WhatsApp

RuleInside can message your customers on WhatsApp: automatic follow-ups after a chat, follow-ups from your automations, WhatsApp campaigns, and single messages you send yourself. Setting it up takes three steps.

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Who can do what

Any member of your team can look at the WhatsApp pages. Only the account owner can connect a number, change WhatsApp number settings, register, edit or delete templates, and send messages. A member sees a note saying an owner is needed, and the buttons they cannot use are greyed out or hidden.

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Connecting your number

Open Phone numbers. In the WhatsApp panel, the owner sees a Connect your WhatsApp number card when:

• your workspace is linked to a store;
• no WhatsApp number is connected yet, or your connection to Meta needs to be repaired.

The card is not shown while a number is connected and working, because connecting again would replace a working connection. If self-connection is not available for your account, the card says so instead: contact support and our team connects your number for you. Before the button, the card lists what changes when you connect:

• You keep using the WhatsApp Business app on your phone, and it has to be opened at least once every 13 days. If you uninstall it, the connection drops.
• Some things change on your phone for good: disappearing messages and view-once are turned off in one-to-one chats, live location sharing stops, broadcast lists become read-only, group chats are not carried over, and your profile photo can no longer be changed.
• Keep the app open for a few minutes after you connect while your existing conversations sync.

While the Meta window is open, a Start over button appears next to Connect WhatsApp. Use it if the window got lost. If you start over and then finish in the old window anyway, that connection is not saved: click Connect WhatsApp and do it again.

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If you manage more than one WhatsApp Business Account

If your Meta login manages several WhatsApp Business Accounts, the card asks Which WhatsApp number is this store’s? and lists each one: the account name (or Unnamed WhatsApp account), then the number and the verified business name.

• Pick the number your customers message this store on, then click Connect this number. Nothing is connected until you do.
• Cancel closes the choice without connecting anything.

The choice is kept for 15 minutes. After that, connect again from the start.

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Messages you may see while connecting

If you open the page that finishes the connection on its own (from a bookmark, for example), it says there is nothing to finish there: go back to Phone numbers and click Connect WhatsApp.

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Your number on Phone numbers

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A number connected through Meta

The panel shows the number with the Connected through Meta badge. There is nothing to change here: its settings are managed by RuleInside. To disconnect, use Settings > Account > Business Platform in your WhatsApp Business app. A status line shows what WhatsApp reports about the number: If your connection to Meta was left incomplete, a red message explains it cannot be used yet. The owner can reconnect with the Connect your WhatsApp number card below it; a member is asked to contact a workspace owner.

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A number our team connected for you

A number without the Connected through Meta badge shows its number and business name, and the owner can change: Click Save to apply your changes. To send any WhatsApp message, the number needs Messaging enabled switched on and an agent assigned. A Token expired badge means the number needs reconnecting: contact support.

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Templates

You create, word and submit templates in Meta’s WhatsApp Manager. Once Meta approves one, you register it under WhatsApp templates: its purpose (immediate follow-up, event follow-up, re-engagement for campaigns, or manual send), its exact name, language code and Meta category, the number it sends from, and what fills each numbered blank. Each purpose holds one message template; saving another for the same purpose replaces it, and changing a template’s purpose or kind saves a copy and leaves the original. The At WhatsApp column shows each template’s live status at Meta. Read WhatsApp templates for every field, status and button.

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Sending and the send log

WhatsApp send sends one template message to one number, after a confirmation. The person must be a saved contact with WhatsApp consent recorded: a number that is not a saved contact is refused. Recent sends shows your newest 100 WhatsApp messages from every source, with their status in RuleInside and, for a number connected through Meta, what WhatsApp reported (delivered, read, or not delivered with WhatsApp’s reason). Read Sending a WhatsApp message for every field, status and reason.

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The rules every message follows

Every WhatsApp message, whether a follow-up, campaign or manual send, is checked first. A person who fails any check is not messaged, and if a check cannot be completed at that moment, the message is not sent.

• Your store has completed its confirmation under Settings › Calling consent.
• The person has not opted out of WhatsApp, and is not on your WhatsApp do-not-contact list.
• The person is a saved contact with WhatsApp consent recorded. Consent to calls does not count.
• Weekly marketing limit: at most 4 Marketing-category WhatsApp messages per contact in any rolling 7 days. Utility and Authentication templates are not counted.
• Marketing quiet hours: Marketing templates are sent only during the person’s calling hours, and wait until then otherwise. An immediate follow-up (in a chat the shopper started) does not wait when it goes within 24 hours of that chat; after that, it waits like any other Marketing message. Utility or Authentication templates do not wait. A Marketing message waiting only because the contact has no time zone is not sent once it has been queued for 7 days.
• Marketing stopped: if WhatsApp refuses a Marketing message because the person told WhatsApp to stop marketing messages from your business, that number is sent no more Marketing templates from your store. Utility and Authentication templates still go. If the person later turns your marketing messages back on in WhatsApp, the stop is lifted. Both come from what Meta reports, so they apply to a number connected through Meta.
• Opt-out, do-not-contact and consent are checked again just before each message goes out.

See Why a send is suppressed for the reasons shown in the send log, and How calling rules protect your customers for the rules across calls and messages.

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STOP and START

These replies are read from the messages Meta passes to RuleInside, so they apply to a number connected through Meta.

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When a customer replies STOP

A customer who replies with a message whose whole text is STOP is opted out of WhatsApp messages and calls from your store.

• Capital letters, punctuation, emoji and formatting around the word do not matter: “STOP”, “stop”, “Stop.” and “STOP 🛑” all count.
• Tapping a quick-reply button on your template whose label is STOP also counts.
• A longer message does not: “stop calling me”, “please stop” or “STOP STOP” are not treated as an opt-out.
• Only the customer’s own replies count. Typing STOP from your own WhatsApp Business app opts nobody out.

The opt-out covers WhatsApp and calls: the number is opted out on the contact and added to your do-not-contact list for both. Email is not affected. A message or call already waiting for that number is stopped when its turn comes.

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When a customer replies START

A customer who opted out can opt back in by replying with a text message whose whole text is START (the same rules as STOP, but a button tap does not count). Their WhatsApp opt-out is lifted and their WhatsApp consent is recorded again. Calls stay stopped: START brings back WhatsApp messages only. Nothing changes when:

• the number never opted out (START brings back someone who left; it does not sign up someone new);
• something newer than the START says not to contact them, such as a later STOP, a button reply, or a newer opt-out;
• the START could not be processed within 48 hours of arriving.

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The confirmation reply

When a customer’s STOP is recorded, or their START brings them back, RuleInside replies once in that chat with a short message:

• It is sent from your number connected through Meta, and only when the customer wrote to that number.
• It is sent only within 24 hours of the customer’s message. Later, no reply is sent.
• A START that changes nothing (see the list above) gets no reply.
• It is written in your store’s language: the language of your WhatsApp templates when they all use one language, otherwise the main language of your store’s country. English, Italian, Spanish, French, German and Portuguese are available; anything else gets English. The word START stays START in every language.
• If the reply cannot be sent, the customer’s STOP or START still stands.

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Common questions