WhatsApp does not let a business message someone out of the blue in free text. Any message you start — a reminder, an appointment notice, an order update — must use wording Meta has reviewed and approved in advance. That approved wording is a template.
A template is fixed text with named placeholders you fill in at send time:
Hi {{name}}, your {{service_type}} appointment is on {{appointment_time}}.
Reply CONFIRM to keep it. Reply HELP if you need assistance.Categories
Meta files every template under a category, and the category decides how reliably it is delivered.
- UTILITY — a factual notice that follows from something the recipient did or booked. Delivers in every country, including the United States.
- MARKETING — promotions, offers, invitations and general announcements. Delivers in every country except the United States, where Meta has paused marketing templates since April 2025. Marketing messages also cost more, and each recipient has a worldwide cap across all businesses.
You choose the category when you create a template. It cannot be changed afterwards — duplicate the template to switch.
When a campaign uses a Marketing template, MsgOrb skips contacts with US phone numbers before anything is sent, so Meta does not charge for them. Each skipped contact shows *Not sent: Meta currently blocks MARKETING templates to US phone numbers* on Delivery and Queue Health. Canadian and Caribbean numbers share the +1 code but are not affected, and still receive it. Once Meta lifts the pause, MsgOrb stops skipping US numbers, and Retry on the campaign page resends the ones that were skipped.
When you need one
| Situation | Template needed? |
|---|---|
| You start the conversation | Yes |
| Scheduled or repeating workflow send | Yes |
| Notification from your own system via webhook | Yes |
| Reply within 24 hours of the contact messaging you | No |
| Smart Auto-Reply answering an inbound message | No |
See The 24-hour window.