The one rule underneath all the others: only message people who want to hear from you, with messages they would be glad to receive. Every limit, approval and quality score below exists to enforce that.
1. The 24-hour service window
When a customer sends your business a message, a 24-hour service window opens, counted from their most recent message. Inside the window:
- You can reply with free-form text, images, documents and links, exactly like normal chat.
- Replies are free of Meta charges.
- The chatbot and your whole team can take part.
When the window closes (24 hours after the customer's last message), free-form replies stop working. To reach the customer again you must send an approved template message (next section). If they reply, a fresh window opens. Our inbox shows the window state on every conversation so you never have to guess, and messages sent after the window closes fail visibly instead of disappearing silently.
2. Template messages and their categories
Templates are pre-written messages that Meta approves before you can send them. They are the only way to start a conversation or to message outside the window. There are exactly three categories:
| Category | Use it for | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Utility | Messages about an existing order, booking or account that the customer expects | Order confirmation, delivery update, payment reminder, appointment reminder |
| Marketing | Promotions and offers, anything whose main purpose is to sell | Sale announcement, new product launch, discount code, abandoned-cart offer |
| Authentication | One-time passcodes and login verification | "Your code is 123456" with a copy-code button |
Rules that matter when creating templates:
- Pick the honest category. A discount hiding inside a utility template gets reclassified by Meta, and repeated attempts hurt your quality rating.
- The body can be up to 1,024 characters. Variables such as {{1}} stand for personal details (name, order number) and must have example values when you submit.
- Meta reviews each template. Most are decided within minutes to a few hours; plan for up to 24 hours.
- Every template carries a quality rating (High, Medium, Low). Templates that fall to Low after warnings can be paused by Meta until fixed, and a template disabled for policy breaches cannot be sent at all.
- Add an opt-out line or quick-reply button ("Reply STOP to opt out") to marketing templates. It keeps customers happy and your rating safe.
3. Opt-in and opt-out
You may only start a conversation with someone who has opted in to receive WhatsApp messages from your business. Valid opt-ins include: a checkbox on your website or checkout (not pre-ticked tricks), a QR code or "chat with us" link the person taps, a keyword they send you first, or permission given on a call or in your shop. Keep a record of who opted in, when and how — Meta can ask, and your number's health depends on it.
- Opt-out is instant law. If a customer replies STOP (or blocks you), stop immediately. Our platform honours opt-outs and blocks: a blocked number must be unblocked by the business before it can be messaged from the platform again.
- If you send marketing to someone who has opted out, Meta rejects it (error 131050) and repeated attempts damage your quality rating.
- Even for opted-in customers, Meta caps marketing messages per person across all businesses (error 131049 when the cap is hit). Spacing campaigns out beats blasting repeatedly.
4. Messaging limits and quality ratings
WhatsApp limits how many new unique customers a business can start conversations with per rolling 24 hours. A newly connected number starts at the lowest tier (250) and rises through 1,000, 10,000 and 100,000 towards unlimited as you prove quality: send to opted-in customers, earn replies, and avoid blocks. Limits can rise automatically within days when volume is high and quality is good.
Your number also carries a quality rating — High (green), Medium (yellow) or Low (red) — driven by customer blocks, reports and message feedback over the last 7 days. A Low rating caps your limit growth; sustained Low can get the number flagged and then restricted. The fastest way to destroy a rating is a cold list; the fastest way to build one is relevant messages to people expecting them.
5. Coexistence: what works where
With coexistence your number works in the WhatsApp Business app and on this platform together, and chats sync both ways. Some features live only in the app, because WhatsApp does not expose them to the API:
- App only: group chats, broadcast lists, disappearing messages, view-once media, live location, voice and video calls, Status. You keep using these in the app as always.
- Platform (API): one-to-one conversations with full inbox, template and campaign tooling. Messages your team sends from the platform appear on the customer's phone normally, and app-sent messages show up here too.
- Contacts and up to six months of one-to-one chat history can sync to the platform when you connect.
6. What you may sell on WhatsApp
WhatsApp's Commerce Policy bans some products outright (for example illegal goods, weapons, recreational drugs, adult products and services, and documents or currencies that enable fraud) and restricts others by country and age rules (for example alcohol and tobacco). If your products fall in a restricted category, check Meta's current Commerce Policy before running campaigns; Digilistan cannot make an ineligible product eligible.
7. How charges work
- Replies inside the 24-hour service window carry no Meta charge.
- Template messages are charged per message delivered, at rates set by Meta for the recipient's country and the template's category: utility is cheapest, authentication next, marketing the highest of the three.
- Charges are billed by Meta to the payment method on your own WhatsApp Business account. Digilistan adds zero markup; your plan fee to us is separate and always shown separately.
- Without a valid payment method on the WhatsApp account, Meta will not deliver business-initiated template messages, though replies inside the window keep working.
8. Staying in good standing
- Message only people who opted in, and keep proof.
- Honour STOP and blocks instantly.
- Use honest template categories and personalise with real details.
- Watch your quality rating; if it drops, slow down and improve targeting instead of sending more.
- Never buy or rent contact lists, and never rotate numbers to escape limits: Meta treats that as evasion and bans accounts for it.
Remember: account restrictions and bans are Meta's decisions, based on behaviour and customer signals. No platform can undo them; the rules above are how you never meet one.