Reaching customers after 24 hours

On WhatsApp, Meta lets a business write freely only for 24 hours after the customer's last message. After that, only messages Meta approved beforehand can go out — they are called templates. This guide shows what Concierge already does on its own and what your team can adjust.

What the 24-hour window is

Every time the customer sends a message, a 24-hour period starts. Inside it, the assistant and your team can reply with any text. When the period ends without a new message from the customer, WhatsApp only delivers templates: texts the business sends to Meta for approval before using them.

• Only the customer's message starts the period again. A reply from your team or the assistant does not count.
• Instagram: also 24 hours. After that, a person on your team can still reply for up to 7 days, when Meta allows this kind of reply. After 7 days, only when the customer writes again. Instagram has no templates.
• Telegram and a personal WhatsApp number have no such limit.

Concierge's own messages

Some Concierge features send messages on their own, sometimes after the 24 hours. For those, Concierge writes its own templates and sends them to Meta for approval when your official WhatsApp line connects or when you turn the feature on. There is nothing for you to do.

• Appointment reminders.
• Notice that an appointment was moved or cancelled.
• Satisfaction survey, when it is set to go out after 24 hours too.
• Team notice, when someone is called to take over a conversation.
• Restaurant order updates.
• Pre-order reminder.
• Payment reminder.

These templates show on the WhatsApp templates page, each with its text and where it stands with Meta. If one shows “Not sent”, use “Send for approval”.

Use your own text

Want a reminder or a notice to sound like your business? On WhatsApp templates, open the message and choose “Use my text”.

• Write the text and place the details the message needs (customer name, date, time…). The reply buttons stay; you only change what they say.
• Concierge's text keeps going out until Meta approves yours. Once it is approved, yours is used automatically.
• If Meta moves your text to Marketing, Concierge goes back to its own text and tells you. Notices like these must be Utility.
• To go back to Concierge's text at any time, use “Back to Concierge's text” in the same place.

Your templates

Besides Concierge's messages, your team can create its own templates under WhatsApp templates › Your templates — to call back someone who went quiet, share news or send an offer.

1. 1
   Ask the assistant for a draft

   Say what the message needs to say. The assistant writes a draft you can adjust.

2. 2
   Check before sending

   While you write, the page checks the text against Meta's rules and shows how it will look on WhatsApp. Fix what it points out before sending it for approval.

3. 3
   Send it to Meta

   Meta reviews it and answers. See below how long that takes.

Where to use your templates

• “Call back” in Leads, Clients and Recovery: sends an approved template to the person, in the same conversation, once the 24 hours have passed.
• Automations: in the send step, the choice “If the conversation passed 24 h (official WhatsApp)” picks between an automatic template, an approved template or sending nothing. An automation that may run after the 24 hours is only published once this choice is made.
• Outbound: to send a template to a list of people.

Automatic template in automations

With “Automatic template”, you don't need to write a template by hand: Concierge turns the step's own message into a Marketing template, with the “Stop messages” button, and asks Meta to approve it when you publish. Before anything goes to Meta, the publish review shows how Meta will read each text and asks you: “Ask Meta to approve” or “Not now”.

• Within the 24 hours, the message still goes as normal text. Since October 2026, Meta gives each number 1,000 normal-text messages a month for free, the assistant's replies included, and charges each one after that. The template is only used after the 24 hours.
• While Meta reviews it, a message that should go after the 24 hours waits. If the person writes first, it goes as normal text once the conversation is quiet. If Meta doesn't decide within 7 days, it doesn't go.
• Before a waiting message goes, the automation checks the conversation again: if the person declined, asked to stop or meets one of the automation's stop rules, it doesn't go.
• If the text uses the customer's name, Concierge also asks for a version without the name, for when the name is unknown.
• Meta rejects templates with shortened links (bit.ly, youtu.be…). Use “Text for Meta” for the full link; the message within 24 hours can keep the short one.

Utility or Marketing — and what it costs

Meta sorts templates into two kinds:

• Utility: something the customer is expecting — an order, a booked appointment, a payment.
• Marketing: offers, news and messages that call back someone who stopped replying.

Meta charges each template sent straight to the card on your business's Meta account — not to your Concierge plan. Marketing costs more than Utility. Replies within the 24 hours are normal text: each number gets 1,000 of them free a month, the assistant's replies included, and Meta charges each one after that. The values Concierge shows are approximate; the exact amount is the one on Meta's bill.

Every Marketing template should have the “Stop messages” button. Whoever taps it stops getting offers, but still gets order and appointment notices. Without it, someone who no longer wants your offers can only block your number — and Meta lowers your line's quality when that happens.

How long Meta takes to approve

Meta usually answers within a few hours, and at most within 24 hours. You do not need to keep checking: when the answer arrives, Concierge tells you by e-mail and on the team's Telegram. To choose who hears about it, use the “WhatsApp templates: Meta's answer” notice on the Notifications page.

If a template is rejected, the page shows the reason in plain words.

Permission to send offers

A Marketing message may only go to people who agreed to receive messages from your business. So before sending a Marketing template — with Call back, in an automation or in Outbound — Concierge asks you to confirm these people agreed. That confirmation is kept on record.

If something does not go out

• Payment method on Meta: without a valid card on your business's Meta account, templates do not go out. WhatsApp templates and Channels warn you when Meta reports a payment problem, before a message fails.
• Meta's limit of new people per day: Meta limits how many different people your line can reach out to each day. It starts at 250 and goes up as the line is used with good quality. WhatsApp templates and Channels show your current limit.
• Template rejected: open it on WhatsApp templates, read the reason, edit the text and send it again.
• The person asked to stop: offers no longer go to whoever tapped “Stop messages”; order and appointment notices still do.
• Status looks old: “Update from Meta” on WhatsApp templates reads the latest answers again.