What is a WhatsApp carousel template?

The definition in two minutes

A carousel template is a marketing message template shown as a strip of cards that the customer swipes through. They receive a single message: an introductory text, then the cards.

Each card carries an image or a video, possibly a short text, and buttons. In its documentation, Meta calls it a media card carousel template. Like any template, it must be approved by Meta before you send it.

What a carousel contains

The introductory message

It is the main text of the template. It is compulsory, accepts variables and appears above the cards.

The cards

From 2 to 10. You set their number when you create the template, and an approved template will never send a different number of cards.

The image or video

Each card has one. Meta crops it to a wide format to fit the customer’s screen.

The card text

Optional and short. If one card has it, every card must have it.

The buttons

Up to two per card: quick reply, call or link to a website, which can be mixed.

Meta’s rules

• The carousel only exists in the marketing category. It cannot be utility or authentication.
• Every card has the same components. For example, if one has a text, all of them do.
• It can be sent at any time, including outside the 24-hour window, but only to customers who have agreed to receive your messages.
• A link button opens the website in the phone’s browser, so outside WhatsApp. Meta does not tell your software about an order placed on the website.

• Ready-to-copy templates, by trade →
• WhatsApp campaigns →

What it means for a small business

A carousel suits you when you have several things to show at once: this month’s new arrivals, the dishes of the week, several properties to view. Each card has its photo and its button, and the customer taps the one that interests them.

It falls in the marketing category, so at its rate, and needs the customer’s consent beforehand. For an order confirmation or an appointment reminder, a simple utility template is enough: there is no utility carousel.

If you want customers to order without leaving WhatsApp, Meta offers another template, the product card carousel. It relies on the business’s catalogue: the customer opens the listing, fills a basket and orders within the conversation.

• The WhatsApp Business catalogue guide →

Not to be confused with

Reply buttons and lists

They are free-form messages: they go out without approval, but only during the 24-hour window. The carousel is a template: it needs Meta’s approval and can go out outside the window.

The product card carousel

It relies on a catalogue and lets the customer order inside WhatsApp. The media card carousel, by contrast, sends people to a website.

Example

Illustrative case: a bookshop prepares a carousel of its five new arrivals of the month. Each card shows the book cover, with a “Reserve” button and a “View on the website” button. It sends it to customers who have agreed to receive its new arrivals. A customer taps “Reserve”: their reply arrives in the conversation, and the team can reply freely for 24 hours.

Frequently asked questions