How-to guides

With sending and receiving your first message. Getting one real message out end to end teaches you more about templates, opt-in and the 24-hour window than reading about all three separately.

Collect opt-in properly, keep every broadcast relevant, ramp volume gradually rather than jumping tiers overnight, honour opt-outs immediately, and watch your quality rating weekly. Those five habits prevent the large majority of restrictions.

Work out which level is affected — the phone number, the WhatsApp Business Account, or the Meta Business portfolio — because the appeal route differs for each. Then appeal with evidence of opt-in and legitimate use rather than a general request for reinstatement.

Put the route in front of them where interest already exists: a chat button on your site, a QR code in store or on packaging, a link in your email signature, and click-to-WhatsApp ads. A customer who messages first opens a 24-hour window in which your first 1,000 replies each month are free.

Partly. The principles around opt-in and relevance apply everywhere, but templates, broadcasts to large lists, quality ratings and messaging limits are API concepts and do not exist on the free app.