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What's Cooking at Wati — May 2026
Monthly Release Notes
today

What's Cooking at Wati — May 2026

May was about depth. Shopify gets a full upgrade —> from cart recovery to a cleaner analytics dashboard. Astra's voice agent becomes a genuine conversational partner with interruption handling, cleaner transcripts, and 9 Indian languages. Here's everything that shipped.


🛍️ Wati for Shopify

Recover carts before they reach checkout

Why this matters

Abandoned checkouts only tell half the story. The shoppers most likely to convert are the ones who added items and disappeared before they even got to checkout — and until now, they were invisible.

The update

Wati now tracks Add to Cart events on Shopify. When a shopper adds items and leaves, a pre-built 3-step recovery sequence fires automatically on WhatsApp or RCS — at 30 minutes, 6 hours, and 24 hours. The sequence stops the moment they reply, start checkout, or place an order. Enable in one click — no building from scratch.

Plan: Growth, Pro, Business

Learn more →



Build custom Shopify automation rules across any channel

Why this matters

Merchants who needed multi-step custom logic — branching conditions, fallback channels, non-standard timing — had to work around Wati's fixed automation options.

The update

Shopify events are now triggers inside Wati's Automation Rules engine. Build fully custom WhatsApp, RCS, or SMS workflows tied to any Shopify moment. Channel fallback is configurable within each rule, and attribution — Revenue, ROI, Conversion Rate — is tracked at rule level. Abandoned Checkout and Abandoned Cart rules ship pre-built and ready to enable.

Plan: Growth, Pro, Business

Learn more →



Go from install to live automation the same day

Why this matters

Most merchants who installed Wati for Shopify never activated a single automation in their first two weeks. The setup flow buried the steps that actually mattered.

The update

Onboarding is rebuilt into a 2-stage Quick Start. A short questionnaire adapts the flow to your experience level. The setup dashboard then surfaces only the minimum steps to go live — showing your actual store data (revenue at risk, live abandoned checkout count) so there's a reason to act immediately.

Plan: Growth, Pro, Business



One consistent analytics view across all Shopify automations

Why this matters

Metric names changed between tabs, definitions were inconsistent, and there were no clear funnel indicators — making it hard to compare performance or trust what the numbers were saying.

The update

The Shopify analytics dashboard is fully redesigned with three consistent layers across every trigger: Hero Metrics (Spend, Orders, Revenue, ROI), Health Metrics (Sent, Delivered, Delivery Rate, Clicked), and trigger-specific funnel data. RCS is tracked alongside WhatsApp, and Automation Rules data feeds into the same dashboard.

Plan: Growth, Pro, Business


Create contact segments via API

Why this matters

Teams managing large audiences at scale needed programmatic control over how contacts are grouped — without having to touch the Wati dashboard every time.

The update

Custom contact segments can now be created and managed via API, giving developers and power users full control over audience segmentation.

Plan: Growth, Pro, Business



📞 WhatsApp Calling

Every call recording, transcript, and AI summary — in one place

Why this matters

Recordings, transcripts, and summaries were scattered across views, making it hard for managers to review call quality, coach agents, or pull material for audits without digging around.

The update

The new Call Recording vault centralises every recording alongside its AI-generated transcript and summary. Filter by call type, operator, date range, or business number. Download individual recordings or export up to 50 at once for audits and reviews.

Plan: Growth, Pro, Business (requires WhatsApp Calling)

Learn more →



Set a retention policy — Wati handles compliance automatically

Why this matters

In regulated industries, holding call recordings longer than required is a compliance risk. Managing deletion manually is error-prone and easy to forget.

The update

Admins can now configure an auto-deletion policy per account — choose a retention duration and Wati removes recordings automatically once they age past it. Auto-deletion is off by default; opt in based on your regulatory or internal requirements.

Plan: Growth, Pro, Business (requires WhatsApp Calling)

Learn more →



📊 Ads

See the full funnel from Google and TikTok ads to WhatsApp

Why this matters

Customers running Google or TikTok ads had no visibility into what happened after a click — no way to see whether someone became a lead, started a conversation, or converted.

The update

Full-funnel conversion analytics are now live for whitelisted Google and TikTok ad accounts. View performance from ad click to lead qualification and purchase directly in Wati, and retarget high-intent contacts from the same view.

Plan: Business (available upon whitelisting — contact your CSM)



💡 Better AI Support Agent Capabilities

On Knowbot? Time to move to Astra.

Why this matters

Knowbot served its purpose, but Astra is where the AI roadmap lives — a more capable knowledge base, truly autonomous conversations, richer tool calling, and full control over agent behaviour.

The update

Migrating from Knowbot to Astra is now one click. Context is auto-extracted — no manual URL input required. Reach out to our support team to get your migration scoped and scheduled.

Plan: All plans

Demo: Watch demo →



🤖 Astra

Your Astra agent can now handle audio messages

Why this matters

Voice notes are one of the most common message types on WhatsApp. Agents that couldn't process them were silently missing a significant chunk of incoming conversations.

The update

Astra agents now support WhatsApp audio messages — automatically downloaded and transcribed via Astra's internal ASR — so your agent can handle voice notes the same way it handles text, both incoming and outgoing.

Plan: Business



Your voice agent now speaks 9 Indian languages — with natural code-switching

Why this matters

India-market deployments need agents fluent in the language customers are most comfortable in. Coverage of 6 languages was a start — 9 with native code-switching is a step change.

The update

Astra Voice previously supported 6 Indian languages via Sarvam ASR and TTS. This month adds Telugu, Gujarati, and Marathi — bringing total coverage to 9 regional languages, all with native code-switching so agents handle mixed-language conversations naturally.

