WhatsApp Business messages

This document provides an overview of how messages work on the WhatsApp Business Platform.

WhatsApp Business charges fees for each message delivered.

Message categories

Messages are divided into the following categories:

• Marketing - Marketing messages include promotions or offers, informational updates, or calls to action for customers.

• Utility - Transactional messages facilitate a specific, agreed-upon request or transaction, or update the customer on an ongoing transaction. They may include transaction confirmations, transaction updates, and/or post-purchase notifications.

• Authentication - OTP messages allow you to authenticate users with one-time access codes, possibly in multiple steps of the login process (e.g., account verification, account recovery, integrity verification prompts).

• Service - Service messages help you resolve customer queries.

Marketing, utility and authentication messages can only be sent using templated messages. Service messages can only be sent using free-form messages.

Messages

You can send the following message types using the BulkGate platform:

• Text messages
• Template messages

Forthcoming:

• Media messages: image, video, audio, document, and sticker messages.
• Contact messages
• Location messages
• Interactive messages: List messages, Reply button messages, and Single and Multi Product Messages.

The following endpoints allow you to send a message from a phone number to a customer:

• On-Premises API /messages endpoint

• Cloud API /messages endpoint

Read Receipts

You can set up read receipts and customers can elect to send read receipts back. If your customers opt out of sending read receipts, you will only be able to see that the message was delivered. For more information, see:

• On-Premises API: Marking Messages as Read

• Cloud API: Marking Messages as Read

Message Status

For each message you send, a notification about the status of the message will be sent to your webhook callback. In the table below, click the arrow in the left column for the WhatsApp app equivalent to each status, if available.

Name	Description
deleted	A message sent by the customer was deleted by the customer. Upon receiving this notification, you should ensure that the message is deleted from your system if it was downloaded from the server.
delivered	A message sent by you was delivered to the customer's device.
failed	A message sent by you failed to send. A reason for the failure will be included in the callback. Check the error message documentation for help debugging: - On-Premises API Errors - Cloud API Error Codes and Troubleshooting
read	A message sent by you was read by the customer. read notifications are only available for customers that have read receipts enabled. For customers that do not have it enabled, you only receive the delivered notification.
sent	A message sent by you is in transit within our systems. For On-Premises API users: To receive notifications for sent messages, set the sent_status setting to true in the application settings. The sent status notification is disabled by default.
warning	A message you sent contains an item in a catalog that is not available or does not exist.

The order of these notifications in your app may not reflect the actual timing of the message status. View the timestamp to determine the timing, if necessary.

Message scaling and limits

For efficient message sending via the WhatsApp Business API through our gateway, it's important to understand the limits and rules set by Meta (the operator of WhatsApp). These limits determine the maximum number of unique customers you can initiate communication with (by sending the first templated message) during a given period.

Initial limit and first step to increase:

• For newly connected business phone numbers (in your WhatsApp Business Account), the message sending limit is set to a maximum of 250 initiated communications with unique customers within a 24-hour period.
• This limit applies to all types of communications initiated by your business (as marketing, transactional, or authentication templated messages).
• Important: The 24-hour period for calculating the limit begins the moment the first templated message is delivered to the customer and ends exactly 24 hours later.
• To be eligible for a limit increase above 250, you must first complete the verification of your business by Meta.

Increasing limits after business verification and automatic scaling:

• Once your business is successfully verified by Meta, you become eligible for gradual limit increases. However, the limit is not automatically increased immediately after verification; it remains at 250 with the possibility of expansion.

• Text sender ID approval is no longer required for increasing these limits.

• To increase the limit, it is necessary to actively send high-quality messages. Meta typically monitors your activity and quality, and if you maintain a good rating, your daily limit will automatically increase to the next level.

• Subsequently, limits automatically scale based on the number of unique customers with whom you can initiate new communication (by sending a templated message) within a 24-hour period. Typical limit tiers are:

  • 1,000 unique customers
  • 10,000 unique customers
  • 100,000 unique customers
  • Unlimited unique customers

• Automatic scaling: Your phone number automatically moves to a higher limit tier based on three main factors:

  • Phone number status: Whether it is verified and active.

  • Phone number quality rating: WhatsApp continuously monitors the quality of messages you send (based on customer feedback, such as blocking or negative reactions). Maintaining high quality is crucial for increasing limits.

  • Frequency of initiating conversations with unique customers: The more high-quality conversations you initiate with unique customers, the faster your limit can increase.

For the most current and detailed information, please visit the official Meta documentation at https://developers.facebook.com/docs/whatsapp/messaging-limits.