A customer wrote two days ago, you want to get back to them today, and a template picker is sitting where the message box used to be. That is the expected behaviour on WhatsApp once the 24-hour window closes: the only way to reopen the conversation is a template Meta approved in advance. This guide explains why a template is needed and how to send one from the inbox.
⚠️ Templates belong to WhatsApp only. Instagram has no templates; for what happens there after 24 hours, see Human agent and the 7-day rule.
What a template is and why you need one
A template is a message pattern whose text Meta has reviewed and approved in advance. It can contain variables written as {{1}}, {{2}}; when you send it, you fill those in with real values.
Meta does not let a business send free text once the window has closed. The one thing it does allow is a pattern it has already seen. That way nobody receives an unexpected promotional message through a closed window.
Once a template is approved you can use it as many times as you like. The variables change with each send; the rest of the text stays fixed.
Sending a template from the inbox
Open the conversation in the inbox. If the window is closed, a yellow area with a template picker stands where the message box would be.
Read the first line to see when the window closed; if the person never wrote to you, the line says so.
Pick a template from the Template dropdown. Each row reads name (language).
As soon as you pick one, the template's body appears as a preview. Check that the text going out is the right one.
If the template has variables, Value 1, Value 2 … fields appear. Type the real information into each.
If the template's header is an image, a video or a document, a Image/document URL field appears. Put the publicly reachable address of the file there.
Press Send template.
On success the panel says Template sent. and the message appears in the chat as an outgoing bubble. The bubble shows the filled-in text, so your team can see exactly what went out.
The fields one by one
The closing explanation — the first line of the yellow area. It tells you when the window closed, whether the human agent period has run out, or that the person never wrote to you.
Template — the list of approved templates on that channel. Templates that are pending, rejected or paused are not listed.
Preview — the body of the selected template with the variables still in place. Line breaks in long templates are preserved.
Value 1, Value 2 … — these match the order of {{1}}, {{2}} in the body. How many appear depends on the template.
Image/document URL — only appears for templates whose header is media. Templates with a text header, or none, do not show it.
Send template — puts the message on its way.
Why the template list can be empty
If you see only a warning line instead of a picker, there is no approved template to send on that channel. The reasons:
No template has been created yet.
The templates that exist are still pending or have been rejected.
The templates exist at Meta but the panel's local copy has not been refreshed.
The account is an Instagram account, which has no templates.
Creating a template and refreshing the list from Meta both happen on the Settings › Connection page. For the review process and rejection reasons, see Template review and approval.
💡 The panel refreshes the template list from Meta at regular intervals on its own. If you want to use a template that was approved moments ago, run the sync by hand from the connection page.
What happens after you send
Sending a template counts as an agent reply, so:
Automations pause in that conversation. The chat is in your hands. To give it back, use the Hand back to automation button in the automation strip.
Lines saying the agent joined and that automation stepped aside are added to the conversation trail.
The window does not open. Sending a template does not extend anything; the window only opens when the person replies to you. The moment their answer arrives, the template picker disappears and the normal message box returns.
A worked example
A stationery shop wants to get back on Thursday to a customer who asked on Tuesday whether a notebook had arrived. The window closed on Wednesday.
They open the conversation and see the template picker.
They pick item_arrived (en). The preview reads: "Hi {{1}}, the {{2}} you asked about is back in stock. Would you like us to hold one?"
They type Selin into Value 1 and A5 dotted notebook into Value 2.
They press Send template.
When the customer writes "yes please", the window opens and the shop carries on with ordinary messages.
Common mistakes
Leaving a variable field empty. An empty value goes out as a blank space and the customer reads an unfinished sentence. Fill every field.
Picking the wrong language. The same name can be registered in several languages; the language is in brackets in the list.
Looking for templates while the window is open. The picker is never shown then, because you can already send free-form messages. That is correct behaviour.
Thinking a template reopens the conversation. A template only sends a message; the customer's reply is what opens the window.
Using a URL that cannot be reached. Meta downloads the file from that address itself, so it has to be publicly available.