Message Templates

WhatsApp message templates are specific message formats that businesses use to send out notifications or customer care messages to people that have opted in to notifications. Messages can include appointment reminders, shipping information, issue resolution or payment updates.

This document contains reference information about message templates. For a guide on how to create and send a template, see Sending Message Templates. For all parameters that can be used in a message template, see Messages, Message Template.

Supported Template Categories

Translations

WhatsApp does not do any translations for your business. All message template translations must be entered by you in same format described here. The element name is the same for all translations.

When sending a message template from the WhatsApp Business API, you need to specify the language you would like the message template to display by using the language field.

Language Packs

Message templates are stored in the form of language packs. A language pack is basically a bundle of message template elements for a particular language/locale. If a business contains at least one translation for a language/locale, they are considered to support that, and a pack for that language/locale is created.

A message template namespace is a bundle of language packs for a particular business.

Language Policy Options

The default language policy option is deterministic —we used to offer the fallback option, but it has been deprecated.

If a message template is sent with the language: policy field set to deterministic, WhatsApp delivers the message template in exactly the language and locale asked for. The device queries the server for a language pack of that particular language.

This is how the process works:

Step 1: You send a message template like the following:

{ 
  "namespace": "business_a_namespace" 
  "element_name": "hello_world", 
  "language": {
      "policy": "deterministic",
      "code": "en"
  }
  "localizable_params": [ 
      { "default": "1234" }
  ], 
}

Step 2: When this message is delivered to the device, the device does the following:

• Policy/Code Check - Given "policy": "deterministic" and "code": "en", is there a cached en pack on the device?
  • If yes, move to Element Check.
  • If not, can the en pack be found on the server?
    • If yes, update local cache and go to Element Check.
    • If not, log the failure, the server returns a structure_unavailable error via a Webhook, and no messages are rendered on the device.

• Element Check - Does the "element": "hello_world" element exist?
  • If yes, unpack the parameters and render the message on the device.
  • If not:
    • If the language pack is from the local cache, download the latest en pack from the server and repeat Element Check.
    • If the language pack was recently downloaded from the server, log the failure, the server returns a structure_unavailable error via a Webhook, and no messages are rendered on the device.

The device language/locale settings are completely ignored.

A problem that can arise when using the deterministic policy is if what you're requesting doesn't exist. Make sure:

• The namespace is correct,
• The element name is correct,
• The language/locale translation exists for that element, and
• That the number of parameters sent matches what is specified in the message template.

Localization

Message templates provide localization support out-of-the-box by localizing the message according to the device locale settings.

Localizable Parameters

Templates have parameters that are dynamically incorporated into the message. For the example used in this document, the message template looks like this:

"You made a purchase for {{1}} using a credit card ending in {{2}}."

For "namespace": "cdb2df51_9816_c754_c5a4_64cdabdcad3e" with "element_name": "purchase_with_credit_card", the first value you list replaces the {{1}} variable in the template message and the second value you list replaces the {{2}} variable.

Some of these parameters (e.g., date_time or currency) are localizable so that they are displayed appropriately based on the customer's language and locale preferences. If the device is unsuccessful in localizing a parameter, it falls back to the value that is provided as the "default" value.

The localizable_params options are shown in the table below:

Parameters

The currency Object

The Whatsapp Business API client attempts to format the currency based on the specified localization.

The date_time Object

The Whatsapp Business API client attempts to format the date/time based on the specified localization. The supported date and time formats include:

• Component Time — The time is assembled from components (i.e., day of the week, month, hour, etc.) The time specified will be the same, regardless of the time zone the client is in.
• Unix Time — The time to be displayed is dependent on the time zone the client is in.

HSMDateTime

HSMDateTimeComponent

HSMDateTimeUnixEpoch

Example

To specify currency and date in addition to the default, when applicable, use the currency and date_time objects. This allows the client to attempt to localize this data the best way possible and fallback to the default option only if they cannot localize the data.

Using the currency and date_time objects for appropriate parameters is highly recommended to enable an optimal localized experience for your customers.