Key takeaways
- Needed whenever a business writes first, or more than 24 hours after the person's last message.
- Meta reviews each template automatically; the status must be approved before it can be sent.
- The category affects both review and price.
When a WhatsApp message template is needed
Meta's template documentation says template messages are the only type a business can send to people outside a customer service window. That covers any message a business sends first, and any reply more than 24 hours after the person last wrote. Inside the window, businesses can reply with ordinary messages.
How templates are reviewed
Templates are reviewed automatically when they are created or edited, and review can take up to 24 hours. A template must have the status approved before it can be sent. Meta can later pause or disable a template that gets negative feedback from the people receiving it, and a rejected template can be fixed or appealed.
Categories, names and placeholders
- Category: marketing, utility or authentication. Meta checks the category during review, and it affects the price of each message.
- Name: lower-case letters, numbers and underscores, unique within a language.
- Placeholders: positional, like {{1}}, or named, like {{first_name}}, replaced with real values when the message is sent. Meta asks for example values when you create the template.
Milvao's four templates
Milvao uses four utility templates on the community's own account: for offering a request to a member, sharing contact details after both agree, sending a request update and sending a profile link. The owner submits them from Milvao's settings with one button, and Milvao shows each one's status. Check your own drafts with the free WhatsApp template checker.
Sources
- Meta for Developers: Template fundamentals (checked 5 November 2026)
Facts about WhatsApp and other services come from the pages listed, on the dates shown, and can change.