Add a WhatsApp template message

Prerequisites
  • Responses > All > All permission
  • An approved message template

WhatsApp business customers can reply to inbound messages within 24 hours without a template message. After 24 hours of receipt of the original inbound message or to send a proactive outbound message, WhatsApp business customers must use pre-approved, structured messages, called template messages, to contact their customers.

To add a WhatsApp template message, follow these steps:

Note: Before you add a template, you must create a WhatsApp template in your WhatsApp Business Account (WABA) and obtain approval from WhatsApp before you add it to Genesys Cloud. For more information, see Manage your templates.
  1. Click Admin.
  2. Under Contact Center, click Canned Responses. 
  3. Under Libraries, in the library where the response belongs, click .
  4. Click Add Response.
  5. In the Response Name box, type a meaningful name. Agents see this name. 
  6. In the Libraries list, select the library this response belongs to. To specify a different library, click the library name from this list.
  7. For Response Type, click the Message Template tab.
  8. In the Template Info section, perform the following steps:
    1. In the Template Name field, enter the name of the message template name.
    2. In the Language list, click the language for the template message.
      Note:  You must have a different response for each language that the WhatsApp template supports.
  9. In the Message section, set the content of the message template.
    1. Click the Add Header list.
    2. Select Text or Image and then perform the following steps:
      • Click Text and in the Header Text field, copy and then paste the header text from the approved WhatsApp template in your WABA, including any variable parameters.
      • Click Image and in the Image Source field, perform these steps:
        • Click Insert from, insert the image from a URL, and then click Save.
        • Click Insert From Asset Library, insert the image from the asset library, and then click Save.
  10. In the Body section, copy and paste the body text from the approved WhatsApp template in your WABA, including any variable parameters that includes text formatting.
    Note: To ensure that the message delivers successfully, the contents of the body text must match exactly with the template approved in your WABA.
  11. Click Save.
  12. Click Add Footer.
  13. In the Footer Text section, include the text.
  14. In the Buttons section, perform the following steps:
    1. Click the Add Button list.
    2. Select one of the options and perform the corresponding steps:
      • URL. When you select URL, the following fields appear.
        • The Button Type field displays the URL as the value selected.
        • In the Button Label field, enter the name of the button.
        • In the Link URL field, enter either a static URL or a dynamic URL with a variable parameter, as configured and approved in the WhatsApp template in your WABA.
        • Click Save.
      • Phone Number. When you select Phone Number, the following fields appear.
        • The Button Type field displays Phone Number as the value selected.
        • In the Button Label field, enter the name of the button.
        • In the Phone number field, enter the full E-164 phone number with the “+” sign followed by the country code, area code, and number.
        • Click Save.
      • Quick Reply. When you select Quick Reply, the following fields appear.
        • The Button Type field displays Quick Reply as the value selected.
        • In the Button Label field, enter the name of the button.
  15. To create another response, enable the Create Another check box. The new response belongs to the same library by default. However, you can select a different library if necessary.
  16. Click Save. 

Notes:
  • The Namespace ID field is no longer required by WhatsApp and does not need further Canned Response configuration. 
  • The Template Name and Language fields are not editable after you have saved the response, however, you can edit other Message and Button contents.
  • Header images must be of the type image/jpeg, image/png, image/webp and cannot exceed 5 MB in size. Images that you save as part of the canned response deliver when the message routes to the users. Agents cannot edit images (or agentless API clients) when they use and send the template message as part of a WhatsApp interaction. Only canned response administrators can make edits.
  • Configured template message variables, or substitutions from your approved WhatsApp template appear as pill buttons when you save the message. To update the names, descriptions, and default values for template variables, click these buttons.
  • If you configure variable parameters as part of your Header, Body, and URL Buttons, ensure that the variable and parameter names differ for each section. Genesys recommends that you insert variable names, instead of using variable numbers, to distinguish them across different sections of your message template. For example: Use {{order_id}} instead of {{1}}, or use {{first_name}}, {{last_name}} instead of {{1}}, {{2}}, and so on.
    •  If you make template message variable names “AGENT_NAME,” “CUSTOMER_NAME,” or “AGENT_ALIAS,” Genesys Cloud populates them with related conversation values.
    • Custom substitutions can pre-populate template message variables. A custom substitution overrides a configured default value, if provided. Agents can modify the automatically populated value.