Our template category guidelines are how we define the category of message templates on our platform. Please refer to our Updates to Template Category Guidelines PDF for additional detail.
For each category, we outline the message objective, business goal and example templates.
Marketing templates are our most flexible. They can enable businesses to achieve a wide range of goals, from generating awareness to driving sales and more.
Note: Examples are illustrative only. Templates that contain similar content, or the example text below, may be categorized differently based on the exact content.
Message Objective | Business Goal | Example Templates |
---|---|---|
Awareness | Generate awareness of your business, products, or services among customers who have subscribed to receive messages from your business on WhatsApp. |
|
Sales | Send general promotional offers to customers related to sales events, coupons or other content intended to drive sales. |
|
Retargeting | Promote relevant offers or other call-to-actions to customers who may have visited your website, used your app, or engaged with your products and services. |
|
App Promotion | Request customers to install or take a specific action with your app. |
|
Build Customer Relationships | Strengthen customer relationships through personalized messages or by prompting new conversations. |
|
Also considered marketing templates are:
Utility templates are typically triggered by a user action or request. They must include specificity about the active or ongoing transaction, account, subscription or interaction to which they relate. For example, an order confirmation must contain an order number.
Note: Examples are illustrative only. Templates that contain similar content, or the example text below, may be categorized differently based on the exact content.
Message Objective | Business Goal | Example Templates |
---|---|---|
Opt-In Management on WhatsApp | Confirm opt-in for receiving messages on WhatsApp as a follow-up to opt-in collected via other channels (e.g., website, email). Also confirm opt-out. |
|
Order Management | Confirm, update, or cancel an order or transaction with a customer using specific order or transaction details in the body of your message. |
|
Account Alerts or Updates | Send important account updates, including time-sensitive alerts, safety information, payment reminders, and other information relevant to already-purchased or subscribed products and services. These messages should not intend to upsell or cross-sell new products or services. |
|
Feedback Surveys | Collect feedback on previous orders, interactions or ongoing relationships with customers. These messages should not be about requesting feedback related to potential upsell or cross-sell opportunities. |
|
Continue a Conversation on WhatsApp | Send a message to start an interaction on WhatsApp that began in another channel. These messages should not be initiated without a user having requested the conversation to be moved to WhatsApp. |
|
Only authentication templates can be used to send a one-time passcode for identity verification; marketing and utility templates cannot be used for this.
Starting October 1, businesses on Cloud API can use authentication templates from Template Library.
Authentication templates enable businesses to authenticate users with one-time passcodes (usually 4-8 digit alphanumeric codes), potentially at multiple steps in the login process (e.g., account verification, account recovery, integrity challenges).
Authentication templates are our most restricted. For a template to be classified as authentication, a business must:
Definition | Examples |
---|---|
Authentication code |
|
When you send the API a template creation or template edit request, you must indicate the template's category, based on the guidelines above. Assuming there are no errors in the request itself, we will validate the category you indicated based on these same guidelines and the contents of the template. We will then create the template and set its status
to one of the following, based on the outcome of the validation process:
APPROVED
PENDING
REJECTED
An APPROVED
status indicates that we agreed with the category, and the template successfully passed template review, so it can now be used in template messages. An email and WhatsApp Manager alert will inform you that the template was approved, and a message_template_status_update webhook will be triggered with the event
property set to APPROVED
.
Typically, only authentication templates are approved immediately since their content is preset.
A PENDING
status indicates that we agreed with the category you designated in your request, and the template is now undergoing template review. The outcome of the review will be communicated via email and WhatsApp Manager alert. In addition, a message_template_status_update webhook will be triggered with the event
property set to APPROVED
or REJECTED
.
A REJECTED
status indicates that we disagreed with the category you designated in your template creation request. Rejections are communicated via email, WhatsApp Manager alert, and message_template_status_update webhook. The webhook will have the event
property set to REJECTED
and the reason property set to INCORRECT_CATEGORY
.
