WhatsApp templates

A template is a message WhatsApp reviews and approves in advance. It is the only way to message someone outside the 24-hour window: when more than 24 hours have passed since their last message, or when that person never wrote to you. Inside the window you do not need one: you write free text.

• Picking a conversation back up after 24 hours: from the inbox, with Send a template.
• Messaging someone first: from the inbox, with Write to someone.
• WhatsApp campaigns: a text campaign sends an approved template to each contact. When the person replies, your agent takes it from there.

They are in the menu, under Operations → WhatsApp templates, and also through Templates on the WhatsApp screen. Each template belongs to a WhatsApp account, so you need a connected number before you create the first one.

Categories and cost

Every template has a category, and it determines how much Meta charges to send it. Those charges are billed to you by Meta directly, with the payment method on your Meta account: they do not go through your plan.

• Utility — reminders, confirmations and notices about something the person already asked for or bought.
• Marketing — promotions, offers and news. Marketing templates are always billed. If your message is a reminder or a confirmation, choose Utility.
• Authentication — one-time codes. On WhatsApp they use their own format (with a copy button) that we do not build yet: a template in this category written as free text may be rejected.

The list

• At the top, how many templates you have, how many are approved and how many are in review.
• Search by name or text finds templates by name and by what the message says, ignoring accents and capitals.
• The statuses with their counts: All, Usable (the ones you can send now), In review, Drafts, Rejected and Paused (together with the disabled ones). The counts follow the search and the other filters.
• Filters lets you pick the category, the language and, if you have more than one, the account. Each active filter stays visible with its button to remove it.
• Each row shows the name, the language and the message on two lines with numbered variables; below, the category, the quality, how long it is paused, the account and when it changed. On the right, the status and the ⋯ button with what you can do in that status.

While any template is in review, the list updates on its own. If you want to know right away, Check with WhatsApp asks WhatsApp for the real status of your templates and tells you how many it checked and how many changed status.

Creating a template

New template opens the editor. If you do not have any yet, the list offers two ways in: Write with AI or Write it yourself. Creating templates requires permission to manage WhatsApp; whoever handles the inbox sees them and sends them.

1. 1
   Tell us what you want to say (optional)

   Write in a sentence or two what it should say —for example, “remind them of the appointment with their name, the date and the time, and ask them to confirm”— and tap Write template. The assistant fills in the header, the message, the footer and the buttons following WhatsApp's rules, and suggests a name. It does not save anything: read it and fix whatever you need. If you had already written something, it asks before replacing it.

2. 2
   Details

   The Account (if you have more than one), the Category, the Language and the Internal name: lowercase, numbers and underscores only. WhatsApp sees it, the person does not, and it cannot repeat within the same account and language.

3. 3
   Content, in the order it is shown

   Header (optional), in bold at the top, up to 60 characters. Message, up to 1024. Footer (optional), small and gray, up to 60: do not put anything important there. And Quick reply buttons (optional): up to 10, 25 characters each; the person taps one and it reaches you as their reply.

4. 4
   See how it looks

   On the right, What the person sees shows the message on a phone while you type. On a phone, the preview opens at the top with See what the person sees.

5. 5
   Save

   Save draft keeps it for later; Save and submit for review saves it and sends it to WhatsApp (what that means is below).

Variables {{1}}, {{2}}…

For the details that change with every send —a name, a date, an order number— you use numbered variables: {{1}}, {{2}}… Insert variable puts the next one where your cursor is. The real values are filled in when it is sent, and whoever sends it sees the final text first.

• They go in order from 1 with no gaps: {{1}}, {{2}}, {{3}}.
• A template accepts up to 10 variables.
• The message cannot start or end with a variable: WhatsApp does not approve a message whose beginning or end it cannot see. Put a greeting before and a period or a closing sentence after.
• Two variables cannot sit next to each other: put something between them, even a single word.

If something breaks the rules, the editor marks it next to each field when you try to save, and takes you to the first one. If WhatsApp rejects something we did not catch first, its message shows up right there.

Saving a draft and submitting for review

A draft is yours: you can change it as many times as you want with Edit draft. Once it is saved for the first time, the account, the language and the name are fixed (to change them, duplicate it); the category and the content can still be edited. If you leave with unsaved changes, the editor asks first.

Statuses and what to do in each

• Draft — WhatsApp has not seen it yet. Finish it with Edit draft and, when it is ready, Submit for review.
• In review — WhatsApp has it. All that is left is to wait for its answer; meanwhile it cannot be deleted.
• Approved — it can be used. Go to the inbox to send it takes you to the inbox, and WhatsApp campaigns offer it.
• Rejected — the details give the reason. To fix it, Duplicate it, edit the copy and submit it for review. Submit for review resends it as is: it only helps if the rejection was not about the text, because if it was, it will be rejected again.
• Paused — WhatsApp held it back for quality, because many people reacted badly when they got it, and it says Paused until…. It cannot be used until WhatsApp releases it.
• Disabled — WhatsApp removed it for quality and it does not come back. Duplicate creates another one with a different name: take the chance to review the text before submitting it.

The quality (high, medium or low) is calculated by WhatsApp from how people react when they receive it. Low quality often comes before a pause: review the text before you keep sending it.

What WhatsApp changed when approving

Tap a template to open its details. Sometimes WhatsApp approves it with adjustments: the details then say WhatsApp approved it with changes to… (the message, the header, the footer or the buttons) and let you compare both versions on the same phone with Approved and Submitted. What people receive is always the approved one. If we have not confirmed the approved text yet, the details say so and show you the one we submitted.

The details also show the Status (on WhatsApp, whether it can be used now, the quality and the last update), the Details (the name with a button to copy it, the language, the category —the one you requested and the one WhatsApp set—, the account and the dates) and Where it is used. At the bottom is the action that resolves its status, and the rest under ⋯.

Where it is used, duplicating and deleting

• Where it is used lists the campaigns that use the template. If we could not check, we say so —never “not used” just in case—. Without permission to view campaigns, you only see how many.
• Duplicate opens the editor with a copy under another name; the original does not change. It is how you fix a rejected or disabled template, make a version in another language or change something that became fixed.
• Delete is at the end of the menu, in red. A draft is simply deleted; a template that was already on WhatsApp is also removed there, and to use it again you have to create another one and wait for its review. If any campaign uses it, the confirmation tells you: its next sends will fail. It cannot be undone.

Frequently asked questions