How to create and approve a Message Template on WhatsApp

To trigger a notification (active messages) on the WhatsApp channel, it is necessary to create and approve a Message Template.

Message Templates are messages that have already been pre-approved by WhatsApp and that have a reusable format, that is, through variables it is possible to use the same template and trigger different messages. For more details about message templates see the WhatsApp documentation.

An example of a Message Template to notify users who have just created an account in any application would be:

Hi {{1}}! Your account was created on Blip. 👏 For more information, visit https://blip.ai.

Note that in this example, a variable represented by the pattern {{1}} was used. The number 1 indicates the index of the variable, that is, {{1}} represents the first variable in the template. To add other variables, use the same pattern and increase the index value. The example below defines a template with two variables.

Hi {{1}}! Your account was created on Blip. 👏 For more information, visit {{2}}.

Creating a Message Template in Blip

Access the Blip portal, select a bot previously published on the WhatsApp channel and access the Content module. Select the Message Template item and click on the "+ Add New" button.

Fill in the necessary information for the submission of a message template.

• Template name: name that identifies your template (use only lowercase letters, numbers or the underline character '_')
• Category: category that most closely matches the content of your message.
• Template language: the language used in the template (it is possible to provide different translations for each template)
• Message content: (supported types: text, documents and images)
• For the creation of the Message Template within the Blip, the maximum video size is 16MB.
• When filling in the Link field, ensure that the server where the file is located does not validate the "User-Agent" header, as today it is not sent by Blip. Examples of valid servers: Google Drive, Amazon S3, Imgur, etc.

Note: click on the 'Add translation' button if you want to use the same template in different languages

Check out how to use all supported content types and an example of how it will be received by the user on WhatsApp:

1. Content Type: Text

2. Content Type: Image

3. Content Type: Video

4. Content Type: Document

Message Template with buttons

Recently WhatsApp released a feature that allows the sending of content with buttons, such as Call to Actions and Quick replies, only through Message Templates (to use this type of content in your conversation flow, it will be necessary to send through dynamic content or messages Desk Ready).

It is now possible to create them through our Portal! See below the types of content with buttons available in this new update and how to create them:

Below the content, there is a menu of buttons available.

1. Call to action (go to a link)

Type of button that allows you to send a link that will take the user to the corresponding page.

Select the Action buttons button, select Website link and fill in the necessary information.

Note: remember to fill in the url following the structure of the example! Always putting https: // or http: //

When saving the information, it is possible to preview how the template will look.

In the URL field you can add a dynamic URL and even add a {{1}} variable to create a custom link.

Eg dynamic URL: https://www.google.com/{{1}} Static URL: https://www.google.com

If you add a variable at the end of the URL, the system will understand it as a Dynamic URL, otherwise it will be Static.

2. Call to action (call phone)

Type of button that allows you to send a phone number that, when clicked, will trigger the corresponding system application (Ex .: Phone, Calendar, Skype and even WhatsApp).

Select the Action buttons button, select Phone number and fill in the required information.

Note: remember to put the country code in the phone number following the example!

When saving the information, it is possible to preview how the template will look.

3. Quick reply

Type of content with buttons that allows you to send quick, pre-defined responses.

Select the Quick Answers button and fill in the texts that will go to the buttons.

Note: remember that you can add up to a maximum of 3 buttons!

When saving the information, it is possible to preview how the template will look.

It is still possible to add these buttons together with other types of content besides text, such as images, videos and documents.

Analyzing the status of the Message Template

After the submission of a Message Template it will be analyzed with the status of Pending. At the end of the process, the template will receive the status of Approved or Disapproved, if it is accepted or rejected by WhatsApp, respectively.

Using approved templates

To use a message template it is necessary to have access to two information: namespace and element_name.