Plan: All Astra plans



Cantonese and English in the same conversation

Why this matters

Hong Kong users naturally switch between Cantonese and English mid-conversation. An agent that handles only one language at a time breaks the flow.

The update

Astra Voice now handles bilingual Cantonese/English conversations, purpose-built for Hong Kong deployments where code-switching is the norm.

Plan: All Astra plans



Interrupt mid-sentence — the agent actually listens

Why this matters

Rigid turn-taking makes voice agents feel like automated phone menus. Real conversations involve interruptions, and agents that can't handle them lose the user's trust fast.

The update

Astra Voice now handles mid-sentence interruptions gracefully — detecting when a user wants to cut in and yielding the floor instead of talking over them.

Plan: All Astra plans


Cleaner transcripts — no more filler noise

Why this matters

Transcripts cluttered with "haha", heavy breathing, and filler sounds made them hard to use for coaching, audits, or records.

The update

Voice transcription now filters out non-verbal noise and filler sounds, producing clean, readable transcripts that are actually usable downstream.

Plan: All Astra plans



Supervise live AI conversations and step in when it counts

Why this matters

AI handles most conversations well — but when edge cases arise, supervisors need a way to intervene without disrupting the customer experience.

The update

Managers can now monitor AI-handled conversations in real time and take over mid-conversation when needed. Full human-in-the-loop control, without breaking the interaction.

Plan: All Astra plans



Test your web widget agent before it goes live

Why this matters

Deploying a web widget agent without previewing its real behaviour has always been a leap of faith — fonts look different, backgrounds shift, and what looked fine in staging breaks in production.

The update

You can now test your web widget agent in an integrated playground directly inside Astra, with true-to-life UI/UX previews — including optimised default backgrounds and screenshot fallbacks for visual consistency — before it goes live on your site.

Plan: All Astra plans

Demo: Watch demo →



Faster from idea to live agent

Why this matters

The agent creation and deployment flow had unnecessary friction — too many steps between configuring an agent and getting it in front of customers.

The update

A new agent creation flow, widget position controls, and an optimised save-and-deploy button cut the steps from first draft to live deployment. The Wati MCP server now ships official plug-and-play connectors for Slack, HubSpot, and Shopify — less custom code, more out-of-the-box capability from Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible AI tool.

Plan: All Astra plans

Demo:




Graceful handling when a message type isn't supported

Why this matters

When an agent went silent on an unsupported message type — video, document, sticker, location — customers had no idea why. It eroded trust fast.

The update

Astra now responds with a clear, polite fallback whenever an agent receives a message type it can't process — in the user's own language. No more silent drops.

Plan: All Astra plans

Avatar of authorKankona Das
What's Cooking at Wati — April 2026
Monthly Release Notes
4 weeks ago

What's Cooking at Wati — April 2026

April was one of the biggest shipping months of the year. Drip campaigns finally landed, WhatsApp Calling got a full intelligence layer, Instagram comments became a proper conversion channel, and Astra took a major leap forward — with a new default AI agent and a voice engine that sounds like a real person. Here's everything that shipped.


🎙️ Quarterly Product Webinar

We walked through all of April's updates live — watch the full recording to see everything in action.

Watch the April Product Webinar →


📣 Campaigns

Drip Campaigns

Why this matters
Every other marketing platform has had drip sequences for years. Wati didn't — and marketers were either building workarounds with Sequences or doing it manually. That's over.

The update
You can now create multi-step WhatsApp message campaigns with timed delays between each message. Set a stop-on-reply condition so customers don't get the next step after they've already responded. Auto-retry keeps your inter-step timing consistent even when a message needs a resend. Campaign analytics are available at both the campaign level and per individual message, with export.

Plan: Growth, Pro, Business
Demo: Watch demo


Smart Campaign Pacing

Why this matters
Meta silently applies pacing restrictions when it detects high-volume or risky messaging patterns — campaigns would slow down, partially fail, or stop entirely with no explanation and no way to recover cleanly.

The update
High-risk campaigns are now automatically staggered before sending, reducing the chance of Meta stepping in. If pacing still kicks in, the campaign stops cleanly with a clear in-product notification instead of failing silently. From there, you can pick a new template, retry only the contacts who didn't receive the message, or use AI to suggest template fixes before retrying.

Plan: Growth, Pro, Business
Demo: Learn more


💬 Team Inbox

Typing Indicator for WhatsApp Chats

Why this matters
When a customer sends a message and hears nothing back, they don't know if anyone's there. That uncertainty kills the experience — especially when a human or AI agent is already composing a reply.

The update
WhatsApp now shows a live "typing…" indicator to your customers whenever an operator or Astra agent is composing a reply. Enable it from Settings → Team Inbox → General Settings. Available on Pro and Business now, rolling out to Growth in May.

Plan: Growth, Pro, Business
Demo: Learn more


📸 Instagram

Instagram Comments in Team Inbox + Comment-to-DM Automation

Why this matters
Comments on your Instagram posts are warm leads sitting in plain sight — but without a structured way to follow up, most businesses either miss them or manually reply with no context.

The update
Instagram comments now surface directly in Team Inbox alongside your DMs, so agents can view and reply without leaving Wati. With Comment-to-DM automation, when someone comments with a keyword you define — like "Price?" or "How to order?" — Wati automatically opens a private DM with them, moving a public interaction into a structured conversation. Comments in Team Inbox are available on all plans; Comment-to-DM automation requires Pro or above. Both work on mobile.

Plan: All Plans (comments); Pro, Business (automation)
Demo: Watch demo


📞 WhatsApp Calling

Call Recording, Transcription & Summarization

Why this matters
Without recorded calls and automated notes, context gets lost between agent handoffs, managers can't review performance, and there's no reliable way to sync voice conversations into your CRM.

