Following these best practices will help you ensure speedy approval of your templates by WhatsApp so you can start sending messages.

1. WhatsApp Message Templates categories

Make sure that your messages fall into one of the following categories:

• Account Update: Give customers updates about changes to their accounts.

• Alert Update: Send notifications on order updates or delivery services.

• Appointment Update: Send appointment reminders and confirmations.

• Auto-Reply: Send automatic messages during your Holidays or outside of work hours.

• Issue Resolution: Respond to questions, issues or information customers need from you.

• Payment Update: Confirm that payments were successfully processed.

• Personal Finance Update: Update customers on personal finance queries.

• Reservation Update: Keep customers up to date with their reservations. 

• Shipping Update: Send shipping updates on new purchases or orders.

• Ticket Update: Confirm and send ticketing update status.

• Transportation Update: Update customers on transportation related tickets.
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2. Grammatical Errors and Language Selection

Misspelling and grammatical errors can automatically flag your messages as spam or untrustworthy. Make sure to check — and double check — the spelling of your messages before you submit them.

Your Message Template must also match the language you’ve selected. If you are sending a message in Bahasa, but you’ve selected English as the message language, your message will be automatically rejected. Here is a list of supported languages by WhatsApp.

3. Formatting Rules

These are the formatting guidelines to follow when writing your Message Templates:

1. Naming of template: The name of your message template can only contain lowercase alphanumeric and underscores (e.g. account_update_1) Make your message template name clear. 

2. Size of template: The message has a limitation of 1024 characters and can not include new lines, tabs or more than 4 consecutive characters.

3. Must be text-based: letters, digits, special characters, emojis, and WhatsApp specific formats.

WhatsApp also allows you to format selected text inside your messages with Bold, Italics, Strikethrough or Monospace:

4. Variables for your Message Templates

The Message Template uses numbered placeholders '{{x}}' for each variable in the message. Each variable can be replaced with text that contains letters, digits, special characters, or spaces. 

For our example, {{1}} is the name or the customer, {{2}} is how frequently the company is sending to the customer, {{3}} is the training ID of that specific client.

Here is how it would need to submitted for approval in our Sandbox:

"Hi {{1}}! Thanks for starting your personal training plan. We'll send you a {{2}} update with your new schedule. You can log-in online using your training ID {{3}}. Stay fit!"

Here is how an Account Registration message would look like:

"Hi Anna! Thanks for starting your personal training plan. We'll send you a weekly update with your new schedule. You can log-in online using your training ID 1234. Stay fit!"

For additional help writing your WhatsApp messages, check out this guide.

5. Using URLs for your messages

WhatsApp recommends sending links or URLs from your business domain. For example, if you are sharing a product link, you should share the full URL: https://bird.com/channels/whatsapp-marketing

We don’t recommend using Short Links or third party URL shortener such as Bitly: https://bit.ly/3t8RDEj

6. 24-hour rule

Understand how the 24-hour Customer Care Window works and follow the rules of engagement. You can chat with a person for up to 24 hours after a customer first initiates a chat with you. Outside of the Customer Care Window, you should only send messages via approved Message Templates. Sending other types of messages can lead to your account being flagged or blocked.

7. The Opt-in rule

You must receive explicit opt-in from the end user before you can start sending WhatsApp Template messages. Opt-in can not be assumed and has to be approved by the end-user. The opt-in must 

• Clearly state that the person is opting in to receive messages from you over WhatsApp

• Clearly state your business’ name

Be specific in your message and use clear language. Example:

“To receive (e-invoices and delivery notifications) to (+31 XXX XXX) from MessageBird, please reply yes”

Violating this rule can lead to your account/number being blocked. If you are still unsure, read our WhatsApp guidelines for customer opt-in.

8. Don’t collect customer data or try to run promotions

WhatsApp is slowly rolling out new promotion and marketing message templates starting in Indonesia and Mexico; however, if you are sending messages outside of those regions we recommend avoiding upselling, coupon codes, cold-call messages or sending links with polls to collect customer data otherwise your account could be flagged or blocked. 

9. Chat automation with escalation paths

You can use chatbots and chat automation to respond within the Customer Care Window, but you are required to set up clear and direct escalation paths to human agents.

These escalation paths include:

• In Chat Human Agent transfer

• Phone number

• Email

• Web support (on the business website)

• In-store visits (ex: visit retail store, bank branch)

• Support form

10. Improve the quality of your messages from low to medium within 7 days

WhatsApp tracks the quality of your messages as low (red), medium (medium) or high (green). 

If you are not able to improve the quality rating of your messages from low to medium within a 7-day period, WhatsApp will disable your templates and prevent you from sending new messages or even reject other ones.