All WhatsApp messages are encrypted on the Clickatell API and by WhatsApp to ensure that data transfer between yourself and your customers is reliable and protected.

While in the embedded signup flow, you can only select or create a single WhatsApp business account at a time. However, we do support you going through the flow again and creating or selecting another WhatsApp business account.

You can also add up to 25 Business Profiles per Whatsapp account. For every new Business Profile, you'll be required to go through an application process and purchase a subscription.

The WhatsApp Business Platform is intended for customer service or transactional messaging only. At this time it does not allow businesses to send any marketing or promotional messages.

You may use any number, including landlines, mobile numbers, or toll-free numbers. You must, however, be able to receive an OTP or answer a verification phone call from WhatsApp on the number you provide. It should also be a number with no previous WhatsApp registrations associated with it.

If you’re unsure, the Clickatell support team is able to confirm whether your number is valid for WhatsApp Business use before registration.

The embedded signup flow only works in web browsers and does not work on mobile devices or mobile browsers. Ensure that your clients know to sign up on the web.

• Log in to your Clickatell account and add WhatsApp as a channel from the Products & Services tab.

• From the My Workspace tab, click the WhatsApp tile and then "+New WhatsApp Account & Profile".

• Click "Continue with Facebook Business Login"

  • This part of the application takes place within the Facebook environment.

  • Follow the prompts and complete the setup wizard.

    • Create Facebook and WhatsApp Business Accounts

    • Create a WhatsApp Business Profile

    • Submit Phone Number for Verification

  • Once successfully completed, you will be redirected back to the Clickatell Portal and guided to your next steps.

• Purchase subscription

• Set up API

Note: although Clickatell assists you with the application, we do not have control over the approval of your application.

For more information, see:

• Create WhatsApp business account

• What are the prerequisites for a WhatsApp Business account?

• Which phone number and display name should a business sign up with?

• What does WhatsApp Business Verification entail?

If you are currently using the old user portal:

You can simply log in to your Clickatell account and click on “Apply for WhatsApp” to complete the application form. Once Clickatell receives this application, we will evaluate it based on the vetting criteria and notify you of the next steps in this onboarding process.

You should familiarize yourself with the WhatsApp Business eligibility requirements before completing the application.

You can read more about the application process here.

If you have questions about switching to the new portal, see here or contact our support team.

Businesses must initiate Business Verification (BV) when they are ready to scale business-initiated conversations, add additional phone numbers, or request to become an Official Business Account (OBA).

Once approved, businesses can send business-initiated conversations to 1K unique customers and increase based on our messaging limits upgrade requirements.

At the moment, Clickatell does not offer an API to check whether a phone number is WhatsApp enabled or not. We will, however, perform a check on your behalf before attempting to send a message from your business to the end-user. If the number is not enabled, we will fail that message and return an error code to you.

During the onboarding and registration process, WhatsApp will review your business application and grant access to the WhatsApp network at its discretion. WhatsApp recognizes two types of business accounts:

1. Regular business account

• Every business that is approved gets this status.

• The verified business name will only be visible in the contact view. All other views will display your WhatsApp Business phone number. The contact view will display a grey ‘Confirmed’ checkmark with the verified business name in smaller text.

• No green checkmark is visible.

2. Official business account

• Select businesses are given this status at WhatsApp’s discretion at the time of approval.

• Instead of the phone number, your verified business name will be visible in the chat list, chat screens, chat groups, and contact view.

• A green checkmark will also be visible in the contact view.

Applying for an Official Business Account

Customers can request Clickatell for a green checkmark if they think they qualify. We will open a support ticket for WhatsApp's consideration at no extra cost.

WhatsApp can take up to three weeks to review the request and provide feedback.

Please note: WhatsApp does not share their criteria for approval of this request and as such we cannot guarantee the approval for our customers (also see here).

