Do customers need to opt in before I message them on WhatsApp?
Yes. Meta requires that people have opted in before a business sends them template messages, and separately your local privacy law may require its own consent. Opt-in can be collected anywhere — a form, a checkout, a website widget, or the customer messaging you first — but you must be able to show it was given.
What counts as opt-in
A clear action by the person indicating they want messages from you on WhatsApp, where it was obvious that is what they were agreeing to.
A customer messaging you first is the simplest form of it.
A pre-ticked box, a buried line in terms, or a list bought from someone else are not opt-in.
Two separate obligations
Meta's rules govern whether your number keeps working. Breaching them shows up as blocks, a falling quality rating, and eventually restrictions.
Privacy law — GDPR in the EU and UK, and equivalents elsewhere — governs whether you may hold and use the number at all, with its own penalties. Satisfying one does not satisfy the other.
Honouring opt-out
Someone who asks to stop must actually stop receiving messages, promptly and across every campaign, not just the one they replied to.
This is worth building properly rather than handling by hand: an opt-out that is missed once tends to produce a report, which is the signal that damages your rating most.
PingPlug honours an opt-out for the whole person rather than the single record it was clicked from, so someone listed twice is suppressed once and stays suppressed.
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