The way people connect online has transformed. Over two billion people use WhatsApp every day and millions of them are chatting with businesses using messaging as a faster and more convenient way to get things done. From talking to friends and family, to booking bus tickets, getting an update on a delivery or paying your utility bills – we’re making it even easier to use WhatsApp for daily tasks.
We want people to be in control of their experience chatting with businesses on WhatsApp and are focused on building tools that help you get relevant and useful information from businesses you care about, without feeling overwhelmed or missing out on important messages.
You are in control of your business chats
- Message Opt In: On WhatsApp, you’re in control of your inbox, including messages from businesses and can easily update your chat preferences. You can either reach out to a business or choose to receive messages directly from a business which can happen in a number of ways – on the business’ website, in a store or even directly over WhatsApp.
- Stop chatting with a business any time: We always make it clear to people when they are chatting with a business, and let you block and report them at any time. People can also share reasons for blocking a business, such as the information no longer being relevant or they didn’t sign up to receive messages from that particular business.
- Message Feedback: WhatsApp gives people tools to share feedback on messages they receive from businesses using the interested and not interested buttons when they receive offers and announcements such as a coupon for a holiday sale, information about new products, back-in-stock alerts, or reminders about upcoming sales and events. They can also turn off/on the option to receive these types of messages at any time.
Helping businesses better serve their customers
We want to support businesses in building valuable experiences for their customers on WhatsApp, and offer a number of tools to help them get this right.
- Introducing business broadcasts: On the WhatsApp Business app, we’re creating a more powerful and advanced message type called “business broadcasts” which will now be a paid feature to ensure businesses are thoughtful about what they send.
- Limiting the number of messages a user can receive: We want messages from businesses to be helpful and expected, which is why we’ve introduced limits to the number of marketing messages that people can receive, thereby minimizing inbox overload.
- Quality check and user feedback: Businesses using the WhatsApp Business Platform, our API, can only initiate messages on WhatsApp using pre-approved templates. We follow a strict review process to ensure messages adhere to our guidelines and enable businesses to send high quality, engaging and relevant marketing conversations. We also provide businesses with basic information like read rates so they can see what’s working and what’s not. This can help determine the right frequency for messaging customers to avoid overload.
- We enforce on businesses that violate our policies and repeated violations can result in messaging restrictions that gradually increase in duration and severity. See our Commerce and Business Policies, and product guide for more information.
