Broadcasts, consent, and the 24-hour rule
You can broadcast to anyone who opted in. The 24-hour free service window starts with their reply.
WhatsApp broadcasts are business-initiated messages sent to a list of opted-in contacts. Each recipient must have given explicit consent — a website checkbox, a keyword opt-in, or a form submission — and the opt-in proof must be storable for two years.
The service window
- Any user message to you opens a 24-hour service window.
- Inside the window, you can reply with free-form text, no template needed, and no per-message fee for utility replies.
- Outside the window, you can only use approved templates.
- The window resets every time the user messages you again.
SMSLocal surfaces the live service window for every contact in the inbox header, so your agents always know whether the next reply will be free or billed.
Browse other help categories
Getting started
Create your account, add credits, and send your first message in under fifteen minutes.
SMS campaigns
Templates, DLT routing, sender IDs, delivery reports, scheduling, and retries.
AI WhatsApp Agents
Train your agent, sync your catalogue, set handoff rules, and go multilingual.
OTP & Transactional
Priority routing, retry logic, idempotency keys, carrier failover, and WhatsApp OTP fallback.
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