Get Opt-in for WhatsApp
Learn how to get Opt-In before sending notifications to customers
Businesses are required to obtain opt-in before sending proactive notifications to customers. Businesses can obtain opt-in in a multitude of ways, both on and off WhatsApp. Ultimately, we want to help people receive useful information from businesses they want to hear from.
Opt-in methods such as via your website, interactive voice response (IVR) flows or in a WhatsApp thread are acceptable.
Requirements
Businesses must follow the below requirements when obtaining opt-in:
- Businesses must clearly state that a person is opting in to receive messages from the business over WhatsApp
- Businesses must clearly state the business’ name that a person is opting in to receive messages from
- Businesses must comply with applicable law
Opt-In Methods
As long as the opt-in method meets the above requirements, it will be policy compliant. The following are examples of supported opt-in methods:
- SMS
- Website
- In a WhatsApp thread
- By phone (using an interactive voice response (IVR) flow)
- In person or on paper (customers can sign a physical document to opt in)
We strongly recommend that businesses continue to optimize for the user experience when designing opt-in flows.
Helpful Tips
Businesses should continue to optimize for the user experience while obtaining opt-in. For example, businesses should:
- Explicitly call out the types of messages a person is opting into (e.g., delivery updates)
- Avoid messaging people too frequently
- Provide instructions for how customers can opt out and honor these requests
- Monitor your quality rating, especially when rolling out new opt-in methods
Maintaining High Quality
Driving high quality conversations between people and businesses is still a top priority. People can block or report businesses and our systems will rate limit businesses if the business’ quality is low for a sustained period of time. We may also reactively evaluate a business’ opt-in flows, including user feedback, to flag policy violations and develop additional types of enforcement over time.
