Messaging rules: send window, frequency caps, test numbers and optional pauses
When and how often marketing may reach a person, in their own local time: the send window, the Friday prayer pause, the Ramadan window, frequency caps, extra STOP words, opt-in keywords, the confirmation messages and your test numbers.
Settings → Messaging rules (/app/settings/messaging) decides when, and how often, a marketing message may reach a person. The rules belong to the workspace you have open and are read in each recipient's own local time.
Who can change it
- Owner and Admin change the rules and press Save rules. Anyone else who opens the page sees them read-only, with "Only an owner or admin can change these rules."
- Owners, admins and editors can see and add Test numbers. Each person can remove the numbers they added; owners and admins can remove any.
What the rules do
- They apply to every WhatsApp broadcast in the workspace and are checked again for each batch, every 10 seconds. A change you save also applies to broadcasts that are already sending.
- They hold back Marketing templates. Utility templates are held back only when Apply to Utility templates too is on; Authentication (one-time codes) never is.
- Local time is the Timezone on the person's contact in Contacts when it is set (for someone who lives abroad, set it there). Otherwise it is the country of their phone number: +44 the United Kingdom, +49 Germany, +81 Japan, +91 India, +971 the UAE, +20 Egypt (with its summer time), and so on. For countries with several time zones (+1, for example) the workspace Timezone is used (Workspace timezone).
- A person outside the window shows Waiting in the broadcast's Recipients (under Results). Their What happened shows Next try ... with the date and time their send window opens, and they are sent when it opens. The broadcast stays Sending until everyone has had their turn.
- Email, Telegram, Messenger and Instagram broadcasts follow the same rules. Their simulation (A few recipients) and their Recipients list show a waiting person in your language, with the time in the person's zone and in yours, for example Waiting until Oct 5, 2026, 9:00 AM their time (Europe/Berlin) · Oct 5, 2026, 8:00 AM your time.
- A person who already reached a frequency cap is Skipped, with the reason under What happened, for example "Frequency cap: already 1 marketing message(s) today (limit 1 a day)".
Step by step
- Open Settings, then Messaging rules in the list of sections.
- Quiet hours: set Earliest send time (default 09:00) and Latest send time (default 21:00). If the end is before the start the window runs past midnight; if both are the same, marketing may go at any hour.
- Turn on Apply to Utility templates too only if order updates and reminders should also wait for the window.
- Friday prayer pause (optional): Pause marketing during Friday prayer is off until you turn it on. Turned on, it shows Pause from 11:30 Until 13:30, which you can change; no marketing goes out on Fridays between those times. The pause must end after it starts, on the same day.
- Ramadan (optional): Use the Ramadan send window during Ramadan is off until you turn it on. Turned on, it shows Window opens 12:00 and Window closes 01:00, which you can change. Under it the page lists this year's and next year's dates, for example "Ramadan 2026: 18 February to 19 March", and says "Ramadan is on now" during Ramadan.
- Frequency caps: Per day (the recipient's local day) (default 1, up to 10) and Per 7 days (default 3, up to 50). 0 turns a cap off.
- Extra STOP words: in Your words, one word or short phrase per line, up to 20. A message that is exactly one of them stops all messages to that person, like STOP and إيقاف do. On their own, cancel, end, quit and إلغاء stop only marketing and send no reply (customers often mean their order); add any of them here to make it stop all messages.
- Opt-in keywords: the page lists the built-in words (START, SUBSCRIBE, YES OFFERS, OPT IN, اشتراك, اشترك, نعم للعروض…). Add your own in Your words, one per line, up to 20. A WhatsApp message that is exactly one of them subscribes the person to your marketing (Consent and opt-out). A word cannot be both an opt-in and a STOP word: if one is on both lists, the opt-in box turns red with a line under it naming the word, and Save rules refuses until it is on only one list. Make an opt-in link & QR code opens Contacts → Opt-in link & QR.
- Confirmation messages: Send a confirmation when someone subscribes and Send a confirmation when someone unsubscribes are on by default, each with an English text and an Arabic text (up to 500 characters; an empty box uses the built-in text). The Arabic text goes to people who wrote an Arabic keyword or whose contact language is Arabic. The message goes once, right after theirs, so it is free; nothing is sent when their consent did not change.
- Press Save rules. "Messaging rules saved" appears, and "Last changed" with the time under the button. Before the first save the page says "Not changed yet: these are the default settings.": quiet hours 09:00 to 21:00, caps of 1 a day and 3 in 7 days, the Friday prayer pause and the Ramadan window off. Once saved, the workspace keeps exactly what you saved. Leaving the page with changes you have not saved - another Settings section, the sidebar, the search, a notification, Log out, reloading or closing the tab - first asks "Leave this page? What you typed here has not been saved and will be lost." Choose Cancel to stay, then press Save rules.
Test numbers
- In Test numbers, type the Phone number with its country code (for example +44 7400 123456) and, if you like, a Label (optional) such as "Sara's phone".
- Press Add number. "Test number added" appears and the number is listed.
- Remove takes a number off the list; it shows only on numbers you may remove.
- Up to 10 numbers per workspace, each once. Contacts never receive test sends.
- Send test on a broadcast's Review step (WhatsApp broadcasts) and in the template builder sends to these numbers only. A workspace can send 30 test messages in 24 hours.
How Ramadan and the windows combine
This applies only when Use the Ramadan send window during Ramadan is on.
- Ramadan is detected automatically with the Umm al-Qura calendar (the official calendar of Saudi Arabia). Where the local moon sighting differs, the first or last day can be one day off.
- During Ramadan the Ramadan window replaces the quiet hours. A window belongs to the day it opens: the 12:00 to 01:00 window of the last day of Ramadan runs until 01:00 on the first day of Eid, and the night before 1 Ramadan still follows the everyday window.
- The Friday pause, when it is on, applies in Ramadan too.
What counts toward the caps
- Every marketing message a WhatsApp broadcast sends, and every marketing template an agent sends from the inbox. The inbox does not hold an agent's template back, but it counts toward the next broadcast.
- Messages are counted per person: all the numbers of a merged contact (Contacts) count together. "Per day" is the person's local day, from midnight.
- The broadcast's own Cooldown (days) still applies when a broadcast is created.
If something goes wrong
- "The Friday pause must end after it starts, on the same day." → choose a Until time later than Pause from.
- "khalas" is both an opt-in word and a STOP word. Remove it from one of the two lists. (under Opt-in keywords, or in red above Save rules) → keep the word in only one of Extra STOP words and Opt-in keywords.
- "Enter the number with its country code, e.g. +44 7400 123456." → type the full international number.
- "A workspace can have up to 10 test numbers. Remove one first." or "This number is already a test number." → remove one, or use the one already listed.
- A broadcast has stayed Sending with people Waiting → read the amber note under their What happened: they are waiting for their local send window.
- Many people Skipped for the frequency cap → they already had marketing today or this week; send later, or raise the caps if your customers expect more.