Guidelines for Utility, Authentication and Marketing Templates

WhatsApp Business provides businesses with the ability to communicate with their customers through the Zoko dashboard. To ensure that these conversations are effective and efficient, WhatsApp Business has established guidelines for the types of messages that businesses can send to customers. These guidelines include the use of specific templates for different types of messages.

Utility Templates

Utility templates are pre-approved message templates that you can use to confirm, suspend, or change a specific transaction or subscription. They are meant to be functional rather than promotional, so any template that contains both marketing and utility content will be classified as a marketing template instead.

Here are some examples of the types of messages that would fall under the utility template category:

Note: Examples are illustrative only, templates containing similar content or content including this example text may be categorized differently based on their exact content.

‍

Authentication Templates

Authentication templates enable businesses to authenticate users with one-time passcodes (usually 4-8 digit alphanumeric codes), potentially at multiple steps in the login process (e.g., account verification, account recovery, integrity challenges).

Authentication templates are our most restricted. Businesses must use WhatsApp’s preset authentication message templates, which includes optional add-ons like security disclaimers and expiry warnings. In addition, authentication templates must configure a one-time password button (copy code or one-tap).

URLs, media, and emojis are not allowed for authentication template content or parameters. Additional length restrictions of 15 characters also apply to parameters.

Important Note: These requirements will apply to authentication templates starting May 29, 2023.

‍

Marketing Templates

Marketing templates are our most flexible – they do not relate to a specific, agreed-upon transaction and instead may relate to the business and/or its products/services. These templates may include promotions or offers; welcoming / closing messages; updates, invitations or recommendations; or requests to respond or complete a new transaction.

Any template that has a mix of utility and marketing content will be classified as a marketing template.

Here are some examples of the types of messages that would fall under the marketing template category:

Note: Examples are illustrative only, templates containing similar content or content including this example text may be categorized differently based on their exact content.

‍

Keywords: WhatsApp Business, Templates, Utility templates, Marketing templates, Authentication templates, Zoko.

‍