Plans: Social Essential, Social Pro, Social Business, Powerhouse Essential, Powerhouse Pro and Powerhouse Business. The Free and Calling plans answer your website and phone, not Instagram, Messenger or WhatsApp.
WhatsApp only lets a business reply for 24 hours after the client's last message. After that, an approved template is the only thing it carries. Messenger has its own reviewed templates, for something a client already has such as their own appointment.
- Connect the channel first: WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. Without it the tab says WhatsApp is not connected or Messenger is not connected.
- Open Templates in the sidebar and choose the WhatsApp templates or Messenger templates tab. You need the Manager, Admin or Owner role.
- Press Write a WhatsApp template or Write a Messenger template, or Add the starter templates on an empty library.
- Give it a name and choose a Language; one template is one language. WhatsApp templates also take a Category: Utility for something the client asked for, Marketing for anything offered.
- Write the Message. Add a heading and, on WhatsApp, a footer if you want one. Use Insert a variable for details such as the booking time. WhatsApp asks for Sample values so its reviewers can see a real message.
- Add buttons if you need them (replies or fixed links on Messenger, up to three).
- Optionally fill Tell the agent when to send this with one sentence. Leave it empty and only your team sends the template.
- Press Save and submit, or Save template now and use Submit to WhatsApp or Submit to Messenger from the list later.
Reading the status
The list shows Not submitted, In review, Approved or Refused, with a note on what happens next. Messenger usually answers in seconds; WhatsApp usually within minutes and at most a day. If it is Refused, open it: Meta's reason is shown above the editor. Fix the wording and submit again. Sync with WhatsApp (or Messenger) re-reads every status from Meta if the list looks stale.
Approved wording is locked
Meta approved those exact words, so they cannot be changed as a message goes out; only variables are filled. WhatsApp cannot rename or re-language a template it has approved. To change either, remove it and write a new one. Messenger has no edit at all: saving a change deletes and re-registers the template.
Sending one
In Conversations, press Templates by the reply box and choose an approved one. Marketing templates cost more, WhatsApp does not deliver them to US numbers, and the agent never sends them. Meta bills WhatsApp messages to your own WhatsApp Business account.
Can a template start a conversation with someone who never wrote to me?
On WhatsApp, an approved template can open a conversation with a client you have a reason to message. On Messenger there is no address to open one to, so a client must have written to the Page first.
My template was moved to Marketing. Why does that matter?
Meta can reclassify a template. The agent never sends Marketing templates, and Harkbell raises a A template was refused, stopped or moved to Marketing notification so you can look at it.
Do I need a template for every reminder?
Only for messages after the 24-hour window on WhatsApp. Inside the window, any typed reply or saved reply works. Nothing sends a template on a schedule; your team sends it from the inbox, or the agent sends one during a call when its note says to.