Use buttons to create interactive WhatsApp Template Messages

Improve your customer experience by adding interactive buttons to your Template Messages!

Template Messages are pre-approved transactional messages that allow you to initiate conversations with your customers, or continue a user-initiated conversation. By adding buttons to your Template Messages, you can create engaging, interactive, and simple messages that give your customers clear options to choose from.

Buttons allow you to better anticipate how your customers will respond to your messages, giving you the ability to simplify your flows.

Types of interactive buttons

There are two types of interactive buttons that you can add to your Template Messages.

Quick reply

Quick reply buttons allow you to create up to three buttons that customers can choose from to reply rapidly to your message. Each button can be up to 20 characters long.

When your customer selects their response, it will be received as a text-type message within conversations, exactly as it would if they had typed the response themselves.

Call to action

Call to action buttons allow you to create up to two buttons that customers can choose from that will direct them to either call a number or visit a web page. Each button can be up to 20 characters long, and each template can contain a maximum of one phone number and one website link.

If your customer selects the ‘call a number’ option, their device will automatically call that number. If they select the ‘visit a web page’ option, their device will automatically open that web page. Simple!

Managing interactive buttons

Creating interactive buttons

All interactive buttons have to be added to a WhatsApp Template Message. The same rules and best practices apply to all Template Messages, with or without interactive buttons. Follow these steps to create them:

1. Login to your MessageBird Dashboard.

2. Select WhatsApp > Template Manager from the sidebar.

3. Click Create template.

4. Fill in the Template name and Category fields.

5. From the Button type drop-down, select the type of button that you want to add to your Message Template.

6. If you select Quick reply, fill in the fields with the text that you want to display on the buttons.

7. If you select Call to action, fill in the fields with the text that you to display on the buttons, and the relevant phone number and/or website address.

8. Select the Language from the drop-down and complete the Message field.

9. Click Save & send for approval.

NOTE: Buttons don't render in Inbox, but don't worry! The Message Templates will still be sent correctly, and replies will come back as plain-text messages so you'll be able to read those as normal.