WhatsApp Business Platform

Get Opt-in for WhatsApp

Businesses are required to obtain opt-in before opening marketing, utility, and authentication conversations with customers outside the 24-hour window. Businesses can obtain opt-in in a multitude of ways, both on and off WhatsApp. Ultimately, we want to help people receive useful, expected information from businesses they want to hear from.

Opt-in methods such as via your website, interactive voice response (IVR) flows or in a WhatsApp thread are acceptable.

Requirements

Businesses must follow the below requirements when obtaining opt-in:

  • Businesses must clearly state that a person is opting in to receive messages from the business over WhatsApp
  • Businesses must clearly state the business's name that a person is opting in to receive messages from
  • Businesses must comply with applicable law

Opt-In Methods

As long as the opt-in method meets the above requirements, it will be policy compliant. The following are examples of supported opt-in methods:

  • SMS
  • Website
  • In a WhatsApp thread
  • By phone (using an interactive voice response (IVR) flow)
  • In person or on paper (customers can sign a physical document to opt in)

We strongly recommend that businesses continue to optimize for the user experience when designing opt-in flows.

Helpful Tips

Businesses should continue to optimize for the user experience while obtaining opt-in. For example, businesses should:

  • Users should expect the messages they receive. Set this expectation by:
    • Obtaining an opt-in that encompasses the different categories of messages that you will send (ex: order updates, relevant offers, product recommendations, etc.).
    • Obtaining separate opt-in by specific message category. This mitigates the risk that users will block your business because they receive unsolicited messages.
  • Provide clear instructions for how people can opt out of receiving specific categories of messages, and honor these requests.
  • Ensure your opt-in and opt-out flows are clear and intuitive for users.
  • Clearly communicate the value of receiving this information on WhatsApp.
  • Monitor your quality rating, especially when rolling out new opt-in methods.

Maintaining High Quality

Driving high quality conversations between people and businesses is still a top priority. People can block or report businesses and our systems will rate limit businesses if the business's quality is low for a sustained period of time. We may also reactively evaluate a business's opt-in flows, including user feedback, to flag policy violations and develop additional types of enforcement over time.

FAQ

People may block or report a business if they feel like they did not opt in to receive messages from them. These user feedback signals are inputs into a business’ quality score and our systems will rate limit businesses if the business’ quality is low for a sustained period of time. We may also reactively evaluate a business’ opt-in flows, including user feedback, to flag policy violations. Over time, we may introduce additional types of enforcement.

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