The 24-hour rule. A customer's message opens a window of 24 hours in which you may write anything. Outside it — the customer never wrote, or wrote more than a day ago — Meta delivers only a template: a message whose text Meta approved in advance. The AI's replies live inside the window; reminders, campaigns and the «write to the customer» action of a rule outside it go as templates. If the customer answers your template, a new 24-hour window opens.

Three categories — Meta assigns the final one at review, and it decides the price (what it costs):

• Utility — about something the customer already has or asked for: «Your appointment is tomorrow at 14:00», «Your order is ready», «Your results are available». No offers, no «by the way, we moved» — any promotion turns the template into marketing.
• Marketing — anything that promotes: a discount, a new service, «we miss you», a request for a review, a «Call us» button. Costs more, and people can mute marketing from a business without blocking it.
• Authentication — one-time codes only, with Meta's fixed wording.

Where templates are made. In SIPmind: WhatsApp campaigns → Create a new template — pick what the message is for and a wording that already passes review is filled in, with the right category; or in WhatsApp Manager → Message templates. Review takes from minutes to 72 hours; the verdict for a template created in SIPmind arrives in your operator Telegram group. Every screen that sends a template reads the list from your Meta account and shows only approved ones.

Why a template is refused — Meta's usual reasons: spelling mistakes; the language chosen does not match the text; a shortened link (bit.ly) or a link to a domain that is not yours; the text does not fit the category; a vague or ambiguous message («important information about your account»); anything that reads as a threat or pressure; a request for sensitive data (full card number, passport); goods Meta's commerce policy forbids. SIPmind checks the mechanical rules before sending the template to Meta: the name is lowercase letters, digits and underscores; variables are numbered in order without gaps; the message does not begin or end with a variable; every variable has an example.

Writing one that passes. Say what the message is about in the first sentence, as if the reader had never heard of you; one purpose per template; a marketing template gets an unsubscribe button; keep variables short — a line break inside a variable is dropped at send time; and expect Meta to re-categorise: a utility template that reads as promotion is moved to marketing after approval, and the campaign page shows the category it has now.