Meta API Setup and Message Templates
Most businesses never need the setup half of this page. Connecting a number is a guided popup that takes about ten minutes — see Connecting With Coexistence. What you will need, whichever way you connected, is everything below about message templates and what Meta charges you.
If your number isn't connected yet, start with Connecting With Coexistence. This page assumes you're already on the Meta Cloud API and want to understand what that means in practice.
The Assisted Setup Path
A small number of businesses connect the long way round: their account is prepared in Meta first, and the connection is completed by hand rather than through the popup. This is the legacy route, and it is handled with your Remo account manager rather than on your own.
You'd take it if a Meta setup already exists that has to be reused as-is, if your business has requirements the guided popup can't satisfy, or if your account manager has told you to. If none of that describes you, use Coexistence.
What the Assisted Path Involves
- A Meta Business account at business.facebook.com — created or already in place
- Business verification — Meta reviews your business information, typically over 1–5 business days
- A verified phone number — Meta confirms you control it by call or SMS
- Supporting material — verification documents vary by country, and Meta generally expects a business website or an active Facebook or Instagram page
- The final connection in Remo — your account manager completes the Meta Cloud API credentials card in Configuration → Advanced
Which number you're allowed to use, and whether it has to be a fresh one, depends on how your Meta account is set up. Confirm that with your account manager before you start rather than after.
Connecting by hand does not import your past conversations, does not import your contacts, and does not surface messages your staff type on the phone. Those all come from the Coexistence signup. Only take the assisted path when there's a real reason to.
Understanding Message Templates
Templates are the one Meta concept every business on the Cloud API eventually runs into.
When a client messages you, you have 24 hours to reply however you like. Inside that window the bot writes freely and the conversation feels normal. Once 24 hours pass with no message from the client, the window closes — and from then on anything your business sends first has to use a template Meta approved in advance.
What a Message Template Is
A template is a message you write once and submit to Meta for review. Once approved, it can be sent at any time with personal details filled in — a name, a time, an address — even though the free-text window has closed.
"Hello
{name}, your appointment at{time}on{date}is confirmed. We look forward to seeing you."
"Hi
{name}, we noticed you were interested in{property}. Would you like to schedule a visit this week?"
Meta reviews each one and usually decides within a few hours, occasionally up to 2 business days. A rejected template can be reworded and resubmitted.
Generating the Default Set
Once your project is on the Meta Cloud API, open Configuration → WhatsApp Templates and press Generate default templates. That seeds the standard set Remo relies on, so the routine messages — confirmations, reminders, follow-ups — have something approved to go out with.
Where Templates Actually Get Used
- Follow-up messages — a client who went quiet three days ago is outside the window, so the follow-up goes out as a template
- Meeting confirmations and reminders — often sent well after the client's last message
- Anything your business initiates — if the bot is speaking first, a template is involved
Replies to a client who just wrote in are not templates. That's the everyday case, and it stays free-form.
Meta rejects templates that read as unsolicited marketing, and each rejection costs you another review cycle. Remo can help you draft templates that pass the first time — contact your account manager.
Meta's Conversation-Based Billing
Meta charges for conversations, not for individual messages. A conversation is a 24-hour window that opens when a message is sent or received, and every message inside it is covered by the same charge.
| Type | When It Applies | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| User-initiated | The client sends you the first message | Lower rate |
| Business-initiated | You message the client first, using a template | Higher rate |
Rates vary by country. Ask your account manager for the rates that apply to your region.
These charges are separate from your Remo subscription and separate from your Remo credits. Meta invoices your business for them, which also means the bill scales with how much the bot talks. See Credits & Usage for the Remo side of your costs.
What You Get Once You're Connected
- The bot answers every inbound message automatically, around the clock
- Follow-ups switch to approved templates once the 24-hour window has closed
- The connection doesn't expire — there's no session to babysit and no QR code to re-scan
- Your team keeps the phone if you connected through Coexistence — see Connecting With Coexistence