WhatsApp Templates

WhatsApp only lets you send free-form messages within 24 hours of a customer's last message. To reach customers outside that window — offers, reminders, order updates — you must use a template that Meta has pre-approved. AgentShift's template builder handles drafting, compliance checking, and the Meta submission for you.

Where to find it

Open Dashboard → WhatsApp Templates. You'll see all your templates with their live status (Pending, Approved, Rejected). Click New Template to create one.

Draft with AI

Describe the message in plain English — "Remind customers about their appointment tomorrow, with the time and our address" — and the AI writes a Meta-ready template, picks the right category, and adds numbered placeholders with example values. You review and edit everything before submitting. Drafting is optional; you can always write the template by hand.

What goes into a template

• Name — an internal identifier (snake_case, lowercase, starts with a letter). Customers never see it.
• Category — Utility (order updates, appointment reminders, alerts — fastest approval, lowest cost), Marketing (promos, offers, broadcasts — stricter review, customers can opt out), or Authentication (OTP / verification codes only).
• Language — English plus Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, and Punjabi. Submit the same template in multiple languages by creating one variant per language.
• Body — your message, with numbered placeholders like {{1}}, {{2}} for the parts that change per customer.
• Header (optional) — none, a short text line, or an image (see below).
• Footer (optional) — a short line such as "Reply STOP to opt out".

Placeholders and example values

Use numbered placeholders — {{1}}, {{2}} — for anything that varies per recipient (name, date, order number). Named placeholders like {{name}} are rejected by Meta; use numbers and supply the value at send time.

For each placeholder, give one example value. Meta uses these only to preview the template during review — they are never sent to your customers — but templates without examples are rejected with an INVALID_FORMAT error.

Image headers

You can attach an image header so the message arrives with a banner — a product shot, an offer graphic, an event flyer. Upload a JPG or PNG (up to 5 MB); a 1.91:1 landscape image looks best. The same image is sent to every recipient, and Meta reviews it as part of the template.

Live compliance check

As you type, AgentShift runs a compliance check and flags issues before you submit — missing placeholder examples, named placeholders, content that reads like marketing in a utility template, and so on. It also suggests the category Meta is likely to assign. This is guidance to improve your approval odds; Meta still makes the final call on both approval and category.

Approval lifecycle

When you submit, the template goes to Meta with status Pending. Utility templates are typically approved within minutes; marketing templates can take a few hours. The status flips on the list page automatically when Meta responds — no need to refresh or re-check manually.

• Approved — ready to use in broadcasts.
• Rejected — open the template to see Meta's reason, edit it, and resubmit.

Using approved templates

Once a template is approved, it becomes available when you create a Broadcast. Pick the template, fill in the placeholder values (static for everyone, or personalised per recipient), and send — even to customers outside the 24-hour window.

Tips

• Lead with value. Meta throttles low-quality templates. Genuine offers, reminders, and updates get approved; thinly-disguised ads do not.
• Pick the honest category. Mislabelling a promo as Utility to get faster approval usually backfires — Meta re-categorises it, and repeated mismatches hurt your quality rating.
• Keep a small library. A handful of well-written, reusable templates beats a sprawl of one-offs.