Message Templates
Businesses use WhatsApp Messages Templates to initiate customer conversations. Message Templates are the only way for any business to reach out to customers who have yet to start a conversation with your business or have not sent a message to your business inside the 24-hour service window.
Message Templates can be used for marketing content, sending codes to verify user transactions, or sending account updates, alerts, order updates, and more. Before sending a templated message, you must create your Message Template and submit it for approval via WhatsApp. WhatsApp’s review process ensures that all business communication meets the standards of WhatsApp’s Commerce and Business policies. With tyntec, creating your Message Templates is a breeze.
Why you should use Message Templates
To proactively reach out to customers, your only way is to send a templated message if a user hasn’t started the conversation with your business. After sending a templated message, a 24-hour service window opens in which your business can also send free-form text, media, and other messages.
- Message Templates are the only way for businesses to reach out proactively outside the 24-hour service window
- Scale customer support and marketing operations with automated messages using Message Templates
- Programmatically reach out to customers (for example, with your chatbot)
- Customize each Message Template with variables to personalize each message (for example first name, last name, order number, etc.)
- Call-to-Action and Quick Reply buttons can only be used in combination with Message Templates
- Make sure you meet all of WhatsApp’s rules and policies, so your business won’t be blocked by users
Creating a Message Template
Use our Message Template Manager to create new Message Templates in a matter of minutes and submit them for approval. Follow our guide to learn how to create new Message Templates.
Template categories
WhatsApp divides Message Templates into three different categories. Businesses can choose from:
Category | Examples |
|---|---|
Marketing | Send promotional offers, product announcements, and more to increase awareness and engagement. |
Utility | Send account updates, order updates, alerts, and more to share important information. |
Authentication | Send codes that allow your customers to verify transactions or logins. |
Approval process
After creating your Message Template, you will need to submit it for approval by WhatsApp. WhatsApp has created guidelines to meet all Commerce and Business policies. Follow our guide for submitting Message Templates and learn more about the status of your Message Template and how to avoid common reasons why WhatsApp may reject your templates.
Pricing
Message Templates come at no extra cost. Businesses are billed per conversation and active contact, depending on their pricing plan. WhatsApp charges businesses a fee per conversation, depending on the country registered with your customer.
WhatsApp does not charge for messages using Call-to-Action buttons on ads that click to WhatsApp or a Facebook Page Call-to-Action button. Another free entry point can also be when the message thread is user-initiated. The first conversation with a user starting from one of those entry points is free of charge. Subsequent conversations with the same user are charged as regular conversations by WhatsApp.
The first 1,000 conversations each month are free of charge by WhatsApp. Use your free conversations to scale your business on WhatsApp and build better customer experiences.
Languages and localization
Message Templates support over 70 languages and localizations. When creating a Message Template, you can add the text in your desired languages. Your business is responsible for all translations you wish to use. Check the supported languages here.
Statuses
Message Templates can have the following statuses.
Status | Description |
|---|---|
SUBMITTED | Indicates that your Message Template is currently under review by Meta. Review can take up to 24 hours. |
PENDING | Your Message Template has been created, and will soon be submitted to Meta for approval. |
REJECTED | The contents of your Message Template have been rejected during Meta’s review process. It is likely that the content violates one or more of Meta’s policies. You can appeal the decision as described here. |
APPROVED | Your Message Template has been approved by Meta. Depending on the quality rating score an approved Message Template can have different sub-states. Unknown: the Message Template has yet to receive quality feedback from your customers. Green: the Message Template has received little to no negative customer feedback. Yellow: your Message Template has received some negative feedback from multiple customers and may soon be paused or disabled by Meta. You can still use the Message Template. Red: your Message Template has received more negative feedback from your customers. The Message Template may soon be paused or disabled by Meta. Please address the issues that customers are reporting. |
PAUSED | The Message Template has been paused by Meta due to recurring negative feedback from customers. You cannot send messages to customers using this Message Template. For more details about the pausing of Messages Templates, check Meta’s documentation. |
DISABLED | The Message Template has been disabled by Meta due to recurring negative customer feedback. You cannot use this template any longer. |
DELETED | The Message Template has been deleted. |
IN_APPEAL | Indicates that an appeal has been requested. Check how appeals work. |