WhatsApp messaging rules

WhatsApp decides what a business may send and when. These rules come from Meta and apply to every message sent from your number, whether the assistant, your team, a flow or your system sends it.

The 24-hour service windowCopy Anchor Link

When a customer writes to your WhatsApp Business number, a 24-hour window opens. Until it closes, you may send any message: text, media, buttons. Each new message from the customer restarts the 24 hours.

Outside the window, and to a customer who has never written, you may only send a template. When the REST API is published, a message that is not a template sent outside the window will be refused with outside_service_window.

TemplatesCopy Anchor Link

A template is a message you submit to Meta for approval in advance, with placeholders for values such as a name or an order number. Only templates with the status APPROVED can be sent. Meta classifies each one as MARKETING, UTILITY or AUTHENTICATION.

• A flow started by your system (flow triggers) must send a template before anything else: nobody has written, so no window is open.
• Templates sent by automations count against a daily allowance shared by the account and its projects, and at most 3 reach one customer in any 24 hours. See Plans and limits.

Who pays for templatesCopy Anchor Link

Meta charges for every template it delivers, at a rate that depends on the template's category and the recipient's country code. The charge goes to the payment method on your own WhatsApp Business account, directly from Meta; it is not part of your RevoplyAI bill.

WhatsApp QR numbersCopy Anchor Link

A number linked by scanning a QR code (whatsapp_qr) is not a WhatsApp Business Platform number:

• it cannot send templates, so it can never start a conversation or reach a customer outside a conversation they started;
• flow triggers cannot use it.

See Channels and capabilities for what each channel can send.

Opt-outs and qualityCopy Anchor Link

Customers who reply STOP are opted out; see Opt-out and compliance. Customers who block or report your number lower its quality rating with Meta, which can limit how many customers it may message a day. Send templates only to customers who expect them.