Set up canned messages for WhatsApp
The replies your team types forty times a day, saved once. Unlike templates they need no Meta approval, because they only work inside an open conversation.
Canned messages and templates get confused constantly, and the distinction is worth learning once because it explains why one needs approval and the other does not.
A template is approved by Meta and lets you start a conversation outside the 24-hour window. A canned message is your own saved text, used by an agent inside a conversation that is already underway. No approval, no category, no waiting — because inside the window you may send whatever you like.
Before you start
- A connected WhatsApp channel.
- A week of real transcripts to harvest from.
Steps
Open canned messages on the WhatsApp channel
On the WhatsApp card, with templates and flows.
Nothing here needs Meta approval, which is the whole practical difference from templates. You can write, edit and delete canned messages as often as you like, and changes take effect immediately.
Harvest them from what your team already sends
Read a week of real conversations and save the six replies that appear over and over. Do not invent them from scratch — invented canned messages sit unused while agents keep typing their own.
Write them as a person, not as a policy
"We're open 9 to 6, Monday to Saturday — happy to book you in for tomorrow morning?" beats "Our operating hours are 09:00–18:00 Mon–Sat." One invites a reply; the other closes the conversation.
Leave room to edit
A canned message is a starting point, not a script. If customers are noticing that replies are identical, they are too complete — trim them so an agent has to add the specific detail.
Review them every quarter
Prices, hours and policies drift. A stale canned message is the most confidently wrong thing in the product, because it is sent by a human who trusted it.
Check it worked
Ask an agent to work a shift and tell you which canned message they wanted and could not find. That answer is your next one.
The parts people get wrong
- Canned messages need no Meta approval because they are only sent inside an open conversation.
- If you find yourself wanting a canned message to start a conversation, you want a template.