Meta owns WhatsApp, Messenger (Facebook) and Instagram. They have a consent mechanism in place to help prevent unsolicited spam from companies to members of the public and to adhere to various GDPR rules.
Digital Practice handles this process for you automatically.
Below is a description of how we do this, for your information.
To be able to start a WhatsApp (or Messenger) conversation, we need to request consent from the client to start chatting. We will send a consent message automatically, and wait until they reply with their permission.
Initial consent request
If the client agrees, any queued messages will be automatically sent. A window is open for 24hrs from the last time the client replies so you can message freely. Once outside of this window, we need to request permission again, but with a slightly simpler message.
Consent request update
Yes button on WhatsApp (or client can reply by chat)
Notes
The consent templates are currently fixed and cannot be edited. They had to be approved by Meta/WhatsApp and are the same for all clinics
If the client does not reply or declines, any queued messages will not be sent and you will not be able to chat with the client
Consent requests are not required for SMS, but remember that clients cannot message in or reply with photos, videos, files or audio messages on SMS so it is less useful
It is possible to manually re-send the consent message after 1 hour, but this should be done sparingly to avoid irritating clients
The Resend link option appears in a new conversation one hour after the initial request is sent.
Click the three dots 'more' menu on a conversation...
...to view details of the consent status and choose to re-send