The update
Every WhatsApp call can now be recorded automatically, with full manual pause and stop controls for operators. Recordings are transcribed with speaker separation and timestamps. AI Summarization generates a post-call summary with intent classification, sentiment analysis, call outcome, and action items — visible per contact directly in Team Inbox. Developers get a complete REST API suite and a real-time Call Completion Webhook to sync call data into external tools. Storage: first 1,000 minutes free per month. Transcription: 3 credits per call. Summarization: 1 additional credit per call. Call recording dashboard and retention policy controls coming soon.

Plan: Pro, Business
Demo: Watch demo


🤖 Astra

Astra is Now Your Default AI Agent

Why this matters
Knowbot was the starting point for AI on Wati — but it was a product built for a different era. Astra is more capable, more configurable, and where all new AI development is going.

The update
New Wati accounts and existing accounts that hadn't configured an AI agent will now start with Astra instead of the AI Support Agent. All entry points across the product lead to Astra setup. Existing configured AI Support Agent subscribers are unaffected — your setup continues working exactly as before.

Plan: Growth, Pro, Business


Voice 2.0: Clone Your Voice for AI Calls

Why this matters
Generic AI voices break trust the moment a customer notices they're talking to a bot. The most effective AI agents don't just answer correctly — they sound familiar, warm, and human.

The update
Astra's Voice Agent can now clone any voice by recording a sample or uploading audio files. The cloned voice carries your tone and warmth into every AI-handled call — available 24/7 without sounding robotic. Emotion-aware responses let the agent understand how a customer is feeling and adjust its tone naturally. The agent guides conversations proactively rather than just reacting, and background sound fills silence to keep calls feeling natural, while interruption suppression filters out noise.

Plan: Pro, Business
Demo: Watch demo

Avatar of authorParth Shrivastava
What's Cooking at Wati: Feb-Mar 2026
Monthly Release Notes
a month ago

What's Cooking at Wati: Feb-Mar 2026

This quarter, we have made tremendous progress on AI, released voice agents that sound like you, Copilot that shows exactly which topics and agents need work, and agents that test themselves before your customers find the bugs. Plus custom segments, campaigns that launch themselves, and Shopify recovery on every channel. Read along:

🌐 Multichannel Conversations

Start using Wati without a WhatsApp Business Account

Why this matters

Requiring a WhatsApp Business Account to even explore Wati was a wall before the front door — it killed first impressions and slowed down sales.

The update

Sign up with Instagram or Messenger first and get full platform access from day one — Team Inbox, automations, AI Copilot. Add WhatsApp later when you're ready. No WABA setup required to get started.

Plan: All Plans

Instagram Comments and Automation in Team Inbox

Why this matters

Comments on your posts are warm leads sitting in plain sight — most businesses have no way to follow up at scale, so those leads just decay.

The update

Team Inbox now shows comments on your own Instagram posts and lets you DM any commenter in one click. When they reply, a 24-hour automation window and 7-day conversation window opens. 

Plan: All Plans



WhatsApp Calls: Dialer List

Why this matters

Meta's call permission expires after 7 days. Without a centralized view, outbound teams miss open windows they didn't know existed.

The update

The new "Request Accepted" view in WhatsApp Calls shows every contact who has granted call permission within the valid 7-day window — updated in real time, with missed inbound calls included automatically. One click opens the full chat context.

Plan: Growth, Pro, Business



Contact Owner-Based Routing for Calls and Chats

Why this matters

Round-robin and automation rules were overriding agent ownership — a salesperson's established lead would get routed to someone else when they messaged back.

The update

A new admin toggle — Contact Owner-Based Routing — ensures inbound always goes to the contact's owning agent before any automation or round-robin kicks in. Assignee and contact owner stay in sync automatically.

Plan: Pro, Business



RCS at Scale: 200K Broadcasts

Why this matters

RCS broadcasts were limited in scale and lacked the rich interaction options that make RCS more effective than standard messaging.

The update

Send RCS to 200,000 contacts in one campaign. New quick actions include Dial Phone, Request Location, and Create Calendar Event. A new "Seen" metric gives real engagement visibility, and a capability check improves delivery rates.

Plan: All Plans



WhatsApp Flows for All Connected Numbers

Why this matters

Multi-number accounts could only create and manage Flows for the primary number — secondary numbers were left without Flow support entirely.

The update

Create, update, and delete WhatsApp Flows for any connected number. Failed flow publications now auto-retry in the background.

Plan: All Plans



User-Level Number Access Control

Why this matters

In multi-number accounts, agents could see all connected numbers — making it easy to act on the wrong one and creating unnecessary access overhead.

The update

Admins can now restrict number visibility by user, so agents only see what's relevant to them. Admins retain full access across all numbers.

Plan: Business



Inbox Analytics for Multiple WhatsApp Number

Why this matters

Multi-number accounts had no way to measure the performance of secondary numbers — analytics were only available for the primary one.

The update

View inbox performance metrics for each connected WhatsApp number individually. Filter and track per number without flying blind on secondary channels.

Plan: Business

Learn more →



WA Calling Open APIs and Webhooks

Why this matters

Sales and support agents had to switch between their CRM and Wati to make a call — a fragmented workflow that created data silos and slowed response time.

The update

New open calling APIs and webhooks expose the WhatsApp calling layer so engineering teams can build native click-to-call workflows in Salesforce, Zoho, or any CRM — or route call audio directly to an AI voice agent.

Plan: Business



🤖 AI at Wati

Astra AI Agents: Voice 2.0 — Clone Any Voice

Why this matters

Generic AI voices feel impersonal. The moment a customer hears a robot, trust drops and conversations end faster.

