WhatsApp templates

In short: A WhatsApp template is a message approved in advance by Meta that you may use to contact a customer when the 24-hour window is closed. Under Account > WhatsApp templates you create templates, submit them to Meta, follow their approval and edit or delete them. Templates belong to a WhatsApp Business account and apply to all numbers in that account.

Where to find this

Go to Account > WhatsApp templates. Account admins also see a WhatsApp templates button at the bottom of Organisation > Channels > WhatsApp > Settings that leads to the same page.

Who: from the Account admin role upwards. Colleagues without that role see a message that they have no access to the account settings. The page applies to the whole account: all organisations share the templates of the same WhatsApp Business account. The description on the page puts it like this: Manage shared templates per WhatsApp Business account. Phone numbers and conversations remain with their organisation.

The Account > WhatsApp templates page with the WhatsApp Business account list, the New template and Refresh status buttons, the search field and a list of templates with status chips.

Templates belong to a WhatsApp Business account

Meta stores templates at the level of the WhatsApp Business account (WABA), not per phone number. This has consequences:

• A template you create or change applies immediately to all numbers in that WhatsApp Business account, even if those numbers belong to different organisations in aishaa.
• If your account has more than one WhatsApp Business account, the WhatsApp Business account list appears at the top. Each option is named after the numbers that belong to it. Below the list, Used by shows those numbers.
• While you are editing a template, you cannot switch to a different WhatsApp Business account.
• If no number has been connected yet, you see No WhatsApp Business accounts are connected yet. Connect a phone number in an organisation’s WhatsApp settings first. Connect a number first (see Connect WhatsApp).

The overview

For each WhatsApp Business account you see a list of all templates known to Meta. For each template you see the name, a status chip, the language code and category, the message text and, if Meta has rejected the template, the reason for the rejection.

At the top are the New template and Refresh status buttons and the Search templates field. Search works on the name and the message text. If there are no templates yet, it says There are no templates yet.

A template with components the aishaa editor does not know shows This template contains components this editor does not support. You can manage it in Meta. This applies, for example, to templates with an image or video as the header, buttons with a variable website address and templates for verification codes. These templates remain visible in the overview, but you edit them in the Meta Business environment.

Creating a new template

1. Click New template.
2. Fill in the fields (see the table below). At the top you see the notice Saving submits the changed text or buttons to Meta. That can require a new review and temporarily make the template unavailable.
3. Check the Preview block. It shows the header, the message with the example values, the footer and the buttons as the customer sees them on their phone.
4. Click Submit to Meta. While submitting it says Submitting…. After a successful submission you see Template submitted to Meta. The list shows its latest status. and the template is set to In review.

Cancel closes the editor without submitting. If there are errors in the fields, you see Check the highlighted fields below. at the top and each field shows what is wrong.

The editor for a new template with the fields Template name, Language code, Category, Header, Message, Example for a variable, Footer, four buttons with the hint about the menu and the Preview block, with Submit to Meta at the bottom.

Fields and rules

Variables in the message

Below the Message field it says: Use {{1}}, {{2}} or named variables such as {{customer_name}}. Supply an example for each variable. Do not mix both formats.

• Write numbered variables as {{1}}, {{2}}, {{3}}. They start at 1 and you may not skip a number.
• Write named variables as {{name}}: lowercase letters, numbers and underscores, without spaces.
• In one message, use either numbered or named variables, not both.
• Every variable needs an example in the Example for {variable} field.

Having a variable filled in automatically

For each variable in the message, the editor shows a Variable (name) block. The example is on the left and the Filled in automatically with list is on the right. With it you decide which ticket detail aishaa fills in in advance when a colleague sends the template.

What else you need to know:

• If you type a variable with a recognisable name, such as {{customer_name}}, {{voornaam}} or {{ticketnummer}}, aishaa immediately suggests the matching choice. If you choose something else yourself, including Nothing, the agent types it, your choice is kept.
• The variables come with the explanation When an agent sends this template from a ticket, aishaa fills in the bound variables. The agent can still change the value before sending. Only the bindings can be changed without Meta reviewing the template again.
• If you also change the text, the header, the footer or the buttons, the template does go to Meta again.

Saving only the automatic values

The automatic values belong to aishaa, not to Meta. If you change only those values in the editor and leave the header, the message, the footer and the buttons exactly as they are, nothing goes to Meta. The editor shows this too:

• At the top it says The text and buttons are unchanged, so nothing is submitted to Meta. Only the automatic values are saved. instead of the notice about submitting.
• The button at the bottom is called Save instead of Submit to Meta, and Saving… while it saves.
• After saving you see Saved. The text and buttons were not changed, so nothing was submitted to Meta.

The template therefore remains usable: the status does not change and no new review follows. Two things follow from that:

• The examples for the variables are then not required. A template created outside aishaa comes back from the Meta Business environment without examples; you may leave those fields empty. Only as soon as you change the text is an example required for every variable.
• A template that Meta has paused or rejected can also be given bindings this way, without submitting it again.

What the colleague sees in the ticket

When a colleague chooses the template in the composer of a ticket, each field is already filled in with the value from the ticket, with Filled in automatically: (detail) below it. If that detail is not known for this ticket, the field stays empty and it says (detail) is unknown for this ticket, fill it in yourself. The colleague can still change every value before sending; whatever is in the field is what the customer receives.

How your templates appear in the picker

When a colleague clicks Choose template in a WhatsApp ticket, the dialog opens with the Search templates field, which gets the cursor straight away. If some of the templates were recently used by that colleague, the list is split into two sections: Recently used at the top and All templates below it. As soon as a search is made, those headings disappear and you see one list of matches; Enter picks the top one. If there is no match, it says No matching templates found.

