A pre-approved message format that a business must use to start a WhatsApp conversation or to message someone outside the 24-hour customer service window. Meta sorts templates into marketing, utility and authentication categories.
Example
Meera gets three templates approved: a marketing template for new arrivals, a utility template for 'Your order has shipped', and an authentication template for login codes on her website.
How you'll hear it
“The shipping update was recategorised as marketing because we added a discount line; take the offer out.”
Don't confuse it with
- Session (service) message: a free-form reply sent within 24 hours of the customer's last message, no template needed.
- Transactional email: the email cousin of a utility template.
Related terms
Sources
- Template categorization, Meta for Developers
- Template fundamentals, Meta for Developers