route only fires for a **brand-new contact**. Someone already in your
contacts who taps a poster simply opens a chat: no flow, no source stamp. Facebook, Instagram
and Telegram don't work this way — there, every arrival from the tool starts the flow.
Only **Active** flows on the same channel can be picked. When a growth tool starts a flow, that
flow takes the conversation — your normal keyword and entry triggers stand down so the person
doesn't get two greetings at once.
## Next
Create a tool, copy its link, download the QR, and read the counts. Start here.
The **User clicks a link** trigger, and everything else that can start a flow.
Where the source lands, and how to segment on where people came from.
The **Growth clicks** tile in context, alongside your other channel numbers.