What are WhatsApp templates
To send messages from a WhatsApp business account, Meta requires that you use pre-approved WhatsApp templates. These templates are required by Meta for a few reasons:
- to ensure messages comply with WhatsApp policies
- to prevent spam messages
- to facilitate bulk messaging
- to send consistent messages
Templates can contain variable content fields, so you can reuse a template with the same basic structure but change the variable copy when you create your campaign in Movement.
There are five different template types that Movement currently supports: text, call to action, quick reply, list picker and media. These are explained in more detail in the table below, followed by examples of each template type.
When you're ready to create templates, use our guide on how to create and use WhatsApp templates here
Template types that Movement currently supports:
Template type
Example
What to submit
Text template is a simple text template that can include copy and links.
This is the most flexible option and can be used when you have more than one link to include.
Template copy with example content for each variable.
Call-to-action template includes a button that recipients can tap to take a specific action on any website - such as sign a petition or view and share a social post.
Template copy with example content for each variable.
Button copy (no variables allowed).
Action link (the url for your action pages or website).
Quick reply allows recipients to select from prefilled answers rather than type an open response.
This is the best format for surveys and can be used to increase reply rates in peer to peer campaigns.
Meta sets these limitations for quick response survey templates:
- Maximum of 5 options for the quick reply
- Max character limit of 25 for each reply option
- Variables are allowed and count as 1 character.
Template copy with example content for each variable including the first question in the survey.
Quick response options:
- Only five options for the quick reply
- Max character limit of 25 for replies
- Variables allowed and count as 1 character.
List picker
For when you have more than 5 response options for your survey, list picker allows more response options that are chosen from a drop down list.
There is a max character limit of 25 per option and variables are allowed.
Template copy with example content for each variable including the first question in the survey.
- Max character limit of 25 for replies
- Variables allowed and count as 1 character.
Media template allows for videos, images and sound files from your local server to be included in your WhatsApp messages.
Every media template has an extra field that doesn’t appear when editing your template. This field is used to link the piece of media you would like to pull through into your message
Note: if you submit a media template with an image example, you can only use this template to send images. If you use a video example you can use to send both images and videos.
Template copy with example content for each variable.
URL to where the content is hosted - ideally where you can host videos and pictures so you can use the template for any of your media.
For full instructions on sending media via WhatsApp including the specific template requirements, see Sending media with WhatsApp.
Examples of what to submit:
