Start with clear consent
Send messages only to people who have asked to receive them.- Explain who will message them, why, and how often.
- Keep a record of when, where, and what the recipient agreed to.
- Use consent for the stated purpose. An order update opt-in is not permission for unrelated promotions.
- Never use purchased, scraped, or shared contact lists without valid recipient consent.
- For a new conversation, prefer a website button, QR code, or
wa.melink that lets the recipient start the chat.
Send messages people expect
The safest automation behaves like a useful continuation of a customer relationship.- Prioritize replies and updates triggered by a recipient’s action.
- Identify your organization and make the purpose of the message clear.
- Keep the first message short and send one complete update instead of several fragments.
- Do not send unrelated content, repeated reminders, or unnecessary attachments.
- Use recognizable HTTPS links. Avoid misleading redirects or links with a poor reputation.
- Do not run outreach continuously throughout the day and night.
Honor opt-outs immediately
Give recipients a clear way to stop messages and process that request before sending another automation. Your application should maintain a suppression list and recognize the opt-out words appropriate for the languages and regions you support. A recipient who withdraws consent should stay suppressed unless they complete a new, explicit opt-in.Control sending rate
There is no universal “safe” number of messages per minute. Account history, recipient behavior, message content, and WhatsApp policy can all affect enforcement.- Queue outbound work instead of sending large bursts.
- Apply limits per recipient and per connected token.
- Increase volume gradually only when recipients are expecting and engaging with the messages.
- Pause a campaign when blocks, complaints, delivery failures, or protocol errors increase.
- Do not repeatedly retry a rejected message.
Idempotency-Key. This prevents one business event from becoming multiple sends. See Idempotency.
Recommended delivery workflow
Before each send:- Confirm that the recipient has valid consent for this message.
- Check that the recipient is not on your suppression list.
- Verify that the content matches the promised purpose and timing.
- Use a stable
Idempotency-Keyfor the business event. - Send through the intended connected token.
- Record the result and monitor request logs, token events, and receipts.
- Stop or escalate the workflow when errors repeat instead of continuing blindly.
When sending starts failing
If a connected token suddenly fails to send, treat it as a signal to pause—not a reason to send faster or rotate numbers.- Stop automated sends, especially outreach to new contacts.
- Check the token status, request logs, timeline, and WhatsApp app for errors or account notices.
- Do not log out, delete the token, or repeatedly re-pair it as your first response.
- If the token is merely disconnected but still paired, reconnect it once.
- Do not retry rejected messages until you understand the failure.
- After the issue is cleared, resume cautiously with a recipient who is expecting the message.
Practices to avoid
- Unsolicited bulk messaging or cold outreach to large contact lists.
- Rotating numbers or tokens to bypass a restriction.
- Randomizing text, timing, or formatting to imitate human activity or evade detection.
- Repeatedly messaging recipients who do not respond.
- Continuing after an opt-out, block, complaint, or persistent delivery error.
- Fraud, impersonation, harassment, prohibited content, or misleading claims.
Launch checklist
- Recipient consent is recorded and purpose-specific.
- Opt-outs are processed before the next send.
- Per-recipient and per-token rate limits are configured.
- Retries use backoff and stable idempotency keys.
- Delivery failures and complaints trigger an automatic pause.
- Operators can stop outbound automation quickly.
- Message content and workflows comply with applicable law and the WhatsApp Messaging Guidelines.