Send WhatsApp Template Message
Send Template Message using Engati
1. Introduction
This feature allows you to broadcast a WhatsApp template to all active WhatsApp users who have interacted with the chatbot. Customers will be allowed to use created templates and add parameters, wherever required.
2. Availability
This feature is available if you have an active WhatsApp setup with 360Dialog, Kaleyra.
Navigate to Configure>Deployment and ‘WhatsApp’ to set up your WhatsApp account.
3. Functioning
- Click on ‘Create new broadcast’ button to create a new broadcast
- Select WhatsApp as a channel. When only WhatsApp is selected, you will see an option to ‘Send Template Message’
- Select ‘Send Template Message’ from the broadcast type dropdown
a) For 360Dialog
- You can select the required template from the list of approved templates in the Select Template drop down menu.
- Once you select a template its preview will be loaded on the right and corresponding parameters/media/document fields on the left.
- If you had given parameters while creating a template you can now enter the desired value/attribute against those fields
- You can only use User level attributes, all other custom attributes cannot be used
- If an attribute is not present for a user, that will be sent as a blank field
- You can similarly upload media/documents against the corresponding field, if the approved template contains those fields.
- There is a support two types of buttons:
1) Call to action: If you have used a parameter field in the URL during template creation then you will be able to pass an attribute/value to it however the rest of the URL along with the button field values and button names will not be editable
2) Quick reply: For the quick reply button type, a customer can select the path that will be triggered upon clicking the button
b) For Kaleyra
- The basic broadcast functionality remains the same. However previews will not be available for Kaleyra as a provider
- If Kaleyra is the whatsapp provider, you will see fields to enter Template Name, Body Parameters and Image/Document (if any)
- Template Name: Go to Kaleyra portal, Channels>WhatsApp> Configurations and select Template tab. Title can be copied and pasted in ‘Template Name’ field on Engati
- Parameter Header: Select the header type from the drop-down menu to match the header type of the corresponding template on Kaleyra. You can choose from None, Text, Image, Document, and Video and the UI will adjust to let you fill in the header fields with text/attribute for type Text and a URL for Image, Document, and Video types
- None
- Text –By default there would be one parameter field present. You can add more fields if required to match the number of fields present in the template on Kaleyra. You can choose an attribute or value to pass to this parameter, just add the required number of parameters in ‘Header’ column
- Image – Upload the required image
- Document – Upload the required pdf file as a document
- Video – Upload the required image
- Parameters: By default there would be one parameter field present. You can add more fields if required to match the number of fields present in the template on Kaleyra. You can choose an attribute or value to pass to this parameter
Note:
1. In case of no parameters in Header or Body, just leave the field ‘Parameter 1’ as empty
2.While editing the template you have to ensure that the configurations i.e. the number of parameters, media fields and buttons match exactly with the template created on Kaleyra or else the template will not be sent to the users. Visit Kaleyra logs to see the status and reports of the sent templates.
You can test out the broadcast, by sending it to an existing user connected with the bot.
Customers can now download the csv file with status of broadcasted messages from Engati portal. Go to Published Broadcast and select View Broadcast.
Click on the number of target users once the broadcast is completed to download the status for each number.
4. Test Broadcast
- This option is only available for WhatsApp as a channel
- You can fill all the fields and choose to click on ‘Test Broadcast’ to send it to one of the existing users
- Type the number and select an existing number from the auto fill dropdown
- Click on Send to send the template
Note: Customer will be charged on the Test and Broadcast Template messages sent to users as per existing plan and rate
5. Upload new users
Customers can send a WhatsApp template to a list of users using Engati. This feature is available only if you have an active WhatsApp setup on the chatbot. Go to Configure>WhatsApp to set up your WhatsApp account.
Visit the documentation here to find out more details and guidelines on creating/updating users using ‘Import broadcast list’ option
Import History
- Access the import history by clicking on the ‘Import History’ option on the Users page.
- Here you can check the status of the upload, total records uploaded, and errors if any. You can also download the CSV file by clicking on the download button
- Click on the error count number to download the processed file, with a new column with ‘Comments’
Sending broadcast to new users
- Once users are uploaded you can now broadcast template messages
- Follow the above steps mentioned in section 3 to send broadcast messages
- In the Target Segment on the ‘Create Broadcast’ page, you will now be able to see the segment name that was created by the CSV file.
- Once you select this segment the broadcast will be sent to all the users uploaded in this segment
6. Send template message using Postman
1. WhatsApp Template Messages for 360Dialog
WhatsApp message templates are specific message formats that businesses use to send out notifications or customer care messages to people that have opted in to notifications. Messages can include appointment reminders, shipping information, issue resolution or payment updates.
There are two advantages to using a Template
- i) You can send it to any Whatsapp user even if they have not interacted with your business number.
- ii) Templates can be sent to users who have crossed the limit of last interaction within 24 hours.
For more information you can refer to Message Templates.
Creation of Templates
Templates are static messages that need to be approved by the Whatsapp team before execution.
- You can access the platform for setup of templates by navigating to Dashboard -> Select the account -> Templates.
- Click on the Add Template button to create a new template
Name – This is an important part while creating a template and would be used as an identifier during the execution of the process.
Language – Select the language of your template
Category – This defines the kind of category in which your template would get categorised.
Note: Before sending the template content, kindly test it out once.
- Create a text message on Whatsapp with the same content.
- Add spaces between parameters and content.
- Send this content to another Whatsapp user.
4.Once you have created a template then you would need to submit it for approval.
Approval process takes time and hence we would advise you to send the correct template for approval to reduce back and forth, violation of rules set by Whatsapp team would lead to rejection of the template.
Sending Template messages via API
Logs for it will be present in the API Logs, and can be viewed by the filter WHATSAPP_API
Request Type: POST
https://api.engati.com/whatsapp-api/v1.0/customer/<customerId>/bot/<botKey>/template
Request Format
Here the API Keys need to be added in the Authorization header as follows –
“Authorization”: “Basic <API Key>”
Base URL : https://api.engati.com/whatsapp-api/v1.0/customer/{{CUSTOMER ID}}/bot/{{BOT KEY}}/template
Header : Authorization : Basic {{API key}} Content-Type : application/json
Customer id, Bot key and API key will be available in the Integrations tab of Engati Account.
Sample Request
Responses
Success
Failed to validate contact
Failed to send message
Bot not found
Api key not found
Other Failures
Incase of any issues feel free to reach out to support@engati.com.
