Chat platform WhatsApp mentioned as we speak that it’ll restrict the variety of broadcast messages particular person customers and companies can ship to curb spam on the app.
Within the coming weeks, the corporate will begin testing limits on particular person broadcast messages. Underneath these limits, WhatsApp will put a month-to-month restrict on the variety of broadcasts. Whereas there might be transferring limits in the course of the check, one instance Meta gave was permitting 30 messages per thirty days.
Meta mentioned that if particular person customers wish to ship extra messages to a lot of individuals, they might use Standing updates or channels.
The corporate can be fascinated with placing related guardrails round broadcast messages from enterprise accounts. Till now, WhatsApp Enterprise accounts might ship free and limitless broadcast messages, however the firm will quickly introduce a paid model of the function with some extra instruments.
Within the coming months, Meta will check new custom-made broadcast messages for product updates or vacation gross sales. Plus, Enterprise account customers will be capable of schedule messages as nicely. Throughout the pilot interval, retailers will get 250 custom-made messages without cost, after which they must pay for added messages. At the moment, the corporate hasn’t put a worth on these messages.
The corporate’s considering behind that is that customers can nonetheless obtain occasional broadcast messages with out feeling overwhelmed. WhatsApp has taken just a few steps to scale back spam in person inboxes, like limiting the variety of advertising messages customers get in a day. Final yr, the corporate began experimenting with an “unsubscribe” function that lets customers sign they might quite not obtain sure varieties of messages from a enterprise with out blocking the account.
For the previous few years, WhatsApp Enterprise has change into an vital asset for Meta — income is rising, as the corporate executives have talked about in quarterly earnings calls. The corporate’s ethos is to offer retailers WhatsApp Enterprise app without cost with some options similar to a touchdown web page, a enterprise profile with particulars, and the power to create a catalog. The corporate then prices for varied sorts of messages — together with advertising, utility, service, and authentication — when retailers use the answer powered by its API.
Exterior of the API prices for various sorts of conversations, Meta solely charged for the elective Meta Verified subscription. The brand new broadcast messaging function might be one of many first paid options for retailers who don’t use APIs. It would additionally change into one other income supply for Meta.

Alongside these modifications to how broadcast messages work, the corporate can be tweaking the brand of its WhatsApp Enterprise app.