If rejected, you have the following options:
If you use WhatsApp Manager to create a template, we will validate the category before creating the template. If we disagree with the category that you have chosen, we will warn you of the mismatch:
If you continue with your selection despite the mismatch, the template will be created but its status will be set to Rejected. You can then request a review or edit the template's category.
If you select the recommended category, the template will be created and either approved immediately, with its status set to Active - Quality Pending (this is only possible with authentication templates), or undergo template review, with its status set to Pending.
All eligible templates are automatically duplicated in the destination WABA and category checks will be performed to ensure that all duplicated templates are correctly categorized.
If you want to avoid rejection due to miscategorization entirely, you can include the allow_category_change
property set to true
in your template creation request. We will assign the appropriate category based on the template's contents and our template guidelines, then set the template's status to PENDING
and send it through template review. Note that automatic category assignment is only possible during template creation.
{ "name": "<NAME>", "category": "<CATEGORY>", "allow_category_change": true, // Set to true to have us assign a category "language": "<LANGUAGE>", "components": [<COMPONENTS>] }
This process begins on June 1, 2024. The first notice will be sent on June 1, 2024, and the first wave of category updates is July 1, 2024.
Starting June 1, 2024, to ensure that all templates are correctly categorized, we will implement a recurring process that identify and address marketing or utility templates that have been categorized inconsistent with our guidelines. This process, the outcomes, and how we communicate these changes, are explained below.
Note that this process does not apply to templates with a PENDING
or PENDING_DELETION
status, and does not affect template status (In essence, if a template is already APPROVED
it will stay APPROVED
, even if its category changes).
For templates whose approved category is marketing or utility, outcomes are as follows:
We will notify you of any marketing or utility templates that will be impacted on the first day of the next month.
correct_category
property in the payload set to what the template's category should be. The new_category
property also exists in the payload indicating the template’s current category.For the impacted templates you were notified of the previous month, we will update the categories of these templates, or reject them on the first day of the last month so that they are consistent with our guidelines. We will inform you of these changes.
new_category
property will indicate the template's new category and the previous_category
property will indicate the template's category before automatic update.When you receive a notice that a template’s category is set to change, you can:
You can change the category of a template that has a status of REJECTED
at any time by editing the template using either the API or WhatsApp Manager.
Note that templates with an APPROVED
status cannot be edited. Editing a template does not change its ID.
If the template passes validation and review, its category will be updated and a template_category_update webhook will be triggered. The new_category
property in the webhook payload will indicate its new category.
Edit the content of the template so it aligns to the guidelines of that category, maintain the category selection, and re-submit the template for approval.
If the template passes validation and review, its category will be updated and a template_category_update webhook will be triggered. The new_category
property in the webhook payload will indicate its new category.
The WhatsApp Manager's Manage Templates panel identifies any templates whose categories will be updated the following month. However, you can use the GET /<WABA_ID>/message_templates endpoint to get this list, and to determine which templates have already been updated.
To use the API, request the category
and correct_category
fields:
GET /<WABA_ID>/message_templates?fields=category,correct_category
This will return the IDs of all of the WABA's templates, and each template's category
and correct_category
values. You can then compare these values:
MARKETING
), the template's category has already been updated with the correct_category
value.correct_category
is not an empty string or null (e.g. category is UTILITY
but correct_category
is MARKETING
), the template's category will be updated on the first day of the next month with the correct_category
value.correct_category
value is an empty string or null, the template has not been impacted.If you believe the category we have determined is not consistent with our template category guidelines, you may request a review of the template via Business Support (it is not possible to do this via the API).
In the sidebar of WhatsApp Manager, select the Message Templates dropdown, and then Message Templates. You should see a rejection banner with the template in question. Click Go to Business Support.
Click Template Category Updates, select the templates you would like reviewed and then click the Request Review button to begin the review process.
In the Business Support sidebar, click Template category Updates, and then the In review tab.
If the template category change is not approved: The template can be viewed in Business Support under the Template category updates > Unchanged tab. The template’s category will change to the correct category during an automatic category update.
If the template category change is approved: the template can be viewed in Business Support under the Template category updates > Reversed tab. If the template category was already changed during automatic category update, it will be reverted to its previous category.