The update

Upload a 10-second audio sample and your Astra AI Agents voice agent speaks in that voice across every call — with context-aware tone, natural intonations, and silence-filling audio while tools execute in the background.

Plan: Astra Add On


Astra AI Agents: Guided Onboarding and Agent Testing at Scale

Why this matters

A blank agent configuration screen is where good intentions go to die. Most teams never ship because they don't know where to start — and untested agents fail in front of customers.

The update

Pick a goal — lead qualification, support, bookings — and get a pre-named, pre-configured agent ready to deploy. The evaluation suite auto-generates test cases, scores accuracy against expected answers.

Plan: Astra AI Agents (Add-on)



Topic Insights and Operator Insights

Why this matters

CX scores tell you how you're doing, but not why — which topics are failing, which agents need coaching, and where training gaps live.

The update

Topic Insights auto-categorizes your conversations so you see what's working and what's not. Operator Insights gives weekly per-agent performance breakdowns compared to the previous week.

Plan: Pro, Business



Astra AI Agents: Deep Agent Cloning

Why this matters

Rebuilding agents from scratch every time you expand to a new channel wastes hours and risks inconsistency across your customer experience.

The update

Copy any Astra AI Agents agent to a new channel in one click — all training data, instructions, and knowledge base content carries over automatically. No manual rebuilds, regardless of document count.

Plan: Astra Add On



Astra AI Agents: CRM Auto-Sync 

Why this matters

When lead data lives only in WhatsApp conversations, your CRM is always out of date and follow-up falls through the cracks.

The update

When a new lead is captured or a conversation ends, Astra AI Agents automatically syncs contact details and conversation summaries to HubSpot or Pipedrive with dynamic field mapping.

Plan: Astra AI Agents



Copilot: AI Translation Improvements

Why this matters

Agents handling multilingual conversations couldn't tell which language was active — leading to replies sent in the wrong direction.

The update

Clearer two-way translation indicators now show which language is active at all times. In-product prompts surface the feature automatically so teams discover it without digging through settings.

Plan: All Plans



📣 Sales & Marketing Automation

Custom Contact Segments

Why this matters

Filters couldn't be saved — marketers had to rebuild the same audience from scratch before every campaign, and keeping segments fresh across a growing contact list wasn't scalable.

The update

Create segments from any filter combination. Active segments update automatically as contacts qualify; static segments are a fixed one-time snapshot. Run next month's campaign to the same audience in two clicks.

Plan: Pro, Business



Auto-Launch Campaigns on Template Approval

Why this matters

You'd create a campaign, wait for Meta to approve the template, then remember to hit send — by then, the moment was gone and the window had closed.

The update

Set up a campaign with a pending template and it fires automatically the moment Meta approves. Works for immediate and scheduled sends; the system monitors for up to one hour and notifies admins on rejection or timeout.

Plan: Growth, Pro, Business



Linking Campaigns to Automation Actions

Why this matters

A customer tapping a quick reply button in your campaign triggered nothing automatically — someone had to build a separate automation to handle each response.

The update

A new section in the campaign builder lets you map each quick reply button to an action — send a custom message, start a chatbot, or trigger a flow. No separate setup needed.

Plan: Growth, Pro, Business



CTWA Reporting Enhancement

Why this matters

CTWA reporting was rigid — one conversion template, one phone number, no way to slice data by Campaign, Ad Group, or Ad level.

The update

The CTWA report now supports custom dimensions (Campaign, Ad Group, Ad) and metrics including ROAS, CPM, and Purchase Value — across multiple connected phone numbers.

Plan: Business + Ads Add-on



Higher Broadcasting Speeds

Why this matters

Flash sales, OTP blasts, and time-critical promotions lose their edge when messages take too long to deliver at scale.

The update

Sustained high-speed sending at 500+ messages per second is now available on request — for moments where timing is the whole point.

Plan: Business Plans (available on request)



Custom Branded URL Tracking

Why this matters

A recent Meta update made tracking URLs visible in message previews — and the generic Wati format looked like spam, hurting click-through rates and brand trust.

The update

You can now customize your tracking URL to show your own brand (e.g., yourbrand-whatsapp.wati.io). The default tracking URL has also been updated to whatsapp.wati.io across all accounts.

Plan: Pro, Business

Learn more →



Zero-Tap Authentication Templates

Why this matters

Zero-Tap auth templates had to be created outside Wati, adding friction for teams that rely on fast, high-intent verification flows.

The update

Build and edit Zero-Tap authentication templates directly in Wati — supporting one-tap or no-tap verification for your highest-intent users.

Plan: All Plans



Multi-BM Support for Click-to-WhatsApp Ads

Why this matters

Agencies and businesses with ad accounts spread across multiple Business Managers had to manage everything across different Wati accounts — no single view of all their CTWA activity.

The update

You can now connect ad accounts from multiple Business Managers under one Wati account. Manage all your ad accounts and view analytics from one place.

Plan: Business

Learn more →



🛒 Ecommerce Growth Engine

Shopify Automation Goes Multichannel

Why this matters

Abandoned checkout recovery only works if the customer is reachable on WhatsApp. If they're not — you lose the sale. No fallback, no second chance.

The update

All major Shopify triggers — abandoned checkout, order confirmation, fulfillment — now support RCS and SMS as fallback channels. Ready-to-run sequences auto-generate when you connect your Shopify store, with templates that include coupon codes, checkout links, and attribution windows.

Plan: All Plans


Revenue you were leaving on the table now comes back through the next available channel. 

That's about it for now. Please watch this space for next updates. 

