WhatsApp Business API

Message Template Guidelines

Rejections

If your message template(s) have been rejected, it may have been for one of the following reasons.

Formatting is incorrect

  • Proofread your content for spelling and grammar before submitting it for review. Messages with misspellings or grammatical errors may prompt customers to view these message as spam or a hoax.
  • Make sure to use variable parameters (e.g., {{1}}, {{2}}, etc.) and that they have the correct number of curly brackets (i.e., 2 on the left side of the number and 2 on the right side).
  • Make sure the language selected matches the content of your message template.
    • If you select Spanish as the message template language but the content is in English, your message template will be rejected.
    • Ensure that your content is in a supported language. A mixture of languages such as "Hinglish" or "Spanglish" will not be approved.
  • If you’re going to submit a message template for testing your API connection, please ensure it’s in the correct format. Any other variation will be rejected.
    • Message template name: test
    • Content: Hello {{1}}
  • Refrain from using a URL shortener for your links (e.g., bit.ly, tinyurl, or goo.gl) because they obscure the intended link destination.
  • The URL domain in your links should belong to your business.

You can find out more out more about formatting in the Creating Message Templates documentation.

The message template(s) contain content that violates WhatsApp’s Commerce Policy

When you offer goods or services for sale, we consider all messages and media related to your goods or services, including any descriptions, prices, fees, taxes and/or any required legal disclosures, to constitute transactions. Transactions must comply with the WhatsApp Commerce Policy.

The message template(s) contain content that violates WhatsApp’s Business Policy

  • Do not request sensitive identifiers from users. For example, do not ask people to share full length individual payment card numbers, financial account numbers, National Identification numbers, or other sensitive identifiers. This also includes not requesting documents from users that might contain sensitive identifiers.
  • A survey after an experience is fine, but do not submit a survey or poll to collect data from users.
    Example: “Hi, we're interested in knowing how you feel about certain food groups. Do you mind participating in a survey?”
  • Games, contests, tests and quizzes - anything that involves skill, competition, and/or chance - are not allowed on the platform.
  • You may only initiate chats if you are sending a transactional notification. Non-transactional messages will be rejected.
    • Personalize your messages and make it clear that your customers have requested to hear back from you.
      Example: “Hi {{1}}, thank you for your online inquiry, I’m following up on your request to know more about our courses for the fall.”

The message template(s) are considered promotional

Advertising, marketing, or promotional messages are not permitted. Some examples of this include the following:

  • Offering coupon codes and/or free gifts
  • Upselling
    Example: "Here is your boarding pass, with seat assignment and gate information. If you would like to save 10% on your in-flight dinner, order your meal through our app.”
  • Cold call messages
    Example: “Is now a good time to talk?”, “Thank you for your interest, can we speak now?”, “I tried contacting you but you weren't available. When are you free?”, etc.
  • Inclusion of certain words or phrases that make the message template promotional (even though the content of your message template may be fine).
    Tip: Think about how your message template sounds when read out loud.

The message template(s) contain potentially abusive or threatening content

Some examples of this include the following:

  • Message templates that threaten customers with a legal course of action will be rejected.
  • Message templates that threaten to add customers to a WhatsApp group with their friends and family to shame them if they don't pay back their loans will be rejected.

Quality Rating and Template Status

The template quality rating and status for your WhatsApp business account are listed in the Message Templates tab in WhatsApp Manager.

Message Templates Tab

Quality Rating

The quality rating shows how messages from your template have been received by your customers in a rolling window of the past 24 hours. We show it in three different states:

  • High (green)
  • Medium (yellow)
  • Low (red)

Status

There are different statuses for templates:

  • Pending: This is when a business first submits a template that hasn’t yet been on-boarded and approved.
  • Approved: The template is approved to be sent on our platform.
  • Rejected: The template is rejected to be on-boarded to our platform.

Occasionally, a template may show one of two particular statuses that are related to quality: Flagged and Disabled.

  • Flagged: This is a warned state. When the quality rating reaches a low (red) state, the template is moved to a Flagged status.
    • If the quality rating improves to a high (green) or medium (yellow) state over 7 days, the template will return to an Approved status.
  • Disabled: After a template enters Flagged Status, if the quality rating does not improve within 7 days, the template across all languages will be Disabled.
    • During a disabled state, the template will be unable to be used for sending messages or be edited.

Notifications

ou will receive an email notification if a template status from your WhatsApp business account(s) changes to Flagged or Disabled.

Adding a Sample

Your template may be rejected if we do not know what goes into a specific parameter —this includes not knowing what media you plan to send in a media message, for example. To avoid this scenario, we strongly recommend that you add a sample.

During message template creation, you can add a sample message template by clicking the Add Sample button. This helps us better understand the use case during the review process.

Filing Appeals

You cannot file an appeal on a rejected message template unless your message template containing parameters has a sample attached.

If your already created message template was rejected, and you need to add a sample follow these steps:

  1. In the WhatsApp Manager, click Message Templates.
  2. Find the message template that you would like to edit, and hover over the pencil icon at the far right.
  3. When the Edit menu option appears, click on the pencil icon.
    You are now able to edit your message template and add a sample (the Add Sample button will be at the top right of the screen).
  4. Click Submit after making your changes to send your message template for review. It will be reviewed in under 24 hours.

Tips

In addition to the above, please consider the following to accelerate the approval process.

  • Make your message template name clear. Instead of using a name like "template_014," use "bus_ticket_details".
  • Remember that someone outside of your business will be reviewing your message templates. Providing more clarity gives reviewers context around how the message template will be used.
  • All appeals for rejected message templates require a sample. You can appeal a rejected message template through Direct Support.
  • If you need to write a message template to reopen the 24-hour window, we suggest starting with some mention of the previous conversation thread:
    Example: “I'm sorry that I wasn't able to respond to your concerns yesterday but I’m happy to assist you now. If you’d like to continue this discussion, please reply with ‘yes’.” or “I was able to do some follow-up based on our previous conversation, and I’ve found the answer to your question about our refund policy. If you’d like to continue our conversation, please say ‘yes’.”

Last Updated: 19 March 2021