Sending a WhatsApp template after 24 hours
Once WhatsApp's 24-hour window has closed, the person replying can send one of the number's approved templates.
Updated
WhatsApp lets a business reply freely only within 24 hours of the customer's last message. After that it delivers only a message template that Meta has approved. In a WhatsApp chat you've taken over, once the window has closed, Send a template appears beside Send reply.
Sending one. Press Send a template and choose one of your number's approved templates. Fill in its blanks: a blank for the customer's name is filled from their contact, as campaigns fill it, and you type the others for this one message. The preview shows the message as the customer will get it, with Meta's fee. Press Send template.
- Which templates are listed: your number's approved marketing and utility templates that campaigns can send. Authentication templates are for sign-in codes and aren't listed. Templates are made and sent for review in Campaigns › Templates; Meta usually reviews one within a day.
- Marketing templates show but can't be chosen for a customer who asked to stop promotions, or for a US number, where WhatsApp doesn't deliver them. Utility templates still can.
- Meta's fee: Meta charges your WhatsApp account for each delivered template, not Syniria. The picker shows Syniria's estimate from Meta's published rates for the customer's country.
- On the free trial, each template counts toward the trial's campaign messages (see Campaigns on the free trial). Sending one needs a plan or a live free trial.
- When Meta blocks new conversations from your WhatsApp account, no template can be sent until the block ends.
After you send it the template shows in the chat on your side, with Template and its name, ticks and your name. Your AI agent reads it before answering the customer's reply, and the chat stays with you. A template doesn't open the window: the customer's reply does.
When it isn't delivered, the chat says why under it. Meta limits how many marketing messages each person gets: wait a day, or send a utility template. If the customer has stopped your marketing messages on WhatsApp, Syniria remembers it as campaigns do, and offers them utility templates only.