Catalog Templates

Catalog templates allow you to send a message with a button that opens your full WhatsApp product catalog. When the user taps the button, they can browse your entire catalog within WhatsApp. This is useful for driving product discovery and engagement with your full product range.

Prerequisites

Before creating catalog templates, you must:

1. Set up commerce messaging on your WhatsApp channel -- connect a Facebook catalog to your WhatsApp Business Account. Follow the guide: Set up commerce messaging.

2. Get your product IDs from the connected catalog in Facebook Commerce Manager. Open your catalog and copy the content ID of the product(s) you want to reference. These IDs are used as externalProductId values in the template.

A catalog can only be associated with one WhatsApp Business Account at a time, and a WhatsApp Business Account can only be connected to one catalog.

Block Structure

A catalog template uses a single whatsapp-catalog block:

Component	Required	Description
Body text	Yes	Main message text (max 1024 characters)
Catalog action	Yes	Button that opens the catalog
Footer text	No	Text below the body (max 60 characters)

---

Body

The body is mandatory and describes the catalog or provides a call-to-action message.

{
  "type": "text",
  "text": {
    "text": "Browse our complete collection of products! Tap below to explore."
  }
}

Catalog Action

The catalog action creates a button that opens your WhatsApp catalog when tapped. You can optionally set a thumbnail product to display alongside the button.

{
  "type": "open-catalog-action",
  "openCatalogAction": {
    "thumbnail": {
      "externalProductId": "product_123"
    }
  }
}

Property	Required	Description
thumbnail.externalProductId	No	Product ID from your Facebook Commerce Manager catalog to use as the button thumbnail

If no thumbnail is specified, WhatsApp will use a default catalog icon.

Footer

Optional text footer, max 60 characters.

{
  "type": "text",
  "text": {
    "text": "Free shipping on orders over $50"
  }
}

---

Complete Example

{
  "defaultLocale": "en",
  "deployments": [
    {
      "key": "whatsappTemplateName",
      "platform": "whatsapp",
      "value": "browse_catalog"
    },
    {
      "key": "whatsappCategory",
      "platform": "whatsapp",
      "value": "MARKETING"
    },
    {
      "key": "whatsappAllowCategoryChange",
      "platform": "whatsapp",
      "value": "true"
    }
  ],
  "platformContent": [
    {
      "locale": "en",
      "type": "text",
      "platform": "whatsapp",
      "channelGroupIds": [
        "3f979241-dea3-4f55-b7bb-d769eec27e51"
      ],
      "blocks": [
        {
          "type": "whatsapp-catalog",
          "whatsappCatalog": {
            "body": {
              "type": "text",
              "text": {
                "text": "Discover our latest collection! Tap below to browse all products and find something you love."
              }
            },
            "action": {
              "type": "open-catalog-action",
              "openCatalogAction": {
                "thumbnail": {
                  "externalProductId": "SKU-FEATURED-001"
                }
              }
            },
            "footer": {
              "type": "text",
              "text": {
                "text": "Free shipping on orders over $50"
              }
            }
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "supportedPlatforms": ["whatsapp"]
}

---

Catalog Without Thumbnail

If you don't need a specific product as the thumbnail:

{
  "type": "whatsapp-catalog",
  "whatsappCatalog": {
    "body": {
      "type": "text",
      "text": {
        "text": "Check out our full product catalog!"
      }
    },
    "action": {
      "type": "open-catalog-action",
      "openCatalogAction": {}
    }
  }
}

---

Related

• Multi-Product Template Blocks -- Send a curated selection of products

• Coupon Template Blocks -- Send promotional discount codes

• Creating WhatsApp Message Templates -- Full template creation workflow