Can the official WhatsApp API send free-form text?
The short answer
Only inside a 24-hour window opened by the customer.
What Meta's documentation says
Meta's official WhatsApp Cloud API is built for business messaging: templates, customer-service windows and per-conversation pricing. A large part of what WhatsApp itself can do — groups, channels, status, presence, contact lookups — has no endpoint there at all, which is why so many teams end up looking past it. Everything below is checked against Meta's own published reference, with the link and the date we checked it.
Restricted on the Cloud API
"When a WhatsApp user messages you or calls you, a 24-hour timer called a customer service window starts." and "When the window closes, you can only send pre-approved template messages." (both verbatim)
Wapito is an independent product. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by or certified by WhatsApp or Meta Platforms, Inc. WhatsApp is a trademark of Meta Platforms, Inc.
Why the Cloud API restricts it
Meta's own guide is explicit: a 24-hour customer service window opens when the user contacts you, and once it closes only pre-approved templates may be sent. Free-form business-initiated messaging is therefore not possible on the official platform - not as a policy preference, but as a documented platform rule, with per-message charges on top.
The official workaround, and what it costs
Create a template, submit it for approval, wait, and send that. It works for predictable transactional copy and is charged per message. It does not work for anything conversational, anything that changes often, or anything you did not anticipate at approval time.
What the official route costs is not only the per-message price. Every row below is quoted from Meta's own documentation, with a link to the page and the date it was read.
| What it costs | What Meta's documentation says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Writing to someone first | A business may send free-form messages only inside a 24-hour customer service window that the user opens by messaging or calling. Once the window closes, only pre-approved template messages may be sent. | Meta's docs checked |
| Every message you send | Meta charges for the WhatsApp Business Platform per message rather than per conversation. The earlier per-conversation model was replaced on 1 July 2025, so any comparison written before that date is out of date; free entry point windows remain an exception. | Meta's docs checked |
| Getting onto the platform | Apps that need advanced access to Meta's permissions may have to complete Business Verification, a process in which Meta collects information to verify the business entity. It is a real onboarding step with a real elapsed time, and it has no equivalent when you link a number you already own. | Meta's docs checked |
How Wapito does it
POST /messages/textSend a text message
curl --request POST \
--url https://api.wapito.com/v1/messages/text \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer wpt_YOUR_TOKEN' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{"to":"+15551234567","body":"Your order #4182 has shipped. Track it here: https://acme.example/t/4182","typing_time":3}'When you should still use the Cloud API
You need a verified business identity
The official platform is the only route to an Official Business Account: the verified name customers see in place of a phone number, and the badge beside it. A linked number can carry a WhatsApp Business profile, but Meta will never badge it, and no provider can get you one.
You are sending marketing at scale to people who never wrote to you
That is what approved templates are for. Meta charges per message for them and treats the volume as legitimate; the same volume from a linked number is the clearest automation signal there is, and it is how numbers get banned. If outbound campaigns are the whole product, the official platform is the cheaper mistake.
You need Meta's own support and an SLA
A Business Solution Provider gives you a contract, an escalation path and a human to call when delivery stops. Wapito will tell you the moment WhatsApp restricts your number and what it did; nobody outside Meta can make it undo that, and we do not pretend otherwise.
Frequently asked questions
Is sending without a template against WhatsApp's rules?
It is outside the official platform, which is a different statement. Wapito drives a real linked device, the same way the desktop app does, and WhatsApp can ban a number it judges to be misbehaving. No provider can promise otherwise, which is why every page here carries a ban-risk note rather than a guarantee.
What replaces the 24-hour window?
Nothing technical - and that is precisely why your own discipline has to. The window existed to stop businesses messaging people who had not asked. Keep an opt-in record, honour opt-outs immediately, and pace first contacts, because the abuse systems still exist even when the window does not.
Can I still use templates if I want to?
There is no template system here to use, because there is no approval layer. If your use case genuinely fits templates - predictable transactional notices to customers who expect them - the official Cloud API is the better tool and we will say so on the comparison page.
Related
Do it with Wapito
Other ways to do it
Try it on your own number
Create a channel, link a WhatsApp number by QR or pairing code, and call the API in a couple of minutes. The Sandbox plan is free and needs no card.