--- title: "WhatsApp Business Platform Glossary" description: "The words Meta uses on the WhatsApp Business Platform — WABA, Cloud API, message template, messaging limit, opt-in — one plain sentence each." url: https://getrapio.com/resources/glossary/ updated: 2026-10-01 --- [Resources](https://getrapio.com/resources/) › Glossary # WhatsApp Business Platform glossary The words Meta uses, in plain language — what each one means, and why it matters when you send marketing messages. Updated 1 October 2026 · 18 terms ## B ### Business portfolio (formerly Business Manager) Your business on Meta. It owns your WhatsApp Business Accounts; verification and the messaging limit are counted at this level. **Why it matters:** Limits belong to the portfolio, not to a phone number. Adding a second number doesn't double how many people you can reach in a day. **Related:** WhatsApp Business Account · Business verification · Messaging limit [Read the full explanation](https://getrapio.com/resources/whatsapp-business-platform/) ### Business verification Meta's check that your business is real. **Why it matters:** You don't need it to start sending. It raises how many phone numbers you can register from two to twenty and, together with an approved display name, the template quota from 250 to 6,000 per account (as of October 2026). **Related:** Business portfolio · Display name [Read the full explanation](https://getrapio.com/resources/set-up-whatsapp-business-account/) ## C ### Cloud API The part of the WhatsApp Business Platform that sends and receives messages. Meta hosts it; software calls it once per message. **Why it matters:** It knows nothing about lists or campaigns — one call sends one message to one person. Everything a marketing team thinks of as a campaign is built on top of it. **Related:** WhatsApp Business Platform · Marketing Messages API · Webhook [Read the full explanation](https://getrapio.com/resources/whatsapp-cloud-api/) ### Coexistence Using one phone number in the WhatsApp Business app and on the platform at the same time. **Why it matters:** Replies to a campaign land in the app your team already answers from, so nobody has to watch a second inbox. The trade-off is speed: a shared number sends more slowly than one that lives only on the platform. **Related:** WhatsApp Business app · WhatsApp Business Platform [Read the full explanation](https://getrapio.com/resources/set-up-whatsapp-business-account/) ### Customer service window (24-hour window) The 24 hours after a customer messages you, in which you can reply without a template. Each new message from the customer restarts it. **Why it matters:** It draws the line between conversation and campaign. Inside the window you can write freely; outside it — where every marketing campaign lives — you can only send approved templates. **Related:** Message template · Marketing message [Read the full explanation](https://getrapio.com/resources/whatsapp-messaging-limits/) ## D ### Display name The business name shown on your WhatsApp profile, checked by Meta against its naming rules. **Why it matters:** It is the first thing a customer sees at the top of the chat. Meta reviews it, and changing it later means another review — so settle it before you start. **Related:** Business verification · WhatsApp Business Account [Read the full explanation](https://getrapio.com/resources/set-up-whatsapp-business-account/) ## M ### Marketing message A template in Meta's marketing category — offers, launches, reminders. **Why it matters:** Every campaign message falls in this category, so every delivered one is charged. It is also the category people can switch off for your business inside WhatsApp. **Related:** Message template · Opt-in · Marketing Messages API [Read the full explanation](https://getrapio.com/resources/whatsapp-cloud-api/) ### Marketing Messages API A second sending route built only for marketing messages. It carries the same templates as the Cloud API. **Why it matters:** Same templates, same price — the difference is that Meta optimizes delivery on this route. For a marketing team it is a setting in the software, not a different way of working. **Related:** Cloud API · Marketing message [Read the full explanation](https://getrapio.com/resources/whatsapp-cloud-api/) ### Message template A message Meta approves in advance. The only kind a business can send to someone who hasn't messaged it in the last 24 hours. **Why it matters:** Approval comes before sending, so a campaign needs lead time. Meta can also pause a template later if people react badly to it. **Related:** Marketing message · Customer service window · Quality rating [Read the full explanation](https://getrapio.com/resources/whatsapp-business-platform/) ### Messaging limit How many different people your business can start conversations with in a rolling 24 hours. **Why it matters:** It caps how big a campaign can be in one day. It counts people, not messages, and it is shared across every number in your portfolio. It starts at 250 and grows in steps — 2,000, 10,000, 100,000, then unlimited — as you send good-quality messages (as of October 2026). **Related:** Business portfolio · Quality rating [Read the full explanation](https://getrapio.com/resources/whatsapp-messaging-limits/) ## O ### Opt-in (consent) A person's agreement to receive messages from your business on WhatsApp. Required before you send them templates. **Why it matters:** It is what keeps a list healthy. People who never agreed block and report, and that drags down the quality of everything you send afterwards. **Related:** Quality rating · Marketing message [Read the full explanation](https://getrapio.com/resources/whatsapp-opt-in/) ## Q ### Quality rating Meta's score for a phone number, based on how people respond to its messages. **Why it matters:** It is the early warning that people don't want what you send. Blocks and reports pull it down, and templates that keep performing badly get paused. **Related:** Opt-in · Message template [Read the full explanation](https://getrapio.com/resources/whatsapp-messaging-limits/) ## W ### Webhook How results come back from Meta: delivered, read, failed, a customer's reply, a template's approval — each arrives as an event. **Why it matters:** Delivery and read results exist only as webhooks. Software that doesn't catch them can send, but it can't tell you what happened. **Related:** Cloud API [Read the full explanation](https://getrapio.com/resources/whatsapp-cloud-api/) ### WhatsApp Business Account (WABA) The account that holds your message templates and phone numbers, and the currency you are billed in. It belongs to a business portfolio. **Why it matters:** Templates live here, not on the number. The billing currency is fixed once a payment method is attached, so choose it deliberately. **Related:** Business portfolio · Message template [Read the full explanation](https://getrapio.com/resources/whatsapp-business-account/) ### WhatsApp Business API The common name for sending WhatsApp messages through software instead of a phone. It was the product's original name; Meta now calls the whole thing the WhatsApp Business Platform. **Why it matters:** The version businesses had to host themselves was shut down on October 23, 2025, so today the name means the Cloud API. When a product says it runs on the official WhatsApp Business API, that is what it runs on. **Related:** WhatsApp Business Platform · Cloud API [Read the full explanation](https://getrapio.com/resources/whatsapp-business-api/) ### WhatsApp Business app The free phone app for answering customers by hand. **Why it matters:** It is built for conversations, not campaigns: broadcast lists reach at most 256 people, and only people who saved your number. **Related:** Coexistence · WhatsApp Business Platform [Read the full explanation](https://getrapio.com/resources/whatsapp-business-api/) ### WhatsApp Business Platform (often called the WhatsApp Business API) Meta's name for the business side of WhatsApp: the APIs, the accounts and the rules for messaging customers at scale. **Why it matters:** It is the umbrella term. When software says it runs on the official WhatsApp API, this is what it means — and it is the only approved way to send in bulk. **Related:** Cloud API · WhatsApp Business Account · WhatsApp Manager [Read the full explanation](https://getrapio.com/resources/whatsapp-business-platform/) ### WhatsApp Manager The console inside Meta Business Suite where you see and manage accounts, numbers, templates, limits and insights. **Why it matters:** It shows you everything and sends nothing: there is no customer list, no campaign and no send button. It is where you check what Meta sees. **Related:** WhatsApp Business Platform · WhatsApp Business Account [Read the full explanation](https://getrapio.com/resources/whatsapp-business-platform/)