Glossary
WhatsApp business terms, explained
Plain-English definitions of the words you’ll meet when selling on WhatsApp.
- 24-hour customer service window
- After a customer messages you, WhatsApp lets you reply freely for 24 hours; each new customer message reopens the window.
- AI agent
- An assistant that answers customers using your catalog, orders and documents, and hands over to a person when needed.
- API key
- A secret code that lets your software call an API on behalf of your business.
- Authentication message
- A template that delivers a one-time code (OTP) for login or verification.
- Broadcast
- A message sent to many customers at once, using an approved template.
- Catalog
- A list of your products that customers can browse inside WhatsApp.
- Chatbot
- Software that replies to customers automatically using menus, buttons and rules.
- Click-to-WhatsApp ad
- An ad on Meta’s apps that opens a WhatsApp chat with your business when tapped.
- Embedded Signup
- Meta’s guided flow for connecting a business’s WhatsApp number to a provider’s software.
- Flow builder
- A visual tool for designing chatbot conversations by connecting steps.
- GSTIN
- A business’s 15-character GST identification number in India.
- Handoff
- Passing a chat from automation or AI to a human agent.
- Knowledge base
- The FAQs, policies, documents and pages an AI agent can use for answers.
- Marketing message
- A template message that promotes something: offers, launches, win-back.
- Message template
- A pre-approved message format you can send to a customer outside the 24-hour window.
- Messaging limit
- The number of unique customers you can message with business-initiated conversations in a day, set by Meta.
- Meta Tech Provider
- A company approved by Meta to build products on the WhatsApp Business Platform and onboard businesses to it.
- Opt-in
- A customer’s clear agreement to receive messages from your business on WhatsApp.
- Opt-out
- A customer’s choice to stop receiving your messages, such as replying STOP.
- Quality rating
- Meta’s indicator of how customers respond to your messages: green, yellow or red.
- Service conversation
- A customer-initiated conversation where you reply inside the 24-hour window.
- Shared inbox
- One place where a team answers all the chats of a business number.
- SLA
- A promise about how fast you reply, such as within 15 minutes.
- Tax invoice
- An invoice that shows the tax details required by law, including GSTIN and tax amounts.
- Template approval
- Meta’s review of a message template before you can use it.
- UPI
- India’s instant payment system used through apps like PhonePe, Google Pay and Paytm.
- UPI ID
- A customer or business address for UPI payments, like name@bank.
- Utility message
- A template message about something the customer already did: order confirmation, shipping, payment reminder.
- Webhook
- An automatic message one system sends to another when something happens, such as a customer reply.
- WhatsApp Business app
- The free phone app for small businesses, limited to one phone and a few linked devices.
- WhatsApp Business Platform
- Meta’s official system that lets businesses connect to WhatsApp through software, also called the Cloud API.
- WhatsApp Cloud API
- The hosted interface of the WhatsApp Business Platform, which apps like WhatsCommerce use to send and receive messages.
- WhatsApp Flows
- Meta’s feature for forms that open inside the chat.