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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 · 18 terms

B

Business portfolioformerly Business Manager
Your business on Meta. It owns your WhatsApp Business Accounts; verification and the messaging limit are counted at this level.
Why it mattersLimits 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.
RelatedWhatsApp Business Account · Business verification · Messaging limit
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Business verification
Meta's check that your business is real.
Why it mattersYou 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 ().
RelatedBusiness portfolio · Display name
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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 mattersIt 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.
RelatedWhatsApp Business Platform · Marketing Messages API · Webhook
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Coexistence
Using one phone number in the WhatsApp Business app and on the platform at the same time.
Why it mattersReplies 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.
RelatedWhatsApp Business app · WhatsApp Business Platform
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Customer service window24-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 mattersIt 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.
RelatedMessage template · Marketing message
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D

Display name
The business name shown on your WhatsApp profile, checked by Meta against its naming rules.
Why it mattersIt 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.
RelatedBusiness verification · WhatsApp Business Account
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M

Marketing message
A template in Meta's marketing category — offers, launches, reminders.
Why it mattersEvery 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.
RelatedMessage template · Opt-in · Marketing Messages API
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Marketing Messages API
A second sending route built only for marketing messages. It carries the same templates as the Cloud API.
Why it mattersSame 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.
RelatedCloud API · Marketing message
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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 mattersApproval comes before sending, so a campaign needs lead time. Meta can also pause a template later if people react badly to it.
RelatedMarketing message · Customer service window · Quality rating
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Messaging limit
How many different people your business can start conversations with in a rolling 24 hours.
Why it mattersIt 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 ().
RelatedBusiness portfolio · Quality rating
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O

Opt-inconsent
A person's agreement to receive messages from your business on WhatsApp. Required before you send them templates.
Why it mattersIt is what keeps a list healthy. People who never agreed block and report, and that drags down the quality of everything you send afterwards.
RelatedQuality rating · Marketing message
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Q

Quality rating
Meta's score for a phone number, based on how people respond to its messages.
Why it mattersIt 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.
RelatedOpt-in · Message template
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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 mattersDelivery and read results exist only as webhooks. Software that doesn't catch them can send, but it can't tell you what happened.
RelatedCloud API
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WhatsApp Business AccountWABA
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 mattersTemplates live here, not on the number. The billing currency is fixed once a payment method is attached, so choose it deliberately.
RelatedBusiness portfolio · Message template
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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 mattersThe 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.
RelatedWhatsApp Business Platform · Cloud API
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WhatsApp Business app
The free phone app for answering customers by hand.
Why it mattersIt is built for conversations, not campaigns: broadcast lists reach at most 256 people, and only people who saved your number.
RelatedCoexistence · WhatsApp Business Platform
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WhatsApp Business Platformoften 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 mattersIt 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.
RelatedCloud API · WhatsApp Business Account · WhatsApp Manager
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WhatsApp Manager
The console inside Meta Business Suite where you see and manage accounts, numbers, templates, limits and insights.
Why it mattersIt 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.
RelatedWhatsApp Business Platform · WhatsApp Business Account
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Campaigns on your own WhatsApp Business Account.

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