WhatsApp messaging
Choose a WhatsApp sender, use approved templates for business-initiated messages, and keep replies on one Bow Chat thread.
Sending on WhatsApp
WhatsApp is one of the senders available once Messaging CPaaS is installed. Choosing it does not change how a campaign is built: the audience, composer, schedule, suppression and delivery record are the same for every channel.
What differs is the sender, and WhatsApp senders come in three classes.
| Sender class | What it is | When it is ready |
|---|---|---|
| Customer-connected number | A number your organization already owns and has connected | Ready as soon as the connection is active |
| Boni-managed number | A Boni number enabled for your workspace | Ready only when Boni has explicitly enabled it for that workspace |
| Allocated DID | A number allocated to you from Boni inventory | Not usable until allocation and channel setup are complete |
A connected number stays yours. Connecting it to Boni gives the workspace permission to send and to receive replies through it; it does not transfer ownership of the number.
Business-initiated messages need an approved template
WhatsApp itself requires that a business-initiated message use a template the channel has approved in advance. Free-form replies are possible only inside an open conversation started by the customer.
In practice this means:
- Build and get approval for the template before you plan the send, not on the day.
- Variables in a template are filled per recipient from the audience record.
- A campaign to a cold audience is always a template send.
Replies come back to one place
Replies land in the Bow Chat conversation for that contact, so the campaign, the reply and the follow-up sit on one thread rather than in a separate campaign tool. Where CRM is enabled, that conversation is visible on the relationship record.
Consent and suppression
Suppression is enforced centrally across channels, so a contact who has opted out is excluded regardless of which channel a later campaign uses. Consent for WhatsApp contact is your responsibility as the sender; Boni enforces the suppression decision but cannot supply consent you do not have.
Before your first send
| Check | Why |
|---|---|
| The sender is ready | An allocated DID that is still being set up cannot send |
| The template is approved | An unapproved template will not deliver |
| The audience is the one you meant | Audience is chosen once and recorded on the campaign |
| Applicable channel charges are understood | WhatsApp messaging carries channel charges confirmed during setup |
Related: Communications overview, Channel availability, Email.