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Send an announcement to many customers

An announcement is one message you write once and send, word for word, to many customers of a sender: a new schedule, a promo code, an event, a flyer. Use it when the exact words matter. When the message should depend on each conversation or go out on a recurring schedule, pick Repeating under Message for an assistant-written message instead (see scheduled-messages).

Announcements work on WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger senders. Open Broadcasts, pick the sender, and choose Send now or Later under Message.

Pick the recipients first

Choose Individual, Phase, All clients or Customer table filter. As soon as recipients are picked, the composer shows who the announcement can reach. It counts only the customers whose conversations you can open, since an announcement you send never reaches anyone else:

• WhatsApp: how many customers wrote in the last 24 hours and get it right away, and how many are outside that window. Those wait for Meta to approve the message and arrive as a marketing message, which Meta charges for (see announcements-whatsapp-approval).
• Instagram and Messenger: how many of the recipients wrote in the last 24 hours. Only they can be reached; the platforms don't allow messaging the rest. On Instagram, a post with a Comment Trigger opens conversations with whoever comments, which an announcement can't do (see comment-to-dm).
• Customers who opted out of these messages are counted apart and never receive it.
• If WhatsApp has no valid payment method, the composer warns that the marketing messages won't be delivered (see whatsapp-payment-method).

The composer also shows when this sender last sent an announcement. Frequent blasts can lower your WhatsApp number's quality rating, which limits every message the number sends, assistant replies included.

Write the message

• Message: up to 1,024 characters on WhatsApp, 1,000 on Instagram and 2,000 on Messenger. The counter shows where you are.
• Customer name: select first name, last name or full name under the message. It appears as [first name · there]: the word after the dot is what a customer without a name gets, and you can change it right there in the text. A first or full name starts with "there" ("de nuevo" in Spanish, "de novo" in Portuguese), so "Hi [first name · there]" reads "Hi there" for a customer without a name, without guessing anyone's gender. A last name starts empty, with the cursor where you type its word. A name counts as its longest possible length.
• Header: on WhatsApp, text, an image (JPEG or PNG, 5 MB), a video (MP4, 16 MB) or a PDF (25 MB); on Instagram and Messenger, an image. Select Upload a file, or pick one of the Recent files uploaded for this sender. A text header can't carry a customer name.
• Buttons: up to 3 quick replies, or one link button, with up to 20 characters each. A link can end with the customer's name. The link button goes out through a Yapper link (app.yapper.chat/l/…) that opens your address, so Yapper can count who opened it. Customers see only the button, not the Yapper link. A link written in the message text opens your address directly and is not counted.
• Footer: WhatsApp only.
• What the assistant should know: context for answering replies, such as the promo's terms. The assistant reads it whenever those customers write back over the next two weeks.

On WhatsApp the message can't start or end with a customer name, needs a few words around each name and a word or punctuation mark between two names, and a text header can't carry the characters * _ ~ `. The composer tells you what to fix before sending.

The preview shows the message as the customer sees it, and when the message uses a customer name, how a customer without a name sees it. On Instagram and Messenger the image arrives as one message and the text as a second; a message over 640 characters with a link button sends the text first and the button right after. On Instagram, a message without buttons carries the links in its text as buttons, and the preview shows it that way (see instagram-links).

Send a test to yourself

Write to the sender from your own WhatsApp, Instagram or Messenger first: a test only reaches a conversation with a message from you in the last 24 hours. Then select Send a test to me, pick yourself from the list of everyone who wrote to the sender in that time, and select Send. On WhatsApp and Instagram you can also pick Another number or Another account and type your number or your username (like @yourname). Your choice is remembered for next time. Opening a test's link button is not counted in any results.

On WhatsApp, once Meta has approved this exact message for customers outside the 24-hour window (see announcements-whatsapp-approval), Send the template version also appears: it sends you the approved version, the one those customers receive, and works even if you haven't written to the sender lately.

Send now or later

With Send now, select Send now at the bottom. With Later, pick a date and time in the sender's timezone and select Schedule. The confirmation names how many customers it goes to and on which sender; type SEND to confirm. A sent announcement appears under Sent while it goes out. Replies arrive in the Inbox and the assistant answers them, so a large send can bring many conversations at once.

A scheduled announcement is listed under Scheduled, where you can Cancel it before it sends.

Every announcement goes out with the access of the team member who sent or scheduled it, as it is when it sends: it reaches only the customers whose conversations they can open, and the announcement under Sent says how many it skipped. If they left the workspace or no longer have permission to send it, nothing is sent and the announcement says so. If the recipients filter on a customer table column they can no longer read, nothing is sent and the announcement says why.

See how it went

Under Sent, each announcement shows how many were sent, are waiting for approval or were not sent (with the reason), and how many were delivered, read, replied, tapped each quick reply, and opened the link button. A customer who opens the link several times counts once; the previews Instagram and WhatsApp load for a link are not counted. Select any count to see those customers, each linked to their conversation; the list shows the customers whose conversations you can open. Send again copies the announcement and its recipients into the composer for the next variation.

Customers outside the 24-hour window on WhatsApp

They receive the announcement once Meta approves it as a marketing message, which Yapper handles for you. See announcements-whatsapp-approval for how the wait, a rejection and the 24-hour limit work.

Send to a filtered customer table

On the CRM page, filter the customer table, then select Send an announcement to these customers (see phases-table). The Broadcasts composer opens with that filter as its recipients.

Ask the Consultant or your AI assistant

The Consultant, or your own AI assistant connected to Yapper, can prepare an announcement for you to approve (see announcements-consultant).