Subscription groups

WhatsApp subscription groups are created upon integrating WhatsApp with your app through the Technology Partner Portal.

WhatsApp subscription states

There are two subscription states for WhatsApp users: subscribed and unsubscribed.

State	Definition
Subscribed	User has explicitly confirmed that they want to receive WhatsApp messages from a specific company. Users can be subscribed by having their subscription state updated through the Braze subscription API or by deploying an opt-in strategy, as per WhatsApp’s guidelines.
Unsubscribed	User either hasn’t explicitly given consent for opt-in or their opt-in status has been explicitly removed. Users unsubscribed from a WhatsApp subscription group will no longer receive any WhatsApp messages from sending phone numbers that belong to the subscription group.

Setting users’ WhatsApp subscription groups

• Rest API: User profiles can be programmatically set by the /subscription/status/set endpoint using the Braze REST API.
• Web SDK: Users can be added to an email, SMS, or WhatsApp subscription group using the addToSubscriptionGroup method for Android, iOS, or Web.
• User import: Users can be added to email or SMS subscription groups via Import Users. When updating the subscription group status, you must have these two columns in your CSV: subscription_group_id and subscription_state. Refer to User import for more information.

Checking a user’s WhatsApp subscription group

• User Profile: Individual user profiles can be accessed through the Braze dashboard from Audience > Search Users. Here, you can look up user profiles by email address, phone number, or external user ID. When you’re inside a user profile, under the Engagement tab, you can view a user’s WhatsApp subscription group and their status.

• Rest API: Individual user profiles subscription group can be viewed by the List user’s subscription groups endpoint or List user’s subscription group status endpoint by using Braze’s REST API.

WhatsApp opt-in and opt-out process

Currently, users can subscribe and opt-in and opt-out to WhatsApp messaging in various ways, including SMS, through a website, a WhatsApp thread, phone, or in person. Note that opt-ins are required.

Opt-in keywords are not currently supported for the WhatsApp channel, so it will be up to you to maintain a user list. WhatsApp has a retrospective approach to opt-ins and rate limits, where if users start reporting or blocking you, your rate limit will be lowered.

Updating a user’s subscription status to a WhatsApp Canvas

Regardless of the opt-in and opt-out methods you use, you can update the subscription status of user profiles with one of the following update methods:

• Create a Braze-to-Braze webhook that updates the subscription status via REST API, such as in the following example:

To avoid race conditions, any follow-up messaging after the webhook should be contained in a second Canvas that is triggered by outcomes from the first Canvas (such as a user has entered a Canvas variation and is in a WhatsApp subscription group).

• Use the advanced JSON editor to update the user profile with the following template:

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    {
      "attributes": [
      {
      	"subscription_groups": [{
      	  "subscription_group_id": "subscription_group_identifier_1",
      	  "subscription_state": "unsubscribed"
      	   },
      	   {
      	     "subscription_group_id": "subscription_group_identifier_2",
      	     "subscription_state": "subscribed"
      	     },
      	     {
      	       "subscription_group_id": "subscription_group_identifier_3",
      	       "subscription_state": "subscribed"
      	    }
      	  ]
      	}
      ]
    }