Avatar of authorParth Shrivastava
Meta Updates
2 months ago

Quarterly WhatsApp Pricing Updates from Meta

To provide businesses with more predictability, Meta has standardized a quarterly pricing schedule. This means that Meta may choose to update messaging and voice prices on the 1st day of every quarter.

What is changing this quarter?

Effective April 1, 2026 at 12:00 AM IST, the following updates will take effect:

  • Saudi Arabia – Higher marketing message rate.
  • India – Higher authentication-international rate.
  • Pakistan – Higher utility and authentication rates. No change to the authentication-international rate.
  • Turkey – Lower utility and authentication rates.

This is an official change from Meta and will impact all Business Solution Providers, including Wati. We have automatically updated the rates for all our clients to reflect these changes. You can find all the details here:

Meta’s Pricing Changes and Previous Updates

Note: You can view the updated messaging rate cards in your Wati account after the effective date. Log in to your Wati account and click the Pricing Overview button under the wallet icon located in the top-right corner of the screen.

No Action Required

As your WhatsApp Business Solution Provider, Wati handles these technical updates for you. These changes will be applied to your account automatically on the effective date. No action is required on your part.

Avatar of authorSudeep Patil
What's Cooking at Wati: Release Notes: January 2026
Monthly Release Notes
3 months ago

What's Cooking at Wati: Release Notes: January 2026

January was a big one. We've been heads-down building toward a simple idea: your customers don't live on one channel, and your tools shouldn't either. This month's release moves us closer to that reality — with faster performance, smarter AI, and a Wati that works from the moment you sign up.

Here's everything that's live in your dashboard today.

Tl;Dr: Wati now works across every major channel, your AI Copilot just got significantly smarter, and we've got a free playbook to help you grow faster in 2026.




📖 WhatsApp Growth Playbook 2026: Free for All Wati Users

Why this matters: Knowing what to send is only half the battle. Knowing when, to whom, and with what AI assist is what separates growing businesses from plateauing ones.

The Update: We've put together the WhatsApp Growth Playbook 2026 — a practical guide to running AI-powered conversation-growth campaigns across every stage of your customer journey: acquisition, engagement, conversion, and retention. It's free, actionable, and built on what actually works across thousands of Wati customers.

👉 Grab the WhatsApp Growth Playbook 2026



🌐 Go Multichannel — Meet Your Customers Everywhere

RCS Just Got Serious — 200K Broadcasts + Rich Actions

Why this matters: RCS is carrier-grade messaging with the richness of an app. If you've been waiting to run it at scale, the wait is over.

The Update: You can now send RCS broadcasts to up to 200,000 contacts in a single campaign. We've also added new message action types: Dial Phone, Request Location, and Create Calendar Event: so your messages can drive real actions, not just reads. A new "Seen" metric gives you visibility into actual engagement, not just delivery.



Shopify + RCS: Full-Funnel Tracking for Rich Campaigns

Why this matters: You're already using Shopify to run campaigns. Now those campaigns can run over RCS — and you can measure exactly what they drive.

The Update: Shopify ROI tracking now extends to RCS broadcasts. Abandoned checkout and order messages can include dynamic product images and discount codes, with full revenue attribution so you know which campaigns are actually converting.





Team Inbox Analytics: Now for Every WhatsApp Number

Why this matters: If you're running multiple WhatsApp numbers for different teams, regions, or brands, you shouldn't have to fly blind on any of them.

The Update: Inbox Analytics now covers all your connected WhatsApp numbers — not just the primary one. Filter, compare, and track performance across every number from one place.

Learn More here: Managing multiple WhatsApp numbers in Wati




🤖 Work Smarter with AI

AI Copilot: Now Your Inbox Writing Partner

Why this matters: Your agents are writing dozens of messages a day. Copilot now helps them write better, faster — without leaving the inbox.

The Update: AI-powered writing assistance is now built directly into Team Inbox. Copilot can fix grammar, match the tone of the conversation, and generate responses pulled directly from your knowledge base. Less tab-switching. Better replies.




AI Translation — Now Easier to Discover and Use

Why this matters: Your customers speak different languages. Your agents shouldn't need to speak all of them.

The Update: We've improved the AI Translation experience with clearer two-way translation indicators, so agents always know which direction the translation is running. We've also added in-product prompts that surface the feature automatically when you're chatting with a contact in a different language.




Marketing Templates: 1024-Character Limit, Restored

Why this matters: Meta has reduced the character limit for marketing templates from 1024 to 550, causing messages to fail silently. That restriction is now lifted.

The Update: You can create and send marketing templates with up to 1,024 characters again. No more failed deliveries from exceeding a limit you didn't know existed.

Find updated highlights here: WhatsApp template message guidelines



Language Auto-Update by Region

Why this matters: Global teams shouldn't have to manually configure their language settings every time someone joins from a new region.

The Update: Wati now automatically detects your region via IP address and sets the interface language accordingly. No manual setup required for new users — the platform speaks their language from the first login.



💳 Sell & Pay Smarter

WatiPay Now Accepts Apple Pay

Why this matters: Checkout friction kills conversions. Apple Pay removes the biggest one for iOS users — no card details to type, no forms to fill.

The Update: Apple Pay is now a supported payment method within WatiPay on both web and mobile. Your customers can complete purchases in one tap, directly within the WhatsApp conversation.




Outbound Calling List in Team Inbox

Why this matters: Your sales team needs to know exactly which contacts have opted in to receive calls — without digging through filters.

The Update: Team Inbox now has a dedicated "Calling List" that shows only contacts who have granted call permission. One click to see who's ready to hear from you, so your team can focus on calling instead of qualifying.



⚡ Under the Hood: Performance You'll Feel

We don't usually lead with infrastructure, but this one is worth calling out.

