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.
🔜 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
