What is WhatsApp opt-in?

The definition in two minutes

Opt-in is a person’s agreement to receive messages from a specific business. They choose to be on the list, which is where the word comes from. It is also called consent.

For Meta, it comes before message templates. Templates are the only way to message a customer first, or more than 24 hours after their last message. Within 24 hours of a customer’s message, you can reply freely.

What Meta requires

Under Meta’s messaging policy of November 2024, a business may contact someone on WhatsApp if it has their mobile number and they have confirmed they want to receive messages or calls from that business afterwards.

• The request says clearly that the person agrees to receive the business’s messages.
• It names the business.
• The agreement can be general, not specific to WhatsApp, as long as the applicable law is respected.
• The method is up to you: SMS, a website form, a phone menu, in person or on paper.
• Meta recommends a separate opt-in for each category of message, for example order updates on one side and offers on the other, and clear instructions for opting out.

A person can also stop a specific business’s marketing messages from within WhatsApp. Meta then no longer delivers them.

• WhatsApp consent: rules and wording →

What the law adds: GDPR, CNIL and LSSI

Meta asks you to follow the law that applies to your messages. Meta’s minimum is therefore not always enough, especially for offers. This entry is not legal advice.

GDPR (European Union)

Consent must be freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous (articles 4 and 7, as summarised by the CNIL, France’s data protection authority). It needs a positive act: a pre-ticked box is not enough. The person can withdraw it at any time, as easily as they gave it.

France (CNIL)

For offers sent to an individual by email, SMS or MMS, the CNIL requires their prior consent. Accepting general terms is not enough. For a professional, on a subject linked to their trade, you must inform them and respect their right to object. Each message must let them refuse further ones simply. Applying the same rule to WhatsApp is the prudent course.

Spain (LSSI)

Article 21 of Law 34/2002 prohibits advertising communications by electronic means that the recipient has not requested or expressly authorised. It allows an exception for an existing customer, with a simple and free way to object. Under article 22, consent is withdrawn by simple notification. The AEPD, Spain’s data protection authority, has applied article 21 to an advert sent over WhatsApp to a person who had only asked for a price.

Other countries have their own rules. Check the ones that apply to your customers.

Proof of the opt-in

GDPR requires you to be able to demonstrate consent. In Spain, the AEPD has stated, in a decision about commercial emails, that the sender must document, record and keep consents. It did not accept screenshots of the sender’s own system as enough.

For each opt-in, keep:

• the exact text shown to the customer, with its version;
• the date and time;
• where it came from: form page, link, QR code or received message;
• the person’s name and number, and what they accepted: order updates, offers;
• every withdrawal: STOP, a request made to your team, any other route.

Where to collect it

In the shop, on paper or with a QR code. On a form on your website. By SMS or a phone menu. In WhatsApp itself, with an entry point: a link or QR code that opens WhatsApp with a ready-written opt-in sentence. The customer sends it, and their agreement is recorded with its proof.

• WhatsApp consent: rules and wording →
• WhatsApp campaigns →

Example

Illustrative case: a beauty salon puts a QR code at the till. The customer scans it, WhatsApp opens with a ready-written sentence that names the salon and says she agrees to its news, and she sends it. The salon keeps the sentence, the date and the number. It can then send her a Meta-approved template. If she writes STOP, it stops.

Frequently asked questions