We've completed a major infrastructure upgrade that significantly improves messaging reliability and speed for high-volume users and large-scale broadcasts. We've also migrated to a global CDN, cutting page load times dramatically — the dashboard is now noticeably faster everywhere, especially outside of primary data center regions.



🔐 New Login Options — Rolling Out Now

We've launched Google SSO and Email OTP login, along with a new Account Switcher, for customers in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, and Canada. We'll soon be rolling this out to other countries.

🎬 Google SSO walkthrough 

🎬 Email OTP walkthrough




🔜 Coming Soon: Start Wati Without a WhatsApp Number

We're removing the requirement to connect a WhatsApp Business Account before exploring Instagram, Messenger, and RCS channels. Sign up, pick your channel, and start conversations from day one — no prerequisites.

Stay tuned — this is rolling out soon.



Try a Higher Plan

Want to test features that are on a higher tier? Activate a 14-day free trial directly from your Wati dashboard. Click the ⬆️ icon next to the infinity symbol [Meta] to get started.

Regards, 

Team Wati

Avatar of authorParth Shrivastava
What's Cooking at Wati: Release Notes: Nov-Dec 2025
Monthly Release Notes
4 months ago

What's Cooking at Wati: Release Notes: Nov-Dec 2025

A very happy new year, to all you Watists (one of our very own, Printcious, calls their Wati users "Watists").

Wati has evolved a lot as a platform. 

We have moved from being only for WhatsApp to becoming a comprehensive conversational operating system.

We are here to give you a unified view of the customer journey from acquisition to retention, without the data fragmentation that often occurs when you patch together multiple tools.

We broke down this and everything new Wati released in a session. If you missed the session, you can watch the recording below, or scroll down for the breakdown of the shiny new features that are live in your dashboard today.

👉 [Watch the Webinar Recording] 

👉 [Read all the updates here]

Tl;Dr: Here's the most important summary

True Multichannel Orchestration

Why this matters: Customers do not live on one app. You need a unified toolkit to engage effectively from first touch to loyalty.

We have expanded the Wati backend to support a true multichannel environment. You can now capture leads via TikTok, Google, and Instagram ads, engage them via WhatsApp, SMS, and RCS, and manage the entire lifecycle from lead gen to retention within a single, unified inbox flow.


Native WhatsApp Business Calling

The Update: We have integrated Meta’s official calling stack directly into the Wati inbox. This is not a redirect to a phone dialer; it is a native VoIP experience.

This allows agents to switch from chat to voice instantly without losing context. The call history and status are logged directly in the chat thread, and we handle the Meta-required permission flows automatically to reduce friction. A single number can now handle up to 1,000 concurrent calls.

  • How to Enable: How to enable and use WhatsApp Business Calling in Wati
  • Rules & Limits :WhatsApp Calling restrictions and guidelines

RCS & SMS: Reach and Reliability

The Update: We now support Google-verified RCS and intelligent SMS Fallback to ensure 100% reach.

RCS allows you to send rich, branded messages with carrier-backed reliability. Crucially, we introduced an intelligent fallback system: if a WhatsApp message fails to deliver due to connectivity or account issues, the system automatically re-routes it via SMS, guaranteeing delivery for critical notifications like OTPs.

  • Setup Guide: How to enable RCS messaging in Wati
  • General FAQs :General RCS Questions & Guidelines


Astra: The AI Agent Builder for All Your Customer Interactions

The Update: Astra is our new environment for creating and deploying AI agents using natural language.

You can train these agents by simply feeding them your URLs or PDFs, and they will instantly understand your business tone and goals without complex setup. Once built, these agents are omnichannel and deployable across WhatsApp, Web Widgets, and Voice to handle routine queries and qualify leads automatically.

Product Page: Astra from Wati

Support Page: Astra


AI Copilot for Agents

The Update: For human-led conversations, Copilot acts as an intelligent sidekick to amplify agent productivity.

It sits alongside the inbox to provide instant chat summaries for long threads, real-time bi-directional translation for diverse customer bases, and predictive CX scores. It also suggests response templates based on Meta's best practices to ensure high-quality communication.

Overview: Wati AI Agent Services & Capabilities

Detailed Support Pages: Translations, CX Score, Support Agent


Sales on Autopilot[Stages & Husbpot Integration]

The Update: We have transformed your WhatsApp into a structured revenue engine.

We introduced granular pipeline tracking with Lead Stages and Contact Owners, enabling you to monitor deal progression in real time. Additionally, our HubSpot integration is now bi-directional: changes in Wati reflect in HubSpot immediately, and AI conversation summaries are logged automatically to the HubSpot timeline.

We covered other key updates like CTWA on TikTok, Shopify Segment Syn,c which pulls customer data in real-time for instant targeting, Deep ROI Analytics showing the exact revenue generated from broadcast campaigns, Behavior-Based Segmentation to target users based on engagement history, and the redesigned interface with left-rail navigation and cleaner inbox filters for faster sorting. In case you’d like to know more, please use the links mentioned on the top of the email.


Try Higher Plan

If you are on a lower plan, you can test these new capabilities by activating a 14-day free trial of a higher plan directly from your Wati dashboard. Click on ⬆️ beside the infinity icon[ Meta] to activate.

Once again, you can see the whole recording and summary of Q4 2026 updates here: 

👉 [Watch the Webinar Recording] 

👉 [Read all the updates here]

Regards,

Team Wati

Avatar of authorParth Shrivastava
What's Cooking at Wati: Release Notes: October 2025
Monthly Release Notes
6 months ago

What's Cooking at Wati: Release Notes: October 2025

Hello there, you growth-hungry humans,

To satiate your growth hunger, we have shipped some pretty delicious features and enhancements in October. 

