WhatsApp templates

“Why can’t I just message my customer?” Because WhatsApp lets a business send free text only within 24 hours of the customer’s last message. Everything else must be a template Meta has reviewed and approved. BizOS keeps a catalog of ready-made templates for what it sends (invoice sent, payment reminder, job scheduled, AMC renewal and more), lets you write your own, and lets you decide which of your business fields fills each blank.

Templates live in Settings → Customer messages → WhatsApp, under Message templates. Only the Owner and Admins manage them, and adding, editing and mapping templates is done in the web app.

Pre-built or your own?

Until you connect your own number, BizOS sends its standard messages from the shared BizOS number and you have nothing to manage here. Once you connect your own number, a pre-built template sends from it only after you have added it and Meta has approved it on your account.

How do I add a BizOS pre-built template?

Remove from my list takes a pre-built template out of your list. It goes back into Add pre-built template, and adding it again restores the same template with its history.

What does Sync from WhatsApp do?

It reads every template on your WhatsApp Business account and brings in the ones BizOS does not have yet. It runs once when you connect your number, and again whenever you click Sync from WhatsApp.

• A template named like a BizOS one comes in as that pre-built template, with its default mapping.
• Anything else comes in as one of your own templates, with an empty mapping that you fill in before using it.
• Its status follows Meta: approved templates are ready to send; ones in review, rejected, paused or disabled are not offered for sending.
• A few kinds are skipped with the reason shown, for example authentication (OTP) templates, carousels, video or location headers, and some button types.

Which field fills each blank?

A template body reads Hi {{1}}, invoice {{2}} for ₹{{3}} is overdue. The mapping decides that {{2}} is the invoice number. There are two layers:

1. Your default for the template, used everywhere it sends.
2. An override in one automation, when one workflow needs a different field in a slot.

A slot can also be fixed text, the same words for everyone: an offer, a date, an occasion. That is how a campaign or a template sent from Chats carries information no record holds.

The picker shows plain labels, never field codes, and only the fields the chosen trigger actually carries, including your custom fields. Saving an automation that maps a field its trigger does not carry is refused, naming the blank. Amounts are written the Indian way (18,500) and dates as 12 Jul 2026.

What happens when I edit an approved template?

Meta approves one exact piece of wording. If an edit sent the template back into review, you could not message anyone until Meta answered. BizOS avoids that:

• Edit wording on an approved template saves a draft. The approved version keeps sending.
• There is one draft at a time; further edits update it.
• A draft already with Meta cannot be edited, because the wording Meta is checking would no longer match.
• Discard draft throws the edit away; the approved version is unchanged.
• When Meta approves the draft, it becomes the live version in one step.

BizOS first asks Meta to edit the template in place; only if Meta refuses does it submit a new version name for you. Either way you see "Your changes are with Meta for review".

Templates in other languages

Each language is its own template, approved separately by Meta. Duplicate to another language… copies the template for translation and keeps the mapping, since a customer's name is the same field in any language. BizOS does not choose a language per customer automatically; you pick the template.

Images and documents in the header

A header can be text, an image or a document.

• The sample you upload is only for Meta's reviewer. Customers never receive it.
• What customers receive is either a fixed file (the same every time) or a file picked per message, such as the invoice PDF.

Images must be JPEG or PNG up to 5 MB; documents must be PDF. One header per template, with at most one blank in it. If the header file cannot be found at send time, the send fails, because Meta rejects a message that does not match the approved template.

Why did Meta reject my template?

BizOS checks most of these before submitting. When Meta still rejects one, its reason is shown beside the template.

Templates from another system

The API can list sendable templates and their blanks, create one of your own, submit it to Meta and send a webhook when Meta approves or rejects it, with a key holding settings.whatsapp_manage. Connecting the WhatsApp number itself is done once inside BizOS.