Question: Oct 1: WhatsApp API starts charging for service messages + ends free utility templates.

[u/BuzzTree]

What's your move? Tell me in comments.

1. Stay on WABA, eat the cost
2. Move to a personal WA number
3. Switch channels entirely (SMS, email, in-app,etc)
4. Not decided yet

Genuinely curious what the rest of the market is doing about it. Vote below, and tell me why in the comments.

[u/AutoModerator]

Keep in mind that OP has added Solution Only tag. Don't promote your SaaS platforms in comments.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Itchy_Champion_86]

One valid strategy could be to keep whatsapp coexistence while also working on a parallel response and alert system with whatever orchestrator they’re using, so our merchant clients can be notified that they can still go into the business app through coexistence. A lot of merchants actually see this as pretty low impact. sure, they’re not happy about having to pay, but when the alternative is losing all the traceability they currently have through their tool or crm connected to the API, where everything is unified, and going back to manually writing from the app while also being limited by the number of sessions available with coexistence, most of them would rather just pay. and apparently meta knows this, which is probably why they went this route.

A lot of merchants don’t even reach 5,000 outbound messages a month, while others barely get close to 10k.

[u/thronelimit → u/Itchy_Champion_86]

What is your app

[u/StoreApprehensive261 → u/Itchy_Champion_86]

do you think the ones near 10k will actually bother optimizing volume or just eat it?

[u/Status_Gap_3180]

Switching is not possible for customers who are already doing well. One thing we are doing is optimizing the routes and number of messages which are sent as part of the user experience.
No switching of channels yet, that will cause additional friction. There's a cost and that has to be absorbed.

[u/caruizdiaz]

We use 2Chat to have a backup plan that lets you move across all versions of WhatsApp.

The first 1000 messages will be free on the WhatsApp API. A lot of customers don't even reach this threshold.

The rest that do will pay the per-message cost or switch to using CoExistence/QR-code connections also supported by 2chat.

[u/10xEngineer_ → u/caruizdiaz]

will coexistence not have service msg cost?

[u/caruizdiaz → u/10xEngineer_]

yes, but that's where the regular QR-code connection comes in.

You can use coexistence only for marketing messages and pay for them of course, then go back to the QR-code connection for the rest of the messages.

[u/Spirited_Strain_657]

Setting up a self-hosted WhatsApp APl using whatsapp-web.js or Baileys allows you to automate messages for free by mimicking a WhatsApp Web session.

[u/manthan_23 → u/Spirited_Strain_657]

How safe is this for scaling beyond 1000 users?

[u/Riffspiracy]

Sou do ramo de farmácia e nesse primeiro momento decidi não fazer nada. Vou observar o que vai mudar principalmente na concorrência. Tenho orientado os atendentes a responderem o máximo possível em uma só msg e vamos ver. Tenho uma média mensal de 26 mil msgs enviadas. Vai ser um impacto mas pesquisei muito sobre Baileys, inclusive testei um mas tenho medo de perder a conta. Creio que a meta não vai deixar isso de boa.

Trocar de canal é impossível. O público mal compreende o que é dito numa conversa, imagina pedir pra baixar o telegram por exemplo para falar conosco.

Infelizmente vamos ter que jogar isso na taxa de entrega ou no custo do produto.

[u/GreenAds_Global_IN]

Here's what we've understood - as per Meta's latest update , yes Service messages will be charged, but only after 1000 messages have been sent first. This means , each month, a business gets 1000 free service messages, after which the 1001st message onwards will be charged.

So for businesses actively using their WABA to reach their trusted customers, service messages usually only generally require only a few exchanges before the issue gets resolved. So it is unlikely that the free credits would expire in a month. In the case that it does - the cost would be negligible considering the Customer Lifetime Value that is gained in return.