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Common workflows

Consent, opt-outs and quiet hours

Who may be messaged first, and when - consent, STOP replies, preferences, the suppression list and quiet hours.

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In a nutshell

Before a business-initiated template goes out, PaalChat checks the suppression list, the contact's consent for its category, their preferences, the business's limits and its quiet hours. A STOP reply opts a contact out of marketing and notifications. Replies inside the 24-hour window are never blocked.

WhatsApp expects businesses to message people only when they want it. PaalChat applies the rules for you on every business-initiated message (templates), in this order:

  1. Suppression list - numbers the business must not message first (Suppress a number). Refused: recipient_suppressed.
  2. Consent for the message's category - marketing, notifications or transactional. A revoked category is refused: recipient_opted_out.
  3. Preferences - WhatsApp switched off, or the message's topic turned off. Refused: recipient_preference_off.
  4. Limits - the business's daily cap.
  5. Quiet hours - outside them the message goes now; inside, it is accepted and held until they end (scheduled_for).

Replies inside the customer's 24-hour window skip all of this: the customer just wrote.

Categories

Each send has a category. Pass category on Send message, or let PaalChat take it from the template: MARKETING → marketing, AUTHENTICATION → transactional, anything else → notifications.

Opt-outs and opt-ins

  • A contact who replies STOP (or UNSUBSCRIBE, OPT OUT, CANCEL...) is opted out of marketing and notifications. START opts them back in. Transactional messages - codes and receipts - are not stopped by a keyword.
  • Record opt-ins and opt-outs you collect yourself with Record consent.
  • Every change is kept in the contact's consent history and sent to you as contact.consent.
  • PaalTech can require a recorded opt-in before any marketing template; ask if your business needs it.

Preferences

Set notification preferences stores what the contact chose in your product: WhatsApp on or off, and topics - fees, results, attendance, pta, marketing, system. Send topic with a template so PaalChat can respect it.

Quiet hours and time zones

Set a business's timezone and quiet_hours (for example 22:00-06:00) with Create or update business. During quiet hours, non-urgent templates are accepted (202) and held until the hours end, in the contact's time zone when it is known, else the business's. transactional messages are never held. To send something urgent anyway, add urgent: true - this needs a key with the messages.urgent ability.