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MESSAGING AND TEMPLATES
Free-form message
A free-form message is a WhatsApp message a business composes itself rather than sending an approved template. It can contain any text, media or interactive element, costs nothing, and may only be sent inside an open 24-hour customer service window. Outside the window Meta rejects it and a template must be used instead.
session messagecustomer service windowmessage template
Why it matters
Free-form is the normal way to talk to a customer, and it is free, so designs that get customers to message first (QR codes, click-to-chat links, ads) turn most of your traffic into free conversations. The constraint is the window: reply in time or pay for a template.
In VGraple CRM
Agents, flows and the AI reply free-form while the window is open; the system checks the window before every send and substitutes or offers a template when it has closed, so a send never fails silently with error 131047.