To be considered for an official business account, WhatsApp requests that the following information at a minimum must be submitted as part of the Support ticket:

• Facebook Business verification check: Provide a screenshot showing your verified Facebook account status

• Business Facebook Page URL

• Business website

• Business name in languages other than English (if any)

Once your business is verified by WhatsApp, you can proceed with the registration and approval of message templates.

A template message (also known as a Highly Structured Message or HSM) is a special message type that must be used for any business-initiated or re-engagement conversations via the WhatsApp channel.

For more information on templates and steps to create and manage your own, see this article on our Developer Documentation website and the Clickatell Portal User Guide.

If you are currently using the old user portal:

See this article for more information on templates and steps to create and manage your own.

If you have questions about switching to the new portal, see here or contact our support team.

WhatsApp Sandbox

You can test your WhatsApp Business integration in the Sandbox environment using the temporary demo WhatsApp number provided by Clickatell after you've submitted an application for a Business Account with WhatsApp. Clickatell has also loaded some pre-approved template messages in your account that you can use for testing purposes. Test messages to your pre-registered test phone numbers are free of charge. To test replying to a customer-initiated message, send a WhatsApp message from any WhatsApp-enabled phone number to your demo WhatsApp business number. Reply to the message within 24 hours. If you reply after 24 hours, you’ll have to make use of a template message. To test a business-initiated message or a re-engagement message (replying to an incoming message after 24 hours), you’ll need to make use of templated messages.

Production

You can test your production WhatsApp integration by sending a message to/from your approved WhatsApp Business number from/to any WhatsApp-enabled phone number. To test replying to a customer-initiated message, send a WhatsApp message from any WhatsApp-enabled phone number to your approved WhatsApp business number. Reply to the message within 24 hours. If you reply after 24 hours, you’ll have to make use of a template message. To test sending a business-initiated message or a re-engagement message (replying to an incoming message after 24 hours), you’ll need to use an approved template message. Read more about how to submit your WhatsApp message template for approval.   For more information on testing your WhatsApp Business integration, see here.

Before a business is allowed to send notification messages to their consumers on WhatsApp, they must first receive consent from the consumer to communicate with them on this channel via an explicit opt-in process.

On July 9th, 2020, WhatsApp updated its business policy to make it easier and simpler for brands to obtain opt-in from their consumers for the WhatsApp channel. Brands are no longer required to obtain opt-in via a third-party channel like SMS or email, but can now also obtain opt-in within the WhatsApp thread itself or by using an interactive voice response (IVR).

WhatsApp still expects clarity on requests for opt-in, brand name usage, and compliance with local and all applicable laws.

Please take special note of the following:

• Businesses must clearly state that a person is opting in to receive messages from the business over WhatsApp

• Businesses must clearly state the name of the business that a person is opting in to receive messages from

• Businesses must comply with all applicable laws

• Only transactional notifications are currently allowed on the WhatsApp Business Platform

• While the updated policy is more flexible, businesses should continue to optimize for the user experience while obtaining opt-in, e.g.:

  • Explicitly call out the types of messages a consumer is opting into (e.g. delivery updates)

  • Avoid messaging consumers too frequently

  • Provide instructions for how customers can opt out and honor these requests

Step 1: Connect your WhatsApp Business account to your Facebook Business page.

 Before setting up Ads That Click To WhatsApp, connect your WhatsApp account to your Facebook page and make sure you have admin access to the Facebook page.

Step 2: Create the ad campaign in Facebook Ads Manager

Follow the guidelines Create Ads that click to WhatsApp in Ads Manager | Meta Business Help Center (facebook.com).

You can also find a step-by-step guide in our Clickatell Portal User Guide here.

Also see:

• What is 'Ads That Click to WhatsApp'?

As an approved WhatsApp Business solution provider, Clickatell will assist you with enabling WhatsApp for your business and creating a business profile with relevant information that will be visible to customers who you are engaging with. Once you complete the WhatsApp Business application process successfully, you’ll be regarded as a verified business and receive a badge next to your name in the WhatsApp app.

