Templates, categories and the 24-hour window
When a customer messages a business, a 24-hour customer service window opens and free-form replies are allowed. Outside it, a business can only send templates Meta has approved, in three categories: marketing, utility and authentication. Meta can move a template into the category its content actually fits, so a promotion hidden in a utility message gets reclassified. Since 1 July 2025 pricing has been per message: marketing templates are always charged, while utility templates sent inside an open window are free. A template allows a 60-character header, a body of up to 1,024 characters and a 60-character footer, and each language version needs its own approval.
Opt-in is the foundation
Meta requires a business to collect opt-in before messaging someone: the person must agree to receive messages from that business on WhatsApp, and the request must name the business clearly. Local law adds its own conditions, such as the GDPR and national ePrivacy rules in Europe, Brazil's LGPD and India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023. Recipients can block or report a business in one tap, and those signals lower the phone number's quality rating, which can restrict how many people it may message. Relevance is therefore a delivery requirement as well as a courtesy: fewer, more useful messages keep the channel open.
Rich media and conversational commerce
Templates can carry an image, video or document header, carousel templates show several cards side by side, and catalogues and product messages let customers browse and order inside the chat, while Flows collect structured answers such as a size or a delivery slot. Images are limited to 5 MB, video to 16 MB and documents to 100 MB, and everything is seen in a chat bubble on a phone, so products must read at small size. The studio produces the media and copy for each template in the brand's style, localised into 30 languages with approved claims enforced, so every language version reaches Meta's review consistent and signed off.
Brazil, India and Indonesia
In these markets WhatsApp is how people talk to shops, banks, clinics and delivery services, so customers expect to ask questions, track orders and sometimes pay in the chat; in India, WhatsApp payments run on UPI. Localisation has to go beyond translation. Brazilian Portuguese differs from European Portuguese in vocabulary and tone, India needs Hindi alongside regional languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and Marathi, and Indonesian messages should respect Ramadan and Lebaran timing. Generated imagery should show local settings, people and products. A campaign built in English and translated at the end reads as foreign in the most personal channel a brand can use.
Updated 25 September 2026