Template messages

Overview

WhatsApp Business message templates are predefined messages that businesses can send to customers. You must use a template when you’re messaging someone for the first time or when it’s been more than 24 hours since their last message; templates are also required for broadcast messages.

Every template must be approved by Meta to confirm it complies with WhatsApp’s Business and Commerce Policies—this usually takes a few minutes but can take up to 48 hours. Sending a template starts a business-initiated conversation and is billed based on your location and the template category. Learn more about WhatsApp pricing here.

How to create template messages in Zaapi

• Go to Settings → Integrations → WhatsApp → Template Manager. A default template (zaapi_re_engagement_template) is already created for you.

• Click “Create new template”

• Select the WhatsApp Business Account that will use this template.

• Enter a template name (letters, numbers, and underscores only).

• Choose a category:

  • Marketing – promotional content, special offers, etc.

  • Utility – transactional updates, e.g., order confirmations, shipping updates.

• Choose the language.

• Compose the template (as needed): Header, Body, Footer, and Buttons.

  • Follow the “Optimizing Variables: Best Practices” to ensure all content with variables meets Meta’s guidelines.

• Click Submit for review. The status will show Pending first, then Approved (or Rejected if it doesn’t meet Meta’s policies).

The mandatory opt-out footer

Every Marketing-category template you create in Zaapi carries a fixed opt-out footer. The field is read-only in the template builder — you can't edit or remove it. It reads, in the template's language:

Language	Footer
English	Reply STOP to unsubscribe
Thai	ตอบกลับ STOP เพื่อยกเลิกการรับข้อความ
Indonesian	Balas STOP untuk berhenti berlangganan
Malay	Balas STOP untuk berhenti melanggan
Filipino	Sumagot ng STOP para mag-unsubscribe
Lao	ຕອບກັບ STOP ເພື່ອຍົກເລີກການຮັບຂໍ້ຄວາມ
Vietnamese	Trả lời STOP để hủy đăng ký

Templates in any other language use the English footer.

This is intentional. An easy opt-out is the alternative to being blocked or reported — and blocks and reports are what damage your quality rating and your tier. A customer who replies STOP costs you one contact. A customer who blocks you costs you a little of every future broadcast's deliverability.

Utility-category templates have an editable footer (up to 60 characters), because they're transactional and not subject to the marketing opt-out requirement.

Template quality rating

Meta gives every approved template its own quality rating, based on how recipients react to it. Blocks, reports and "not interested" responses pull the rating down; normal engagement keeps it healthy. The rating is per template, not per account — one bad template doesn't drag down the rest of your library.

A template isn't rated straight away. Meta needs it to have been sent to enough recipients first, so newly approved templates show as Not yet rated until they've had some traffic.

Where to find it

• Settings → WhatsApp Templates — the Quality score column shows the current rating for every template.

• The template picker — in a chat, or when building a broadcast, the rating appears as a badge next to each template name.

Hover the badge to see what the rating means.

What each rating means

Rating	What it means	Can you send it?
High quality	Meta has rated this template as high quality based on positive recipient engagement.	Yes
Medium quality	Meta has rated this template as medium quality.	No
Low quality	Meta has rated this template as low quality due to negative feedback from recipients.	No
Not yet rated	Meta hasn't rated this template yet. Ratings appear after the template has been sent to enough recipients.	Yes

Sending is blocked at medium and low quality

Zaapi stops a template from being sent as soon as its rating drops to medium or low. This applies everywhere a template can go out:

• In chats — the template can't be selected in the picker, and you'll see "Sending is unavailable for templates rated medium or low quality" if you try to send it.

• In broadcasts — the broadcast is marked Failed and no messages are sent. This check runs when the broadcast actually goes out, so a scheduled broadcast can fail on a rating change that happened after you scheduled it.

• In workflows and automations — the send step fails.

This is a deliberate guardrail, and it's stricter than Meta's own behaviour. Meta pauses a low-quality template only after it has already accumulated negative feedback, and continued sending is what escalates from a paused template to a downgraded messaging tier and eventually a restricted phone number. Blocking at medium quality stops that chain early, while the problem is still one template rather than your whole account.

If a template drops to medium or low

The rating recovers on its own if the template stops generating negative feedback — but it won't recover while you keep sending it, and you can't send it anyway. What to do:

1. Read the template again as a customer would. Is the offer relevant to everyone who received it? Is it clear which business it's from? Does it look like a mass message?

2. Check who you sent it to. A good template sent to a poorly targeted audience gets reported. Tighten your targeting before you rewrite the copy.

3. Edit it, or replace it. Approved templates can be edited up to 10 times in 30 days, or once in any 24-hour window. If the concept itself isn't working, create a new template rather than editing the same one repeatedly.

4. Reduce how often you send it. Repetition to the same contacts is one of the fastest routes to reports and blocks.

Ratings update automatically — Meta notifies Zaapi whenever a template's rating changes, so the badge reflects the current state without you needing to refresh anything.

Template quality vs. phone number quality

These are two separate ratings and it's worth knowing which one you're looking at:

	Template quality rating	Phone number quality rating
Applies to	One template	Your whole WhatsApp Business number
Where to see it	Settings → WhatsApp Templates	Connect → WhatsApp accounts
Effect when it drops	That one template can't be sent	No templates can be sent from that number
Also affects	—	Your daily messaging tier

A single template rated low is a copy or targeting problem. A number rated low is an account-health problem, and it blocks every template you have — so treat template ratings as the early warning.