WhatsApp Business App to API: the fact sheet

Everything that changes when you move from the WhatsApp Business App to the API or to Coexistence. Templates, the 24-hour window, Meta's fees and the payment method, on one page.

The WhatsApp Business App on your phone and the WhatsApp Business API are two different worlds. The app can do anything a personal account can. The moment your number runs through the API, Meta's rules for businesses apply: you need approved templates, there is a 24-hour window, and Meta charges for messages. This page collects every difference in one place, so you do not discover them one by one while working.

Reply window after every customer message

Five things surprise almost everyone coming from the app. If you only read these five, you are past the worst of it.

The first message to a customer only goes out as a template that Meta approved beforehand. Freely typed text is not delivered.

Every message from the customer opens a 24-hour window. Inside it you write normally: text, images, files, voice notes, buttons.

You get two invoices: one from Meta for the templates you send, one from SendSeven for the platform. That is not a mistake, it is how WhatsApp for business is built.

Without a payment method in Meta Business Manager you can send 250 messages a day, no marketing templates and no login codes. Receiving and replying still works.

There are no WhatsApp groups over the API. Status, stories and your product catalog stay where you are used to managing them.

You have three options. Coexistence means your number keeps running on the phone and SendSeven runs alongside it. API means the number moves to SendSeven entirely.

Comparison of the WhatsApp Business App, Coexistence mode and the WhatsApp Business API across first contact, team features, automation, groups, cost and the option to switch later.

Stay in the app, SendSeven does not see them

Short version: Coexistence if a small team already works on the phone and you only want to add templates, campaigns and some automation. API if several people reply in shifts, you rely on bots, or you want everything documented in one place.

This is the rule that explains all the others. Meta wants to stop businesses from writing into inboxes uninvited. So you may reply freely, but you may not start freely.

The customer messages you. That is the moment the window starts.

From then on you have 24 hours in which you can send anything.

Every further message from the customer resets the 24 hours to the beginning.

An image, a file, a voice note or a video

Your own messages do not open the window. Only what comes from the customer counts. So you cannot create a window by messaging repeatedly.

Text, images, files, voice notes, videos, buttons, pick lists, contact cards, stickers and reactions. Practically everything you know from the app.

An approved template only. If the customer replies to it, the window is open again and you carry on normally.

This is the message you see when the window is closed

24-hour messaging window has expired. Use a template message to re-engage.

If your team reports this message, nothing is broken. It only means the customer has not written for more than 24 hours, so a template is needed.

Buttons and lists only inside an open window

Buttons and pick lists work exclusively inside the 24 hours. If you want buttons outside it, the template itself has to contain them.

A template is a message that Meta has reviewed and approved in advance. It has fixed wording and placeholders for the data that changes per customer. Templates are the only way to start a conversation or to reopen a closed window.

Header: text, an image, a video or a document such as an invoice

Body: the message itself, with placeholders for name, order number, appointment

Footer: smaller additional text, for example an opt-out note

Buttons: a link to your site, a call button or reply buttons

Three categories that decide price and review

Meta's three template categories with their typical purpose and examples.

Order confirmation, shipping update, appointment reminder, invoice

Promotion and outreach with no specific trigger

Offers, new products, newsletters, discounts

One-time login code, two-factor confirmation

You pick the category when you create the template. Marketing is the most expensive and gets the closest review. Utility is considerably cheaper. If Meta thinks your template belongs in a different category, Meta reclassifies it rather than rejecting it.

Submitted to Meta, you wait. Usually minutes, and you have an answer within 24 hours at the latest.

Meta gives a reason. You create a new template with adjusted wording.

Meta has paused it temporarily, usually because of a poor quality rating.

Meta maintains its own library of ready-made templates in many languages. In SendSeven you find it under Settings with your WhatsApp templates and right inside the send flow in your inbox. Adopt a template unchanged and it is usually approved immediately, so you can send in the same minute. Meta still puts a few entries through a short review, and you see that right in the dialog and can carry on once it clears.

Renaming it and pointing the buttons at your own page or phone number is allowed without losing the fast approval. As soon as you change the wording itself, it becomes your own template and goes through the normal review.

Approved wording cannot be edited. If you want it phrased differently, you create a new template.

Every language is reviewed separately. A German approval does not automatically cover the English version.

Your templates live in your Meta account. If you create one directly at Meta, you pull it into SendSeven with one click.

The Business App has a feature also called templates or quick replies. That is something entirely different: saved snippets for your own use. They are not reviewed by Meta, they do not open a window, and you cannot use them to message anyone first.

An approved template on its own is not enough. You also need the customer's permission to message them on WhatsApp. Meta requires it, and in Europe data protection law requires it too.

A checkbox on your form that names WhatsApp explicitly

A sign-up through an opt-in field on your website

A QR code or link the customer uses to message you first

A tap on an ad that leads straight into WhatsApp

Written consent, for example in an order or a contract

Phone numbers of existing customers where WhatsApp was never mentioned

A number taken from a website footer or a business card

A general marketing consent that does not mention WhatsApp

If a customer writes STOP, SendSeven unsubscribes them without you setting anything up. It is recognised in six languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. So STOPP, ARRET and CANCELAR work just as well. In chat the word has to stand on its own, so a sentence like “stop by tomorrow” never unsubscribes anyone by accident.

Keep a record of when and how someone consented. If a customer complains later, that record is exactly the evidence you need. SendSeven stores the time of the sign-up with the contact.

This is where most people trip up: Meta bills you for the messages, not us. The good news is that most of your day-to-day costs nothing at all.

Every message that comes in to you. No exceptions, no cap.

All of your replies inside the 24-hour window. That is your entire normal customer service.

1. Connect your WhatsApp number in SendSeven
2. Fill in the business profile with name, description, logo and opening hours
3. Send yourself a test message and answer it from SendSeven
4. Verify your business in Meta Business Manager
5. Put a payment method on file at Meta if you intend to send templates
6. Get your first template approved or adopt one from Meta's library
7. Clarify where customer permission comes from: form, opt-in field, QR code or ad
8. Brief the team that every first contact runs through SendSeven