The step that sends a single card made of an image, a title, a subtitle and up to three buttons: button kinds, how it looks on each channel, its limits and the common mistakes.
Describing a product, a service or an appointment option in plain text is hard work: people read it, get interested, and then have no idea what to do next. The Card step exists for exactly that — it sends an image, a title, a subtitle and up to three buttons underneath. This guide covers every field on the card, how it looks on each channel, and where its limits are.
What it does
A card is a ready-made box that presents one thing: a message with a photo, two lines of text and tappable buttons. It is the clearest way to say "have a look at this" or "appointment or information?".
The step works on both channels, but it looks different on each:
Instagram sends the card as a generic template: image on top, title and subtitle underneath, buttons at the bottom.
WhatsApp has no carousel. The card becomes an interactive button message whose header is the image, and the title and subtitle are written into the body line by line.
If you want to show several things side by side, use The Gallery step instead: the same structure, up to 10 cards.
Settings
Title
The bold first line of the card, up to 80 characters. Placeholders work here, such as {{contact.first_name}}.
The title is not mandatory, but the card cannot be completely empty: at least one of title, subtitle and image must be filled in. If all three are empty, the pre-publish check reports an error.
Subtitle
The second line under the title, again up to 80 characters. Room for a price, a duration or a short explanation. Placeholders work here too.
Image URL
The address of the photo shown on the card. It must be a public address starting with https, because Meta downloads the file from the address you give. Password-protected addresses, internal network addresses and anything that needs a login will not work.
You can leave it empty; the card then consists of text and buttons only.
💡 Tip: The safest route is to upload images to the media library and use the address from there. Addresses borrowed from other sites change one day and the card quietly starts going out without a picture.
Buttons
Under Buttons you add up to 3 buttons to the card. Each label is at most 20 characters and each button is one of two kinds:
Continue the flow — when tapped, the flow continues from that button's output. An output carrying the button's name appears on the canvas.
Link — opens the page you type into Button URL in the browser. This button has no output: the person goes to the site and the flow stays on the card.
A link button's address must also start with http(s); otherwise the pre-publish check reports an error.
⚠️ Note: WhatsApp does not carry link buttons in free-form messages. On a card going to WhatsApp, link buttons are added to the body as Button label: address lines. People can still tap the link, but it will not look like a button.
Its outputs
A card's outputs come from its buttons:
If the card has Continue the flow buttons, each one gets its own output, named after the button.
If there is no such button (no buttons at all, or only link buttons), the card has a single Next output and the flow continues from there once the card has been sent.
If you leave a button output empty, the person taps the button and gets nothing back. The pre-publish check shows this as a warning.
An example
A dental clinic wants to offer two options to anyone who writes "appointment".
They add a keyword trigger to the Start step: appointment.
They add a Card step. Title: "Free first examination". Subtitle: "15 minutes, by appointment". Image: the clinic's photo from the library.
They add two buttons, This week and Next week (both Continue the flow), plus a Price list button (Link, pointing at the clinic's site).
They connect a Collect information step to the This week output asking for a phone number, and the same for Next week.
The result: in one message the person sees the clinic, picks when they want to come in, and can jump to the site if they want prices first.
Common mistakes
Trying to add more than three buttons. The three-buttons-per-card limit is on Meta's side; there is no fourth. If you need more options, use The Message step (up to 13 buttons on Instagram) or split the options across two cards.
Expecting the flow to continue after a link button. Link buttons have no output. If you want something to happen after sending someone to your site, add a separate Continue the flow button to the same card.
Making a card the first step of a comment flow. By Meta's rule the first message out of a comment carries plain text only, so the card is dropped. The check warns you. Put the card after the person has written something to you.
Copying the image address out of a browser instead of the panel. Addresses taken by right-clicking an image on a web page are temporary on most sites. Upload the file to the library and take the address from there.
Writing a title longer than 80 characters. Long titles are cut off. Move longer explanations to the subtitle or to a separate message step.
Leaving the card completely empty. With title, subtitle and image all blank the step cannot be published, and it is skipped at run time.
Limits
Title and subtitle: at most 80 characters each.
At most 3 buttons per card, labels at most 20 characters (Meta's measures).
Image and link addresses must start with http(s) and be publicly reachable.
Instagram's generic template carries at most 10 cards in one message; a single card sits well inside that.
On WhatsApp a link button becomes a line in the body.
The card is a step that sends a message: it does not go out when the 24-hour messaging window is closed.
If the card cannot be sent the flow does not stop; the reason goes into the run log and the flow waits to continue from Next or from a button output.