Clickatell will deliver WhatsApp messages securely, reliably, and instantly to enable two-way high-value conversations for you and your customers. We’ll also proactively determine whether the destination phone number is WhatsApp enabled before attempting delivery and returning a relevant status code.

Businesses which have enabled WhatsApp communication can be reached via the phone number registered with WhatsApp. Any person who has this business phone number saved within their phone contacts will be able to initiate a conversation with the business, via WhatsApp. The best way to ensure that customers know about your new WhatsApp business channel is to let them know!

When creating a new WhatsApp account via Clickatell's user portal, your application is submitted to WhatsApp for review. WhatsApp will grant access to the WhatsApp network at its discretion and once approved and verified, your WhatsApp number will be associated with a verified business name.

WhatsApp recognizes two types of business accounts:

• Regular business account: Every approved business gets this status. Your verified business name is only visible in the contact view; all other views display your WhatsApp Business phone number. No green checkmark is visible.

• Official business account: Only select businesses are given this status at WhatsApp's discretion. Your verified business name is visible in the contact as well as in other views. A green checkmark is visible in the contact view.

For more information about the two types of business accounts and how to apply for an official business account, see here.

As a registered business, you can also add details to your business profile like your location, hours of operation, a brief business description, and a link to your website. This will help your customers easily identify your business.

Template messages (also known as Highly Structured Messages) are a special message type available to businesses for use to send notification type messages to consumers. Businesses can register content for their most commonly used messages and simply send the relevant variable parameters instead of recreating the entire message during the API call each time it is used.

For the consumers who receive a notification message from your verified business for the first time and do not have the business saved as a contact in their phone book, the WhatsApp application will recognize the registered template and display the message without any warnings. This will reduce the likelihood of your messages being marked as spam by the consumer.

Once your business is verified by WhatsApp, you can proceed with the registration and approval of template messages. Read more about how to create a WhatsApp message template for approval.

The WhatsApp for Business solution is best suited for medium to large businesses to use for customer notifications or for improved customer service.

The two main factors that WhatsApp takes into consideration are your business industry, and the types of message content you intend to send on the network.

The following industries and types of content are not allowed on the WhatsApp network:

• Independent software vendors

• Software services

• Real cash gaming (gambling)

• Adult content

• Alcohol/tobacco/drug-related products (including pharmaceuticals)

• Weapons

• Health care products/supplements

• Other categories not conforming to WhatsApp or Facebook's commerce and community standards

The WhatsApp Commerce Policy provides a complete list of what is allowed and supported on the network. When you apply to use WhatsApp for your business, you’re agreeing to adhere to this policy.

Types of messages

Customer Support – Messages initiated by the customer to request information, start a conversation with your brand, or make a purchase. Examples include customer questions, invoice requests, product purchases, logging returns, and more.

Customer notifications – Messages initiated by your business to improve the customer experience. For example, order confirmation, delivery status updates, payment reminders, and more.

Note: Marketing and promotional messages are NOT permitted on the WhatsApp API.

Implementation capability

Once approved by WhatsApp, you will need the development resources to integrate your application with Clickatell’s multi-channel One API in order to send and receive WhatsApp messages. Find out more about how One API works and the technical capabilities required here.

Information you’ll need to provide during the application process

When you’re applying to use Clickatell's WhatsApp solution, you’ll need to provide information that you can prepare beforehand in order to speed up the process.

• Company name and valid website URL – Your website should provide a clear description of your business and products. Facebook page URLs are not accepted.

• Industry and product/service details – A description of how you’ll be using the business solution and what industry your business operates in.

• Facebook Business Manager ID – Your Business Manager account will be used by WhatsApp to identify your business and to associate your phone numbers with your business. Here’s how you can find your Facebook Business Manager ID or create a new one if you don’t have a Facebook Business Manager account yet.

