Send WhatsApp templates

A WhatsApp message template is a message Meta has reviewed and approved in advance. It is the only way to message someone on WhatsApp more than 24 hours after they last messaged you — see the 24-hour window. Inside the window you reply normally; outside it, only an approved template can go.

Where it's on: WhatsApp is in a small pilot. If your Settings → Channels → WhatsApp card reads Not in the pilot or Not offered yet, none of this applies to your workspace and there is nothing to set up. The card's four status rows — Availability, Connection, Meta account and Templates — say what is true for yours (Settings).

Who can do what: owners and admins refresh templates, create or resubmit them, and choose test contacts. Owners and admins send broadcasts, send tests and resume a paused broadcast. See Roles and permissions.

What it costs: Meta bills every template message at its own template rate, charged to the payment method on your WhatsApp Business Account. HyperDM doesn't bill you for template messages and adds nothing on top — it never charges you for one. An older HyperDM subscription may still list an item named WhatsApp template fees (Meta, at cost) in your billing portal or on an invoice; nothing is charged to it. A test is a real template message and Meta bills it the same way.

See which templates HyperDM can send

1. Go to Settings → Channels and find the WhatsApp card.
2. Look under Message templates. Each template shows its name, language and category, and:
   • Status, in words — Approved, In review, Rejected, Paused, Disabled, Archived and the rest. Only an approved template can be sent.
   • Meta's reason, when Meta rejected, paused or disabled it — written out, for example "Meta rejected the format — usually a greeting that ends in a placeholder", plus anything Meta added in its own words.
   • Quality, when Meta has rated it.
   • Can HyperDM send it? — Yes only for a template Meta approved that HyperDM knows how to fill in. An approved template with a part HyperDM can't fill (see What HyperDM can't send) says No and names each part.
   • Last synced — when HyperDM last read it from Meta.
3. The Templates status row above the panel sums it up: how many are ready, how many are in Meta's review, and how many can't be sent.

A rejected, paused, disabled or archived template is never shown as ready. If the list can't be read, the panel says so instead of showing an empty list.

Refresh your templates from Meta

HyperDM re-reads your templates from Meta once a day on its own, and Meta tells HyperDM when a template's status changes. To check straight away:

1. On the WhatsApp card, under Message templates, click Refresh from Meta.
2. The panel says what happened — Synced and changed counts, how many templates are no longer at Meta, and how many scheduled sends are now blocked — or why nothing was refreshed.

You can refresh once a minute per workspace. A refresh that fails never says "up to date": it says the templates were NOT refreshed and shows when the last good sync was.

Fix a rejected template

1. In Message templates, read Meta's reason on the rejected template.
2. Click Edit and resubmit. The WhatsApp setup's template step opens with Meta's reason, starting from the rejected text under a new name.
3. Change what the reason points at and click Submit for approval.

The setup's template step submits English (US), utility, text-only templates. For any other language, category or layout, create the template in WhatsApp Manager instead, then Refresh from Meta. To start a new template from Settings, click Create a template.

A template was paused or disabled

• Paused — Meta paused it because of how people reacted to it. It lifts on its own; there is nothing to press. Until then it can't be sent.
• Disabled — Meta won't send it again. Create a new template.
• Archived — unarchive it in WhatsApp Manager to use it again.

Any scheduled broadcast using that template pauses itself before it sends anything — see A WhatsApp broadcast says Paused.

Send a broadcast with a template

1. Go to Broadcasts → New broadcast.
2. In step 1, write the message for contacts inside the 24-hour window, then choose a WhatsApp template for everyone outside it. Only templates HyperDM can send are offered; the approved ones it can't send are listed underneath, each with the reason.
3. Fill in each value the template needs. Each one says where it comes from — typed text, the same for everyone, or a merge tag, filled in per contact — and what a sample contact would get. The preview underneath is made by the same step that sends it.
4. In step 2, choose WhatsApp or Any channel so WhatsApp contacts are in the audience.
5. Click Save draft, Schedule or Send now.

