WhatsApp Flow Template

A WhatsApp Flow template is usually a Meta-approved message template with a Flow button, which lets a business start a WhatsApp Flow even outside the 24-hour window. The term can also mean a ready-made starter template that you build a flow from.

What is a WhatsApp Flow template?

The term has two meanings that often get mixed up:

  1. Message template with a Flow button: a message template that Meta has reviewed and approved and that carries a button which opens a WhatsApp Flow. This is the meaning Meta's documentation uses.
  2. Starter template for a flow: a ready-made draft, for example for an appointment request or a survey, that you open in a builder and adapt to your business.

How a template with a Flow button works

Inside the 24-hour window you can send a flow freely as an interactive message. After that, or if a customer has never written to you, you need an approved template. The Flow button points to a published flow and sets the screen it opens on.

  • Review: Meta must approve the template before it can be sent.
  • Cost: Meta charges the template by its category, like any other template.
  • Consent: marketing by template needs an opt-in, as always.
  • Changes: if you change a flow after the template was approved, the template keeps showing the old version until it is resubmitted.

Why Flow templates matter

  • More responses: instead of switching to a website, recipients tap the button and fill in the form right in the chat.
  • First contact: only a template reaches contacts who are not in a conversation with you right now.
  • Campaigns: an invitation to a survey, sign-up or appointment request goes to many recipients at once, and the answers come back structured.

Practical example

A gym invites members who haven't trained in three months, and who agreed to WhatsApp offers, to a free session with a trainer. The template carries a "Pick a time" button. It opens a flow with class type, preferred day and time. Everyone who fills it in lands in the inbox with all details, and the team confirms the slot with a short reply.

Flow templates with SendSeven

SendSeven supports both meanings. If your WhatsApp account has an approved template with a Flow button, you can send it from SendSeven to individual contacts, including outside the 24-hour window, or as a campaign to many recipients. A flow sent this way can be opened for 72 hours. The answers arrive in the inbox and in the fields and tags you set up in the flow.

To get started, the builder for WhatsApp Flows (beta) comes with ready-made starter templates in English and German that you adapt instead of starting from scratch. Or describe in your own words what the flow should ask and let the AI builder draft it (Professional and up; it uses AI Credits, only for successful runs).

WhatsApp Flows is in beta. Completed flows are free during the beta. Every flow you send counts as one message from your plan's message allowance, just like any other WhatsApp message, and Meta's fees apply as usual. Once WhatsApp Flows is generally available, an additional charge per completed flow will apply. We'll let you know well in advance.

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