Anatomy of a template
- Name and language: a template exists in one or more languages (
fr,en_US…). You send it by name and language. - Category:
UTILITY(transactional updates),MARKETING(promotions) orAUTHENTICATION(one-time codes). Meta prices conversations by category. - Header (optional): a text, or an image, a video or a document.
- Body: the text, with variables such as
{{name}}and{{order}}. - Footer (optional): a short text.
- Buttons (optional): quick replies, a URL, a phone number, a code to copy.
Manage templates in the dashboard
Templates have their own page: Communication > WhatsApp templates. It lists the templates of all your WhatsApp Business accounts, with their category, language, status and the numbers that can send them.- Create a template in the editor: choose the WhatsApp number, the name, the language and the category, then write the header, the body with its variables, the footer and the buttons. Give an example for each variable: Meta reviews the template with them.
- Publish submits it to Meta. The editor checks Meta’s rules first (see Rules), so you fix a template before it is rejected. It stays
PENDINGuntil Meta approves it (APPROVED) or rejects it (REJECTED, with a reason). - Sync with Meta pulls the templates created directly in Meta Business Manager, and refreshes their status.
- Use shows the ready-to-copy code that sends the template, filled with its examples: API v2.0, PHP SDK and API v1.0.
Only
APPROVED templates can be sent. Meta also tracks the quality of each template (green, yellow, red) from how contacts react to it.Three ways to create a template
Rules checked before publishing
Shortext checks Meta’s main rules before submitting a template:- a utility template needs at least one variable in its body; a marketing template does not;
- the body cannot start or end with a variable, and each variable is used once;
- a text header takes at most one variable; the footer takes none;
- at most 10 buttons, with quick replies grouped together (before or after the other buttons), at most 2 link buttons, 1 call button and 1 copy-code button (copy code only in marketing templates);
- a button text has at most 25 characters; a dynamic link takes one variable, at the very end of the URL, and an example of the full link;
- an authentication template takes its settings instead: code expiration (1 to 90 minutes), copy-code or one-tap autofill (one-tap needs the Android package name and the signature hash of the app).
Send a template
- From the dashboard: in a campaign to a segment of contacts, or from the Inbox when the window is closed.
- From the API:
POST /conversationswithmessage.typetemplate. See Send a template.