Send WhatsApp message templates

Available on: Starter, Growth, Pro, Enterprise. This feature is in beta: it is still being built and may change.

WhatsApp only lets you send free text within 24 hours of the customer's last message. To write to a customer after that, or to start a conversation, you send a template that Meta has approved.

Write a template

You can write templates in ChaosDesk and submit them to Meta for review:

1. Open Admin Center, Channels, Messaging and open the WhatsApp channel.
2. Under Templates, find the New template form.
3. Fill in the Name (lowercase letters and underscores), the Language and the Category: Utility, Marketing or Authentication.
4. Write the Message, with an optional Header and Footer. Placeholders are numbered in the order you use them ({{1}}, {{2}}…), and each one needs an example value, which Meta reviews with it.
5. Choose Submit for review. Meta usually answers within minutes; the status in the list changes by itself when the verdict arrives.

Delete removes a template at Meta, in every language.

Sync templates from Meta

Templates you created in WhatsApp Manager instead come in with Sync templates under Templates. ChaosDesk lists the approved ones with their language. Sync again after Meta approves new ones.

Send a template from a ticket

1. Open the WhatsApp ticket. When the window has closed, the composer says free-text replies are blocked.
2. Choose Send template.
3. Pick an approved template from Choose an approved template.
4. Fill in the values (Value 1, Value 2 and so on) for the template's placeholders and check the Preview.
5. Choose Send template.

The message is queued and shows its delivery status in the conversation. When the customer answers, a new 24 hour window opens and you can reply freely again.

Send one to many customers

Campaigns, from the button on Admin Center, Channels, Messaging, sends an approved template to a list of customers at once, for example a delivery delay. Only customers who agreed to receive messages are reached, the others are skipped with a reason, and a campaign reaches at most 1,000 customers (2,000 messages a day per workspace). A customer who answers STOP withdraws their consent. Replies become tickets.

If no templates show up

• "No approved templates" means none were synced, or none are approved yet at Meta. An admin can sync them under Admin Center, Channels, Messaging.
• Check that the channel has your WhatsApp Business account id in its credentials. Template sync needs it.

Related

• Connect WhatsApp
• Channels