Direct Send

Direct Send API lets you send business-to-user WhatsApp messages (utility category) without manually creating and approving templates. Instead of referencing a template by name, you send the content directly (text or interactive) by adding the category field to the request. Meta matches the content against your existing templates or automatically creates a new one, asynchronously.

Integration summary

• Endpoint: POST https://{{url}}/whatsapp-bsp-api-endpoint-ws/services/v1/messaging
• Token: messaging token, in the Authorization: Bearer {{wa-msg-api-token}} header (how to generate it)
• Common fields: from, to (phone number or BSUID) and type (details)
• Activation field: category with the value "utility"
• Response: the same for every message (see response)

Direct Send is sent with POST /v1/messaging, with the same authentication as the rest of messaging: to get the token see Generate authentication token. Direct Send must be enabled for your WhatsApp Business Account (WABA). If it isn't, the message fails and you receive an error notification in your webhook (see Account without Direct Send enabled).

Considerations:

• If the category field is omitted, the message behaves as a normal send (see Non-template messages).
• The send can take longer than usual, because Meta performs the matching and, when needed, the template creation.
• If Meta creates a new template, it assigns an automatic name (for example, auto_generated_1234567890), and it can then be used normally. To set your own name, see Template attribution.
• Sending service in category is considered outside Direct Send and follows the existing send behavior.
• Meta monitors how messages are categorized; see API misuse.

Templates created by Direct Send can be queried in the template list (GET /v1/template/{{waba_id}}, see Template management) and can be used for normal sending as soon as they reach the APPROVED status.

This section is organized as follows:

• Messages: the messages you can send with Direct Send (text, template attribution, combined buttons and voice call), with their fields and examples.
• API misuse: how Meta monitors categorization and the restrictions applied for misuse.