For each template the colleague sees:

• the name in plain language: order_shipped_v2 reads as Order shipped v2;
• a chip with the category: Service (utility), Marketing or Authentication (that last one belongs to verification templates you create in the Meta Business environment);
• a chip with the language, but only if the templates in the list differ in language;
• a preview of the message text, in which every variable already shows the value from the ticket or the name of the field to be filled in;
• the choice buttons as chips, so the colleague sees what the customer can choose from.

The name becoming readable applies to the display only. The real template name stays what you entered under Template name, and searching works on both, on the message text, on the language code and on the category.

The Choose template dialog in a WhatsApp ticket with the Search templates field, the Recently used and All templates sections, and for each template the readable name, the category chip and the choice buttons as chips.

Buttons

Each button has a Button type and a Button text (up to 25 characters). Use Remove button to remove a button.

Rules for the combination: up to 10 buttons in total, up to 2 website buttons and up to 1 phone button, and buttons of the same type must be next to each other. If something is wrong, you see Use at most ten buttons., Use at most two website buttons and one phone button. or Place buttons of the same type next to each other.

More than three buttons: the options menu

WhatsApp does not show all buttons below the message. From four buttons onwards, WhatsApp turns them into an options menu. Below the buttons in the editor you then see the hint With more than three buttons, WhatsApp shows the first two in the message and puts all of them behind a “See all options” button.

So with four or more buttons the customer sees:

• the first two buttons below the message;
• below that the See all options button, which opens all the buttons in one list.

The Preview block in the editor shows exactly that: the first two buttons, below them See all options, and below that the heading The customer can choose from: with all the buttons in a row. So put the two most important choices first, because those appear in the message itself. With three buttons or fewer they all simply appear below the message.

Editing a template

1. Click Edit on the template. The button is available for the statuses Approved, Rejected and Paused, and not for a template that is in review, deleted or locked or that contains components the editor does not know.
2. Change the header, the message, the examples, the footer or the buttons. The name, language code and category are locked.
3. Click Submit to Meta. If you changed only the automatic values, the button is called Save and nothing goes to Meta.

An edited template goes into review again and is set to In review until then. During that period the template cannot be used in the composer. Meta decides how often and how quickly a template may be edited. If editing is not possible, you see This template cannot be edited in its current state. Refresh the list. Name, language and category cannot be changed here.

Deleting and restoring a template

1. Click Delete on the template.
2. Confirm the question: Delete template ‘(name)’ ((language code))? Agents can no longer send it, on any phone number in this WhatsApp Business account. It stays at Meta for 30 days, during which you can restore it; after that it is deleted at Meta as well.

You see The template has been deleted. You can restore it for 30 days. The template stays in the overview with the chip Deleted and the line Not available to agents. Deleted at Meta on (date); restore it before then to keep it. Colleagues can no longer choose it in the composer.

If you want it back, click Restore within those 30 days. You see The template is available again. and colleagues can send it again. After 30 days, the deletion is permanent.

Only the chosen language variant is deleted; other language variants with the same name remain. You cannot edit a deleted template: This template has been deleted. Restore it before editing.

Locking a template

On the right of a template’s row is the Lock button. When you lock a template, it shows the chip Locked with who locked it and when, and nobody can edit, delete or restore it any more, not even aishaa or the assistant. Only an Account admin can unlock it again. See Lock configuration.

Automatic status refresh

• While the page is open and you are not editing, aishaa fetches the current status and any rejection reason from Meta every 30 seconds.
• This pauses while you are editing, so your draft is never overwritten. You can use Refresh status to refresh manually, even while editing.
• Meta also passes on status changes (approved, rejected, paused, category changed) of its own accord. aishaa processes these for all numbers in the WhatsApp Business account.

What Meta decides

aishaa submits templates and shows the outcome, but Meta decides. Meta determines whether a template is approved and how long the review takes, whether the category fits the content (Meta can change the category itself), which languages are supported, how often a template may be edited, and whether a template is paused or disabled because of quality. If in doubt, consult Meta’s guidelines for WhatsApp templates.

Error messages

If the same WhatsApp Business account is also connected to another aishaa account, you cannot change the shared templates and you see a message about this. Contact the aishaa team via the aishaa support chat in aishaa (menu Chat, conversation aishaa support) or via support@aishaa.nl.

Good to know

• Only templates with the status Approved can be chosen in the composer. How colleagues send a template is explained in The 24-hour window.
• Approved templates are also used by aishaa, when an AI agent has the Send a WhatsApp template skill (see The 24-hour window), and for WhatsApp bulk messages to many customers at once (see Bulk messages: one message to many customers).
• A template may have up to 10 buttons. From four buttons onwards, only the first two appear below the message and the rest sit behind See all options.
• If nothing changes in the header, the message, the footer and the buttons, nothing goes to Meta and the button is called Save. Only the automatic values are then kept.
• The editor creates text templates in the categories Service (utility) and Marketing. Templates with media in the header, buttons with a variable web address and verification templates are created in the Meta Business environment; aishaa then simply shows them in the overview.
• Templates are an account setting. Even if a template is used by only one organisation, only an Account admin can manage it.
• Deleting applies to all numbers in the WhatsApp Business account. You can undo it for 30 days with Restore; after that it is permanent.

Related

• The 24-hour window
• Bulk messages: one message to many customers
• Lock configuration
• Connect WhatsApp
• WhatsApp in the inbox
• Account and organisation: what belongs where