• Company headquarters location – Select the country where your business' headquarters is situated

• Approval of Clickatell to send messages for you – You’ll need to approve Clickatell within Facebook Business to send messages via WhatsApp on your behalf. You’ll receive the request to approve Clickatell within your Facebook Business Manager account as soon as we load your application on the WhatsApp system. To approve:

  • Log in to your Facebook Business Manager account and navigate to ‘Business Settings’, then click on ‘Requests’.

  • You’ll find our request in the ‘Received’ requests tab – click on ‘Approve’.

If you are currently using the old user portal:

When you’re applying to use the WhatsApp solution, you’ll need to provide information that you can prepare beforehand in order to speed up the process.

• Valid website URL – Your website should provide a clear description of your business and products. Facebook page URLs are not accepted.

• Industry and product/service details – A description of how you’ll be using the business solution and what industry your business operates in.

• Business phone number – This is the phone number you want to use on the WhatsApp network. It can be a landline, mobile number, or toll-free number as long as the number has not previously been registered on the WhatsApp network.

• Facebook Business Manager ID – Your Business Manager account will be used by WhatsApp to identify your business and to associate your phone numbers with your business.

• Here’s how you can find your Facebook Business Manager ID or create a new one if you don’t have a Facebook Business Manager account yet.

• Verified business on Facebook – You are required to verify your business in Facebook Business Manager. You can read more about why this is necessary and how it works here.

• Approval of Clickatell to send messages for you – You’ll need to approve Clickatell within Facebook Business to send messages via WhatsApp on your behalf. You’ll receive the request to approve Clickatell within your Facebook Business Manager account as soon as we load your application on the WhatsApp system. To approve:

  • Log in to your Facebook Business Manager account and navigate to ‘Business Settings’, then click on ‘Requests’.

  • You’ll find our request in the ‘Received’ requests tab – click on ‘Approve’.

If you have questions about switching to the new portal, see here or contact our support team.

In February 2023, WhatsApp simplified their template categories and all templates now fall into one of only three categories: Marketing, Authentication, or Utility.

Note that from 1 April 2023, Clickatell will automatically update the categories of your existing WhatsApp templates to reflect this change. This will not affect your messaging in any way.

The three categories are used for use cases as listed below:

• Marketing – Send promotional offers, product announcements, and more to increase awareness and engagement.

• Authentication – Send codes that allow your customers to securely access their accounts.

• Utility- Send account updates, order updates, alerts, and more to share important information.

You need the following in order to apply for a WhatsApp Business account:

• Facebook Business Account (You can also create one during the WhatsApp sign-up process)

• Phone Number to register (this number should not be linked to a WhatsApp account yet)

  • You'll require access to this number to receive an SMS/voice call for verification

  • Also see these guidelines

• Business Display Name (should have a clear relationship with the Business)

  • Also see these guidelines

• Keep the following ready:

  • Legal company name

  • Business phone number & website

  • Business email address

  • Country, city, state/province/region

  • Corporate street address

  • Business category

  • Business description

Also familiarize yourself with the WhatsApp Business eligibility requirements before completing the application.

Note: although Clickatell assists you with the application, we do not have control over the approval of your application.

Customer-initiated conversations

Consumers can reach out to your business on WhatsApp which initiates a 24-hour conversation session. Businesses can send non-templated message replies (plain text, rich text, or media) during this 24-hour window. Typical use cases for customer-initiated conversations are customer support, status update inquiry, or chat banking.

Business-initiated conversations

Consumers can sign up to receive time-sensitive, urgent alerts like flight status changes, or multiple informational notifications like shipping order updates from a business. These are known as business-initiated conversations and they require the use of templated messages.

