Letting an AI agent reply on WhatsApp Business without breaking Meta's rules
· 1 min read · Vinayak Kaushal
The 24 hour window, templates, opt-outs and who pays Meta. What an agent must check before a WhatsApp reply goes out, and how Apavin checks it.
The short answer
WhatsApp is where many Indian customers ask for a price, an order status or a booking. An AI agent can answer there, but Meta's Business Platform has rules an email agent never meets. Break them and messages fail or the number's quality rating drops.
WhatsApp is where many Indian customers ask for a price, an order status or a booking. An AI agent can answer there, but Meta's Business Platform has rules an email agent never meets. Break them and messages fail or the number's quality rating drops.
The 24 hour customer service window
When a customer messages your number, a 24 hour window opens. Inside it you may send any free-form reply. Once it closes, you may only send a template that Meta has approved in advance.
Apavin tracks the window on every conversation. get_reply_queue shows how long each one has left, so the agent can answer the ones about to close first. A free-form send request after the window is refused with a clear error, and the agent is told to use a template instead.
Templates
Templates are created and approved in Meta's WhatsApp Manager. The agent sends one with send_whatsapp_template, naming an approved template and filling in its variables. A template Meta has not approved is refused.
Opt-outs
If a customer sends STOP, Apavin marks the contact as opted out and refuses any further outbound message to them, from an agent or from a person. START reverses it.
Who pays for messages?
Meta bills conversation charges directly to the WhatsApp Business account you connected. Apavin's plan price does not include them and Apavin does not mark them up.
Does a person approve each WhatsApp message?
Yes, by default. Each one waits in the approval queue with the number it goes from, the recipient and the full text. After sending, Apavin records Meta's delivered and read receipts on the message.
Which plan includes WhatsApp?
Standard includes one WhatsApp Business number alongside one mailbox. Growth includes three numbers and five mailboxes. See pricing.
Frequently asked
Who pays for messages?＋
Meta bills conversation charges directly to the WhatsApp Business account you connected. Apavin's plan price does not include them and Apavin does not mark them up.
Does a person approve each WhatsApp message?＋
Yes, by default. Each one waits in the approval queue with the number it goes from, the recipient and the full text. After sending, Apavin records Meta's delivered and read receipts on the message.
Which plan includes WhatsApp?＋
Standard includes one WhatsApp Business number alongside one mailbox. Growth includes three numbers and five mailboxes. See pricing.
Try it on your own inbox.
Free: one mailbox, 5,000 calls a month, and email sending after you approve. No card.
Start freeKeep reading
How to connect Claude to your business email
Give Claude your sales@ or support@ mailbox in about five minutes: an app password, one endpoint URL, and an approval step before anything is sent.
The morning reply round: clear every waiting customer before lunch
A ten minute routine with your AI agent: list who is waiting across email and WhatsApp, draft every reply from your own guidelines, approve them in one pass.
Why every AI-written customer message should wait for a person
Drafting is cheap; a wrong price sent to a customer is not. How an approval queue works, what it should show, and when auto-send is reasonable.