Submitting a WhatsApp template for Meta approval
Templates are how WhatsApp Business API actually works. Outside the 24-hour customer-care window, every outbound message must be a Meta-approved template. Getting templates approved fast is the difference between shipping campaigns daily and shipping them quarterly.
The three template categories
- Marketing — promotional. Highest per-conversation rate. Approval bar is highest.
- Utility — transactional updates (order shipped, appointment reminder, fee due). Lower per-conversation rate. Approval bar is moderate.
- Authentication — OTPs, login codes, security alerts. Lowest per-conversation rate. Approval bar is highest and Meta enforces strict format requirements.
Pick the right category at submission time. Re-categorising after approval requires a new submission.
Submitting from inside Flaxxa
WAPI → Templates → New. The builder UI:
- Pick category
- Pick language(s) — submit one or many in parallel
- Compose header (text/image/document/video, optional) + body + footer + buttons
- Variables auto-numbered as
{{1}},{{2}}, etc. Provide example values - Submit
The submission fires to Meta's Graph API. Status polls live on the templates list page; a webhook also fires on approve/reject.
The most common rejection reasons
- Marketing-tier content in a Utility submission — promotional language ("buy", "discount", "limited time") in a Utility template. Resubmit as Marketing.
- Promotional emoji density — Marketing templates with 5+ emojis read as spam to Meta's reviewer. Trim.
- Generic salutation — "Hi there" reads as bulk. Personalise: "Hi {{1}}".
- Missing call-to-action context — buttons without a clear sentence telling the recipient why they'd tap. Add a clarifying line in the body.
- Authentication template formatting — Meta requires authentication templates to follow a specific structure. Use the Auth template builder, not the Marketing builder.
Approval timelines
Median: 4 hours. P90: 18 hours. P99: 36 hours. Authentication templates approve faster than Marketing.
If a template is stuck in "in review" for >48h, that's unusual — open a support ticket with us; we'll escalate to Meta.
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