WhatsApp message templates — categories, variables and approval

A message template is a message whose wording Meta has reviewed and approved in advance. Templates are the only thing a business may send to a customer outside the 24-hour customer service window — which makes them the only way to start a conversation at all.

A template is not a marketing tool by nature. An appointment reminder, a delivery notification and a one-time passcode are all templates, and so is a promotion.

The three categories

Meta requires every template to declare a category, and the category decides both how it is reviewed and how it is billed.

Choosing the wrong category is one of the most common reasons a template is rejected. A "reminder" that also mentions a discount is a marketing template, and submitting it as utility will fail review.

Structure

A template is made of up to four parts:

• Header — optional; a short line of text, or an image, video or document.
• Body — required; the message itself.
• Footer — optional; small print, no variables.
• Buttons — optional; quick replies, a URL, or a phone number.

Variables

Variables are numbered placeholders — {{1}}, {{2}} — filled in at send time.

Two rules cause most of the trouble:

1. Every variable needs a sample value at submission. Meta reviews the template with your samples in place, so a template submitted without them is rejected without being read.
2. The count must match at send time. A template with three variables sent with two values does not silently render a blank; it fails, or worse, ships {{3}} to a customer as literal text.

Juno resolves templates on the server rather than assembling them in the browser, and the variable-count check happens there — which is the thing standing between a customer and a literal {{2}}.

Languages

A template is approved per language. "Appointment reminder" in English and in Chinese are two approved templates that share a name, and each is reviewed separately. Sending to a customer in a language you have not had approved is not possible — plan the language set before you need it.

Approval takes real time

Meta approves on its own schedule: usually hours, sometimes days. This has a scheduling consequence that catches every new team:

The list of templates you have an hour after connecting your number is not the list you will have tomorrow. Do not plan a launch around a template you submitted this morning.

Templates you already have

A number that has been in business use already has approved templates, and they live on Meta and nowhere else. When you connect a WhatsApp Business Account to Juno, its existing templates are imported automatically, and Templates → Sync re-runs the import on demand.

Both halves matter. Without the import, the console is empty on day one, and nobody whose 24-hour window has closed can be reached at all. And because Meta approves on its own schedule, the on-demand sync is how newly approved templates appear without reconnecting anything.

A template we cannot represent — one with no body, or an unrecognised category — is skipped and counted, so a partial import shows up as a number rather than as a quietly short list.

When a template is rejected

The common causes, roughly in order:

• Wrong category (see above) — most often marketing content submitted as utility.
• Missing or meaningless variable samples.
• Variable placement — a body that starts or ends with a variable, or two adjacent variables.
• Content policy — prohibited categories, or a claim Meta will not carry.
• Formatting — unbalanced markup, or a header that is too long.

A rejection is not a strike against your number. Fix and resubmit.