Here's a snapshot of the most important ones:



Shiny, New Features

📞 WhatsApp Calling

Knock, knock! Who's there? It's me, Wati Wizard, calling you from WhatsApp to let you know we've launched WhatsApp Business calling on Wati. 

Say Hello to WhatsApp Business Calling, which lets your team connect with customers via voice calls directly in WhatsApp. WhatsApp calling takes WhatsApp from a messaging platform to a conversational platform, boosting responsiveness and building stronger customer relationships—all without leaving the WhatsApp chat interface.

Availability: WhatsApp Calling is available on all Plans.

❇️ Bring Your Own AI (Beta)

Most AI-powered organizations worldwide offer isolated AI features. But not us. We bring you the trifecta of powerful AI ingestion in your conversations: 

  • Intelligence Team (With Wati Copilot)
  • Intelligent Conversations (Astra and AI Agents) 
  • Your Own AI Integration (Bring Your Own AI)

Now you can bring your own AI Agent to engage users on WhatsApp. The Agent can act like a human operator at scale, sans the fatigue. 

Availability: BYOA is available in the Business Plan only as an add-on. Please find more details here.

📈 Sales Analytics  

You've added your sales folks and started your sales journey on WhatsApp. Now, get on top of your sales team's performance with Wati. Track each rep's conversion rate, deals won, progress on the sales pipeline and more.

Availability: Sales Analytics are available for Pro and Business plan users. Learn more here.


‎♪ TikTok Click to WhatsApp Ads Integration 

Lights, camera, conversions.

Your TikTok Ads → WhatsApp pipeline just got smarter. With this integration, you can see all your TikTok CTWA conversations inside Wati and, in turn, send conversion data back to TikTok's Ads Manager. 

Cleaner attribution, clearer insights, and campaigns that finally behave the way your spreadsheets always dreamed they would.

More data → better optimization → lower CAC. You know the drill.

Availability: TikTok CTWA is in beta. Reach out to us to onboard on the TikTok CTWA beta. 

Enhancements

✖️ Wati X HubSpot Automatic Conversation Logging

Your Wati X HubSpot integration is about to feel way more alive. Update conversation logging in HubSpot now gives you: 

  • Conversation start and end times
  • AI-generated summaries, 
  • Action items as tasks.

It’s easier than ever for sales teams to track what happened, what needs to happen, and what absolutely cannot fall through the cracks. You can find more details here.

🎁 Free Messaging Window Notification for CTWA

The new prompt in Team Inbox nudges you to reply to incoming CTWA conversations within the 24-hour window, so you can unlock free messaging for 72 hours. Think of it as a friendly “psst… reply now, save money later” assistant living right inside Wati.

This helps you maximize their CTWA investment by visualizing when free messaging periods are active and available for customer engagement.

📊 Improved Shopify Analytics 

Your Shopify Analytics just got a glow-up. We’ve added average overall metrics, including:

  • Read rate
  • Reply rate
  • Link click rate
  • Total spend insights for abandoned checkout messages

Now you know exactly what’s working, what’s not, and what deserves to be sent into exile.

🔁 Sync Shopify Segments 

Shopify Segments now sync seamlessly with Wati, complete with webhook support, real-time updates, and a clean UI for viewing, searching, and broadcasting to the exact segment you want. 

No more CSV juggling. No more manual syncing. 


That's all for now. See you very soon in our next update (November is right around the corner.)

💚 Team Wati


Avatar of authorParth Shrivastava
Meta Updates
7 months ago

Important: Updates to WhatsApp Authentication & Co-existence

Meta has rolled out a few important updates affecting authentication templates and the co-existence experience. Here’s what you need to know.

WhatsApp Authentication Template Updates

Starting mid-September 2025, Meta has introduced new requirements for businesses using authentication templates:

  • Business Verification (BV) is mandatory
  • Your account must maintain the 2,000-message tier for at least 30 consecutive days
  • You must send high-quality messages during this period

These changes apply globally and are part of Meta’s fraud prevention efforts.

New Template Rules:

Meta has released new template formatting guidelines. We have documented all of the new template guidelines here. Tl:Dr:

  • Use only formats from Meta’s approved Template Library
  • Templates cannot start with a variable (for example, 1)
  • Non-compliant templates may be rejected or fail delivery

Co-existence Experience Updates

Meta has expanded and refined the co-existence coverage and experience

Global Availability:

  • Now available in the EU, UK, Japan, Australia, Philippines, South Korea, and Russia
  • Wati customers in these regions can now seamlessly use the WhatsApp Business App and Wati Account together

Experience Enhancements:

  • Mobile Onboarding: The process is now available on mobile for faster setup
  • Meta Verified Compatibility: Businesses can retain or obtain Meta Verified status across both the WhatsApp Business App and the WhatsApp Business Platform
  • Flows Compatibility: WA Flows are now fully supported, allowing better automation and engagement
  • Automated Greeting Message: Automatically greets users who interact with Click-to-WhatsApp Ads and land on Co-existence numbers
  • Click-to-Flows: Integrates WhatsApp Flows with CTWA Ads to capture structured responses directly within WhatsApp

If you need help updating your templates or onboarding through co-existence, reach out to us by clicking the support icon inside your Wati account.

Avatar of authorParth Shrivastava
Monthly Release Notes
7 months ago

What's Cooking at Wati ✨: Release Notes, September 2025

Hello, you dreamers and doers, 

We’re in the final strides of 2025. Feels like January was yesterday, right? 

In that time, you’ve been scaling, experimenting, and breaking new ground. We’ve been doing the same: building faster, smarter, and innovative ways for you to turn every conversation into growth. Here's what we have in the box for September, 2025:


💬 WhatsApp + HubSpot = Magic

We’ve gone all-in on HubSpot this month: Everything from seamless sync to AI-driven conversation summaries. You can find more details on Wati's HubSpot integration here.