Re-engagement conversations

These are any messages sent from a business to a consumer for the first time (or more than 24 hours after the consumer last messaged the business). This is a variation of the business-initiated conversation. All such messages are required to be a templated message. Regular text messages or media messages (i.e. any non-template messages) attempted in this scenario will not be delivered to the end-user and an error will be returned by the Clickatell API. Typical use cases for re-engagement conversations include status updates on a support ticket after more than 24 hours after the consumer enquired or a confirmation of issue resolution after 24 hours.

Until you are business verified, you are limited to the following:

• Adding 2 numbers to your account

• Sending business-initiated templated messages to a maximum of 250 unique recipients per day.

• Unlimited user-initiated messages

Once your business is verified, these limitations are lifted. You can also create custom message templates once your business is verified.

Learn how to verify your business account:

• Clickatell Portal User Guide

• Meta help material

A template message (also known as a Highly Structured Message or HSM) is a special message type that must be used for any business-initiated or re-engagement conversations via the WhatsApp channel.

In order to initiate a conversation as a business with an end-user for the first time or after a period of 24 hours since the last interaction, you have to make use of a pre-approved template. WhatsApp only permits freeform text when you are responding within 24 hours of a customer reaching out to you. Templates can only be sent to users who have opted in and given your app permission to send them messages.

Please read more regarding the Opt-In rules in the WhatsApp Business Policy.

You can easily submit HSMs that are specific to your business from within the Clickatell User Portal. Your templates are first reviewed by Clickatell, and then by WhatsApp. Once approved, you’ll be able to specify the template name and the relevant parameters in your API call when sending messages or transactional notifications to your customers. Note that you can only create custom templates once your business is verified.

For more on template messages and how to create them in your portal, see the Clickatell Portal User Guide and Clickatell Developer Docs.

The WhatsApp Business app is a standalone, free smartphone application built specifically for small businesses to interact with their customers and respond to messages. Examples of use cases include someone placing an order with their local bakery or shopkeepers who want to stay in touch with their customers via a smartphone app. The app has limited automation and feature sets to serve the needs of small businesses. Clickatell has no affiliation with this product and we’re not able to provide any support with setting up or using the app.

You can learn more about the WhatsApp Business app here.

The WhatsApp Business Platform solution offered by Clickatell is intended for medium and large businesses who want to use an API integration to engage with their customers on the WhatsApp channel. The WhatsApp Business Platform caters to the needs of larger businesses with higher messaging volumes and the need for business process automation and integration within their existing communication platforms. Clickatell is an approved WhatsApp Business solution provider, and we’ll assist you to get your business verified on the WhatsApp network. This is done through an easy, wizard-driven application process. Once your business is verified on the WhatsApp network, you‘ll be able to send WhatsApp messages via Clickatell’s multi-channel One API.

You can read more about the application process here.

WhatsApp supports the following limits per media type:

Images: 5MB
Documents: 64MB
Audio: 16MB

Clickatell is bound to comply with WhatsApp server requirements and to ensure that all media callbacks are within the limits stated above when delivering to the business.

Find out what the maximum sizes for media messages which a business can send, here.

Businesses are limited to submitting 20MB per message/payload (this can include multiple media files per message). Clickatell will compress the media when required to ensure successful hand-off to the WhatsApp server for delivery.

Find out more about the maximum size limits for incoming media messages here.

The total price you will pay for using WhatsApp via Clickatell consists of two components:

• Clickatell Price

• WhatsApp Price

Clickatell Price

Clickatell offers various monthly WhatsApp Business Message bundles from as little as $50 per month. These bundles include:

• Fixed monthly fee

• Volume limit - A Business Message Bundle includes a fixed number of outbound messages. If you stay within the volume limit, you will only be charged the fixed monthly fee and there won’t be any out-of-bundle fees. Inbound messages received from end-users are free and don't consume your Business Message Bundle.

• Out-of-bundle rate - When the volume limit has been reached, each additional outbound message will be rated at the out-of-bundle rate of $0.0065 per message.

WhatsApp Price

WhatsApp charges a fee per conversation.