If a value is missing, the language isn't one the template has, or the template no longer takes these values, nothing is saved — the message names the field, moves you to it, and keeps everything you typed. Nothing is saved either when the page is out of date: if the template changed in WhatsApp Manager since you opened the broadcast, the section shows it as it is now — check its wording, then save again; if someone else saved the broadcast, or it was paused, since you opened it, reload to see the latest (your text is still there). A contact whose merge tag has no value gets "there" instead; if a value would still be empty or too long for that one contact, that contact is skipped and the rest go. More on the composer: Broadcasts.

Choose your test contacts

A test goes only to a test contact — up to five WhatsApp contacts you choose.

1. From your own phone, message your business's WhatsApp number. A test contact must have messaged the number first; that proves the number is theirs.
2. Go to Settings → Channels → WhatsApp → Test contacts.
3. Pick the contact under Add a WhatsApp contact who has messaged you and click Add.

To take one off the list, click Remove beside it. If you already have five, remove one first.

Send a test before the broadcast goes out

1. Open the broadcast, choose its WhatsApp template and click Save draft — a test sends the saved version. With a test contact set up, the broadcast stays open after you save and says Saved. You can send a test now.
2. Under Send a test, pick a Test contact and click Send test.
3. Read the confirmation and confirm.

A test is a real WhatsApp message, not a preview. If the test contact hasn't messaged you in the last 24 hours, they get the template, and Meta bills it to your WhatsApp Business Account at its template rate. If they have, they get your message text instead — no template, no template fee. The test goes through the same checks as the broadcast: their opt-in, the template's approval and your messaging limit.

Each version goes to each test contact once — the version is what you saved plus the template's wording at Meta. To test again, change the broadcast and save it; a template edited in WhatsApp Manager counts as a new version too. If HyperDM can't confirm whether a test went out (Meta didn't answer in time, or answered without confirming the message), it never sends that version to that contact again: check the test contact's phone, and to send another, change the broadcast and save it, or pick another test contact. If HyperDM couldn't check the template just now, nothing is sent and nothing tries again on its own — press Send test again in a minute.

Tests are for broadcasts that haven't gone out, and for one paused for its template — test the new template before you click Resume. One that is sending or finished can't be tested.

A WhatsApp broadcast says Paused

HyperDM checks a broadcast's template against its latest status from Meta before the first message goes out, and again on every send. When the template can no longer be sent, the broadcast pauses itself instead of failing for every contact — and if Meta itself refuses the template partway through, the contacts not reached yet wait for Resume too. The Broadcasts list shows Paused — and the reason in words, for example "Template order_update is no longer approved (Rejected: …)".

While WhatsApp isn't connected, Resume isn't available on any paused broadcast, whatever the reason — it says to connect WhatsApp again in Settings first. A broadcast saved without a record of its template (a save that didn't finish) reads as changed since you saved; open it and save it again. If a broadcast is paused for its template while you have it open, Schedule and Send now save your changes but don't schedule or send it — the page says so and shows Resume.

Resume checks the template once more before anything goes. A broadcast whose scheduled time is still ahead goes back to its schedule; otherwise it continues within about five minutes. A broadcast paused for its template can be opened, saved and tested with Send test without sending — test the new template, then click Resume; it stays paused until someone does. Stop sending ends it for good.

What HyperDM can't send

Meta allows these in a template, and HyperDM doesn't fill them in, so it refuses a template that has one — when you save, and again when it sends — rather than sending it with a part missing:

• an image, video, document, GIF or location header;
• a link button whose address ends in a variable, a copy-code, one-time password, Flow, catalog or WhatsApp call button;
• a carousel or a limited-time offer;
• named variables such as {{first_name}} — HyperDM fills numbered ones like {{1}};
• an authentication (sign-in code) template.

Templates are for broadcasts only. A sequence step can't use a WhatsApp template, and the Inbox can't send one — a reply there goes out only inside the 24-hour window.

The WhatsApp card's What works on WhatsApp here list says which parts of WhatsApp have been seen working on a live account and which are still being proven.