Note: If your WhatsApp templates view looks different from the one shown in this article, jump to these instructions instead. If WhatsApp message templates are new to you, learn more about them.
To create a WhatsApp message template:
- Go to Settings > Account > WhatsApp message templates.
You'll see the template list where you can manage all of the templates in the project.
- To start creating a new template, click the Create a template button.
The Select pre-made template view opens. - If you want to:
- Create a template from scratch, select the first template, which is empty.
- Use a pre-made template, select the one you want to use of the other templates.
- Click Next step. The Template configuration view opens.
- Fill in the information regarding the template:
- Template name: The name can contain alphanumeric characters (a-z in lowercase only, 0-9) and underscores (_). Spaces aren't allowed.
- Template category: Select the category to which your template belongs. Marketing, Utility or Authentication.
- Template language: Select the languages of your template. You can select more than one.
- Click Next step.
- In the Text field, write the body text for the message template. The maximum length of the text is 1024 characters. You can also add variables, which are placeholders that users replace with customer-specific data when sending a message using this template. Learn more about variables.
- If you want, you can add:
- a header that can contain text or multimedia content
The header is also a placeholder where you can insert an image, video or document when you send a message using this template, similar to the variables in the text.
In the Type field, select the type of the header:- Text: Enter the header text. The maximum length is 60 characters. You can also use one variable in a text header.
- Image, Video, or Document: Upload the file you want to use as the placeholder (images as PNG or JPG, video as MP4, documents as PDF). Users can replace this image, video, or document when sending a message using this template.
- None: No header is used in your template.
- a footer that contains additional information in text
The maximum length of the footer text is 60 characters. - two types of buttons:
- Quick Reply: This allows the user to easily send a text message by clicking a button, such as “Yes”, “No”, or “Maybe”. You can add a maximum of three buttons. They can only contain text (numbers and letters), a maximum of 25 characters in each button.
- Call To Action: This type of button contains a URL or a phone number and opens a website or the user's telephone app for calling when they click on the button.
You can use both static and dynamic URLs. A dynamic URL contains a variable and can therefore refer to different menu items within a website. The user must fill in this variable when sending the campaign. You can add a maximum of two buttons of different types.
- a header that can contain text or multimedia content
- If you want to add the template in several languages:
- Click the Template language drop down field at the top of the page.
- Click Edit and then Add language.
- Find the languages you want to add and click the Confirm and add button.
- Click the Quit button. The languages you've added are now saved in the Template language field.
- Select a language in the field to enter the appropriate text for it. Templates in different languages are individually verified by Meta.
- To finish creating your template, you can either first save it as a draft and continue working on it later or submit it for Meta's approval right away:
- To first save the template as draft to continue later:
- Click the Quit button at the bottom right of the page.
- Select the languages you want to save and click Save and quit.
If you want to discard the template in all languages, click Quit without saving.
You will see the templates saved as drafts in the Templates view. To continue editing a template, click the View details button and click the Edit button related to the template.
- To submit the template to Meta for approval, click the Submit for approval button. Note that you cannot edit the template after you submit it for approval and you need to submit each language individually. After Meta has reviewed and approved your template, its status changes to Approved and you can start using the template.
- To first save the template as draft to continue later:
You can see the current status of the template in the WhatsApp message template list by clicking View details to expand the details of each template:
Reviewed and approved by Meta
Waiting for Meta's review
Rejected by Meta
Saved as draft and not yet sent to Meta for review
See also:
