A WhatsApp template message is a pre-written message format that Meta has approved for a business to send on the WhatsApp Business API, with placeholders for details that change per customer. Templates are the only kind of message a business can send to start a conversation or to reach a customer whose 24-hour service window has closed. Each template has a category (marketing, utility or authentication), a language, and optional buttons such as a reply, a link or a call. Approval is usually quick, from minutes to a day, but Meta rejects templates with vague wording, placeholders that could hold anything, or a category that does not match the content.
Why it matters
Every automated order update, every campaign and every reminder you send outside a live chat is a template, so the quality of your templates sets the quality of your customer communication. A marketing template is billed at a higher rate than a utility one, and Meta decides the category, so a "your order is on the way" message that also pushes an offer may be reclassified as marketing and cost more. Getting templates right the first time avoids campaign delays. The post on template message approval lists what gets rejected and how to word around it.
Example
A utility template for a tiffin service might read: "Hi {{1}}, your tiffin for {{2}} is confirmed. {{3}} meals, total ₹{{4}}. Reply SKIP to skip tomorrow." Sent to 200 subscribers each evening, it costs a fraction of a rupee per message at Meta's India utility rate, and nothing at all when the subscriber's service window is open. A marketing template, "Hi {{1}}, this Saturday only: 20 percent off the family thali. Order on WhatsApp", goes to the same 200 for well under a rupee each. Ready-made wording for confirmations is in order confirmation message templates, and for the stages after that in order status message templates.
On Tezzu, campaigns go out as template messages from your own number, paid from a prepaid wallet.