• All conversations are measured in fixed 24-hour sessions and charges differ for business-initiated vs customer-initiated conversations and per region.

• These 24-hour conversation sessions start whenever the first message is delivered by a business, either in response to a user inquiry or if a business-initiated message template is delivered.

• Conversation-based fees are deducted from your account balance at the start of every conversation. If you have a prepaid account, it is important that your account balance is sufficient to cover these fees.

• The first 1,000 conversations each month are free.

• These fees are in addition to the Clickatell fees.

Note: Since 1 February 2022, WhatsApp no longer charges for the sending of templates. Instead, these are also included in the cost per conversation.

Also see:

• Subscription packages and what each includes, here.

• WhatsApp Business Pricing Update blog

• Facebook's conversation-based pricing page

WhatsApp is currently focusing on the following business needs:

One-way transactional notifications
These would, for example, include notifications for flight or gate changes, account transaction updates, delivery status, and confirmations, etc.

Two-way conversations
These would, for example, include customer support updates, general inquiries, and FAQs, service booking confirmations, or feedback on pre-sales questions regarding your product or service.

WhatsApp makes use of the UTF-8 character set and any characters within this set are supported. Being a richer messaging platform, additional formatting and media types are also supported over and above plain text. A maximum of 4096 characters can be sent at a time and messages that are longer will be truncated.

Rich text can include hyperlinks and formatting such as bold, italics, strike-through, code formatting, line breaks, and emojis.

Various media formats are also supported. These include the following popular formats:

Images – JPEG, PNG

Documents – PDF, MS Word, MS Powerpoint, MS Excel, plain text

Audio – ACC, MP4, AMR, MPEG, OGG, codec = OPUS

Video - MP4 (with H.264 video codec and AAC audio codec)

A business should sign up with the phone number and display name they want to use with the WhatsApp Business Platform. We strongly discourage signing up with a test or personal phone number or test display name as these will be difficult to change afterward.

Once the original display name has been reviewed, a business can change its display name in the Business Manager. Then, they have to go through the display name review once again.

Phone number guidelines

• Phone number used for existing WhatsApp account: A business cannot sign up with a phone number that has already been registered for use with WhatsApp Messenger or the WhatsApp Business App. To use such a phone number, you must first delete the WhatsApp account associated with that phone number to use it for a new business account.

• Toll-free numbers or numbers under IVR: Businesses cannot currently sign up with IVR or toll-free numbers through the flow as they not be able to verify the phone number.

• ISV, SI, and third-party: If you onboard or integrate over an independent software vendor (ISV), system integrator (SI), or a third-party business, each ISV/SI/third-party business must go through the WhatsApp ISV approval process. If approved, ISV/SI/third-party business needs to sign and comply with WhatsApp terms.

• Organizations with government affiliation: If your organization has a government affiliation, you need additional approval from WhatsApp.

• The number must be active during the verification process. You will receive either an SMS or a voice call for authentication and verification purposes.

• You cannot use short codes.

Display name guidelines

• Must be in accordance with WhatsApp Commerce and Business policies

• Accurate representation of your business

  • The display name must represent a business or its service, product, or department

  • A test/demo account must maintain an association with the business

  • A display name should not be:

    • An individual’s full name

    • A generic term (e.g., Catering)

    • A generic geographic location (e.g., Cape Town)

    • A slogan or a long description

• Consistent with external branding

• Clear relationship with your business

  • It must be referred to on the business's website or external media references.

• Correct formatting

  • No variations on title capitalization, must have grammatically correct capitalization, and must not include all capitals except for acronyms

  • No variations with spacing

  • No extra punctuation

  • No emojis

  • No character symbols

  • Minimum of 3 characters

  • Not in URL format

If you have a verified sender, your display name is visible to the end-user. If not verified, the end-user can view your display name only in the contact information section of WhatsApp.

Please reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.