What's Inside?

AI-Powered Conversation Logging and Task Creation

  • Wati auto-logs every WhatsApp message to the HubSpot timeline for comprehensive context
  • AI-generated conversation summaries for a quick context
  • Automatically log activities when the conversation is resolved, the window expires, or every 3 hours
  • Automatically create follow-up tasks on HubSpot to never miss out on any follow-ups


Why it matters:

You get one source of truth for every WhatsApp chat and CRM deal. Each log includes timestamps, message context, and AI-generated summaries and action items.




🌍 Meta Policy Updates, Compliance Changes and Onboarding Improvements

Because Meta keeps evolving, and we keep you ahead of the curve.

1. Template Content Restrictions

Effective From: October 1, 2025

Meta is tightening template approvals.

Here’s what’s new:

  • Fewer placeholders allowed relative to message length
  • Templates can’t start or end with a parameter
  • Non-compliant templates will be auto-rejected

If your templates are getting flagged lately, this is probably why. You can learn more about the new guidelines here.

2. Shared Messaging Limits (Portfolio-Level)

Messaging limits are now shared across all phone numbers under the same Business Manager.

  • New numbers get the highest limit from the portfolio (no more starting at 250/day 🎉)
  • Multi-number accounts will share one limit

Bottom line: Please manage volume across numbers wisely.




🌐 AI Translation in Team Inbox (Beta)

Language barriers? Gone.

Wati Inbox now detects, translates, and replies in the customer’s language, in real time.

  • Two-way translation for incoming & outgoing messages
  • Admins choose the target language; agents toggle it per chat

Why you’ll love it:

Faster replies. Happier agents. Customers feel local, even when they aren’t.

Availability 

Available for Growth, Pro & Business plans. You can learn more about it here.




✏️ Contact Owner & Lead Stage Attributes

Wati's CRM game just got an upgrade. Now you can assign owners, define lead stages, and track progress visually inside Wati. Helps you improve sales accountability and pipeline clarity.


Availability

Exclusive to Pro & Business plans customers. Learn more here.




📊 More Segments for Smarter Broadcasts 

Broadcasts just got brains. Segments automatically organize your contacts into groups based on predefined user behavior, so you can instantly focus on the audiences that matter most.



Currently live with 4 segments: 

  • Highly Engaged (3+ interactions in 90 days): Upsells, referrals, surveys
  • Winback (inactive 30–90 days): Discounts, free trials, comeback offers
  • At Risk (inactive 90+ days): Gentle nudges, seasonal promos, reactivation messages
  • All Valid Contacts (valid phone numbers): General updates, product launches, announcements
We have seen some stellar results with Segment: 9% higher delivery rates, 29% higher read rates for the Highly Engaged Segment. 

Availability

Available in all Pro and Business Accounts. 




🕵🏻 Operator Privacy

We're giving you more control over your sales engine on WhatsApp. Because not every chat should be visible to everyone.  Operator Privacy limits each operator’s view to only their assigned conversations.



Availability

This feature is available to Business Plan customers and available as an add-on to Pro plan users. More details here.


Avatar of authorParth Shrivastava
8 months ago

🚀 Wati Product Updates — August 2025

🔄 HubSpot Enhancement: Lead-Routing & Multi-Account Integration

We’ve introduced seamless bi-directional syncing of contact ownership between Wati and HubSpot, ensuring accurate CRM records and eliminating manual owner assignments.

How It Works

 When new HubSpot leads flow into Wati, they are automatically routed to the correct account executive. Inbound messages in Wati also sync back to HubSpot with the right ownership. If a matching user doesn’t exist in either system, defaults are applied or the owner field is left blank to maintain data integrity. To make onboarding smooth, Wati auto-maps users between platforms via email, while still allowing manual overrides through a dropdown.

Why It Matters

 This update saves time for account executives, ensures prospects are managed promptly, and keeps HubSpot as the single source of truth. Teams with multiple HubSpot accounts also benefit from independent syncing and routing across accounts simultaneously.

Availability

 The feature is now available for all plans with HubSpot integration. Learn more

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👤 Operator Name in Messages

 Every message sent from the Team Inbox can now automatically include the operator’s name, creating more transparency in customer interactions.

How It Works

 When enabled, the operator’s name is appended to all outbound messages, making conversations more personal and human. This small addition helps contacts clearly see who they are speaking with.

Why It Matters

 Adding an operator’s name builds trust, strengthens relationships with prospects, and improves engagement. It reassures customers that they’re dealing with real people rather than anonymous messages.

Availability

 The feature is now available for all customers on the Pro and Biz plans. Learn more

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🤖 Wati AI Marketing Assistant (Beta)

 The Wati AI Marketing Assistant is live in Beta for a select group of customers. It analyses WhatsApp marketing templates to ensure compliance with Meta’s evolving approval criteria.

How It Works

 The assistant reviews your existing templates, highlights risks of rejection, and can automatically rewrite them for better compliance. It leverages Wati’s internal pool of high-quality, industry-tested templates to deliver optimized alternatives.

Why It Matters

 Template rejection is among the top three causes of failed WhatsApp campaigns, leading to delivery delays and lower engagement. This tool helps teams proactively fix low-quality templates, keep campaigns running, and achieve better results with less effort.

Availability

 Currently, the assistant supports English marketing templates only, with more languages coming soon. Learn more

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✨ Ready to Experience the New Wati? 

Explore these powerful new features built to help you connect faster, work smarter, and drive better results. 

→ Learn More in Our Help Center

→ Log In & Try It Now

Avatar of authorSreenidhi M J