Message templates
Write, submit and send the pre-approved messages that let you reach customers outside the 24-hour window.
Templates are how you start a conversation. Meta reviews each one once; after approval you can send it to anyone, at any time. Read the 24-hour window first if you have not.
Building one
Go to Templates → New. A template has:
- A name and language. The name is internal; the language must match the content.
- A category — Utility, Marketing or Authentication. Get this right; Meta re-categorises what it disagrees with. See categories.
- An optional header — text, image, video or document. Media headers are uploaded in the builder.
- The body, with variables as
{{1}},{{2}}and so on. - An optional footer and buttons.
Variables
Variables are filled in at send time. You can also bind them to contact data —
{{contact.name}} and similar — so the template greets each person correctly
without you supplying anything per send.
Variables cannot start or end the body
Meta rejects a body that begins or ends with a variable, and rejects templates with unfilled example values. Give a realistic example for every variable when you submit.
Buttons
- Quick reply — the customer taps, you get a reply
- Call to action — open a URL or dial a number
- Commerce buttons — single-product, multi-product and catalog buttons, for businesses using the product catalog
- Flow — opens a WhatsApp Form Scale
Submitting
Submit from the builder. Meta usually responds within minutes, sometimes up to 24 hours. Status shows in the templates list.
Only approved templates can be sent. Pending and rejected templates do not appear as sending options anywhere — not in the inbox, not in campaigns, not to the AI agent.
Sending
Three ways:
- From the inbox — pick a template in the composer, fill any variables.
- In a broadcast campaign — one template to many recipients. See Broadcast campaigns.
- By the AI agent — give the agent a template skill and it sends it when appropriate. See Setting up your AI agent.
Templates belong to the WhatsApp connection they were created under. If you have more than one number, a template synced for one is not sendable from the other.