WhatsApp requires a Facebook Business Manager ID as part of the application process for a WhatsApp Business Account. Without a valid Facebook Business Manager ID, WhatsApp will not approve your Business Account application.

How do I know if I already have a Facebook Business Manager account?

If your company has an official Facebook page or Instagram account, it is possible that you already have a Facebook Business Manager account. Please reach out to the department in your company responsible for your social media account (e.g. Marketing) to confirm whether you already have a Business Manager ID before creating a new one.

Where do I find my Facebook Business Manager ID?

1. Log into your Facebook Business Manager account

2. Select “Business Settings” and then “Business Info”

3. Your Business Manager ID is listed below your business name

How do I create a new Facebook Business Manager account?

If your company does not already have a Facebook Business Manager account, you can create a new one by following the steps below.

1. Go to Facebook Business Manager

2. Select “Create account”

3. Enter your business details and click “Submit”

Connected - A phone number can send notifications within its messaging limit.

Restricted - A phone number has reached its rolling 24-hour messaging limit and cannot send notifications until the messaging limit is reset. For example, if a business in ‘1K customers/24h” tier sends notifications to 500 users at 1pm and notifications to additional 500 users at 1:30pm, a business can start sending notifications to 500 users at 1pm the following day. A phone number can still respond to user-initiated messages. The state is formally known as “Message Limit Reached.”

Flagged - A phone number moves to a “Flagged” state (previously called “warned”) when its message quality is low (i.e., quality rating hits “low” state). If a phone number maintains a good quality rating (high or medium rating) for the next 7 days, it returns to “connected” state with no change in its messaging limit. If the quality rating does not improve, the number will return to “connected” state with a lower messaging limit tier.

Banned - A phone number has been banned from sending or receiving any messages.

Pending - A phone number is not yet registered. (PENDING_LICENSE status on Unity

Offline - Client instance is offline or not connected to WhatsApp servers.

Message templates are reviewed daily by a Meta (Facebook) team.

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

• Template starts or ends with a variable, e.g., {(1})

• Variable parameters contain special characters such as a #, $, or %.

• Variable parameters are not sequential. For example, {{1}}, {{2}}, {{4}}, {{5}} are defined but {{3}} does not exist.

• Variable parameters are missing or have mismatched curly braces. The correct format is {{1}}.

• Variable parameters are not defined. All parameters must have a known purpose, e.g., the type of media you plan to send in a media message. Your template will be rejected if it is not clear what goes into a specific parameter. A sample template will help with your submission.

• Spelling or grammatical errors. Messages with misspellings or grammatical errors may prompt customers to view these messages as spam or a hoax.

• Language defined does not match content. E.g., Spanish was selected but the content is in English or the content is a mixture of languages containing both Spanish and English.

• Submission format for testing your API connection is incorrect. The correct format is:

  • Message template name: test

  • Content: Hello {{1}}

• The URLs for your links are shortened. Short links obscure the intended link destination.

• The URL domain in your links does not belong to your business.

• The message template(s) contains content that violates WhatsApp’s Commerce Policy: When you offer goods or services for sale, all messages and media related to your goods or services, including any descriptions, prices, fees, taxes, and/or any required legal disclosures, are considered as 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. E.g., 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. Requesting partial identifiers (e.g., the last 4 digits of their Social Security Number) is acceptable.

• The content contains potentially abusive or threatening content, such as threatening a customer with legal action or threatening to publicly shame them.

• The message template is a duplicate of an existing template. If a template is submitted with the same wording in the body and footer as an existing template, the duplicate template will be rejected. A rejection notification that includes the rejection reason will appear in Account Quality on WhatsApp Manager and be sent via email. You may refer to the Account Quality notification to see the name and language of the existing template with the same content as the rejected duplicate template. You may also choose to edit the template and resubmit. Please note that this check does not apply to OTP templates.

For more information,also see:

• Message Template Guidelines

• Clickatell Portal User Guide