Approval & rejections

Every template you submit goes through Meta’s review before it can be sent. This page covers what happens after you click Submit to Meta: how long review takes, how the result reaches Nybero, why templates get rejected, and what to do about paused or disabled templates.

What happens after you submit

1. Nybero submits the template to Meta and it appears in Templates → Manage templates with the status In review.
2. Meta reviews the content — usually within minutes to a few hours; in rare cases it can take up to 24 hours (Meta’s stated maximum for most templates).
3. The status flips to Approved or Rejected. If rejected, the reason from Meta is shown in red directly on the template.

You don’t need to do anything while waiting — an Approved template becomes selectable in Campaigns, Automations, and the Inbox automatically.

Status sync with Nybero

The Manage templates view syncs with Meta on its own:

• It reconciles all templates with Meta every time you open it — you’ll see “Automatically synced with Meta” with a timestamp at the top right.
• While any template is In review, it keeps re-checking every few seconds until the review lands. No refresh button, no manual sync.
• Templates that already exist on your WhatsApp Business Account but weren’t created in Nybero (for example from a previous tool) are imported automatically during sync, so the list always mirrors what Meta actually has.

Use the filter chips — All, Approved, In review, Rejected — to see your pipeline at a glance.

All statuses

Status	What it means	Can it be sent?
In review	Meta is still reviewing (also shown while an appeal at Meta is running).	No
Approved	Passed review.	Yes
Rejected	Declined — the reason is shown on the template.	No
Paused	Temporarily paused by Meta for quality reasons.	No
Disabled	Permanently disabled or deleted at Meta.	No

Common rejection reasons — and the fix

Meta reviews are partly automated and quite strict about formatting. These cover the vast majority of rejections:

Rejection reason	Fix
Variable at the start or end of the message	Wrap variables in real sentences. Not {{Name}}, your order shipped but Hi {{Name}}, your order has shipped. Same for the end — close with a full sentence after the last variable.
Too many variables / body is mostly variables	Meta can’t judge a message that’s all placeholders. Write full sentences; variables should be details, not the message.
Vague or unrealistic sample values	Reviewers see your samples, not the placeholders. 5:00 PM for a time, Alex Smith for a name — never test, xxx, or 123.
Promotional content in a Utility template	A discount code, upsell, or “check out our other products” line in a reminder makes it Marketing. Remove the promotion, or honestly submit the template as Marketing. (Often Meta doesn’t reject these — it silently reclassifies them, see below.)
Formatting errors	Broken formatting marks (an unclosed *), tabs, more than a couple of consecutive line breaks, or a malformed placeholder can all trigger a rejection. Check the live preview — if it renders oddly there, fix it before submitting.
Policy violations	Content violating WhatsApp’s Business or Commerce Policy is rejected regardless of wording — e.g. prohibited goods and services, misleading claims, or requesting sensitive data (full payment card numbers, government IDs). No rewording helps; the use case itself isn’t allowed on WhatsApp.
URL issues	Link shorteners (bit.ly and similar) that hide the destination are a frequent cause. Use your own full domain in URL buttons and in the text.
Duplicate	A template with identical content in the same language already exists on the account. Reuse the existing one or change the content meaningfully.

The exact reason Meta returned is shown on the rejected template in Manage templates — start there.

Tip

Write the message the way a helpful human would text it. Most rejections come from templates that read like form letters stuffed with placeholders — full sentences with one or two variables sail through.

Reclassified instead of rejected

Meta sometimes approves a template but changes its category — most often Utility → Marketing when the content reads as promotional. The template is sendable, but billed at the marketing rate.

Nybero always shows the category Meta actually assigned, with a reclassified by Meta badge on the template row (hover it to see what you submitted vs. what Meta billed it as). Since Meta bills message costs directly and Nybero displays them, this badge is your early warning that sends will cost more than planned — see WhatsApp costs. If you want the cheaper Utility rate, strip everything promotional and submit a clean new version.

Paused templates and quality

Meta monitors how recipients react to each template. If a template collects too many blocks or “report spam” reactions, Meta sets it to Paused — first temporarily (pauses last hours to days), and after repeated pauses Disabled permanently. Paused and disabled templates can’t be sent; campaigns and automations will refuse them.

If a template gets paused:

1. Don’t just wait for the pause to lift and resend the same thing — the next pause escalates.
2. Check who you sent it to. Quality problems are almost always an audience problem: contacts without a real opt-in, or too many sends too often.
3. Rewrite the template to be more relevant and clearly expected, and tighten the segment you send it to.

Editing and resubmitting

Templates can’t be edited in place in Nybero — that’s deliberate, because any content change at Meta triggers a full new review anyway (and would make the template unsendable in your running automations in the meantime). The workflow is:

1. Create a new template with the corrected content — for a rejected webinar_reminder_15min, submit webinar_reminder_15min_v2 (or delete the rejected one first if you want to keep the exact name eventually).
2. Wait for approval, then point your campaigns and automation steps at the new template.
3. Delete the old rejected or retired version to keep the list clean.

Note

For advanced cases — appealing a rejection you believe is wrong, or editing a template in place — Meta’s own WhatsApp Manager offers those options directly on your WhatsApp Business Account. Any change you make there flows back into Nybero on the next automatic sync. An appeal in progress shows as In review.

Deleting a template

In Manage templates, click Delete on a template and confirm. This removes it from Nybero and from Meta. Things to know before you delete:

• Campaigns and automation steps that use the template can no longer send it — update any automation that references it first.
• Meta blocks re-using the name of a deleted template for 30 days. If you plan to replace a template, approve the successor before deleting the original, or use a versioned name (…_v2).
• Messages already delivered to contacts are unaffected.

Worked example: fixing a rejection

You submitted this as Utility and it came back Rejected:

{{Discount}}! Hi {{Name}}, our summer sale is live. Use code {{Code}} at checkout: {{Link}}

Three problems: it starts with a variable, it’s promotional content in a Utility template, and it’s mostly placeholders. The fix — resubmitted as a new template, category Marketing, name summer_sale_announcement:

Hi {{Name}}, our summer sale just went live! ☀️

As a subscriber you get *{{Discount}} off everything* this week — just use the code {{Code}} at checkout.

Footer: Reply STOP to unsubscribe. — Button: Link (URL), text Shop the sale, your full store URL. Sample values: Alex Smith, 20%, SUMMER20.

Approved within the hour: honest category, real sentences around the variables, a proper URL button instead of a bare link, and an opt-out hint in the footer.

Next steps

• Create a template — the wizard, field by field.
• Campaigns — put your approved template in front of a whole audience.
• Opt-in & opt-out — the foundation of good template quality ratings.