> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.thinnest.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Send a message

> One approved template, to a handful of numbers, without building a campaign.

**Workspace → WhatsApp → Send.**

Some messages are not a campaign. Telling four people their slot moved, or
sending yourself a test before a launch, does not need an audience, a schedule
and a spend — it needs one template and a phone number.

## Sending one

1. **Pick a template.** Only [templates](/whatsapp/templates) Meta has approved
   appear. An unapproved one cannot be sent, so listing it would only waste your
   time.
2. **Add the numbers.** Type one and press Enter to turn it into a tag. Up to
   **ten** at a time. Country code, spaces and dashes are all fine — the number
   is read the same way an imported contact is.
3. **Fill the values.** Each `{{1}}`, `{{2}}` in the template gets a box,
   pre-filled with the sample you wrote. Edit or leave them.
4. **Add the picture, if the template has one.** A template with an image, video
   or document header needs that file on **every** send — WhatsApp does not
   reuse the one it was approved with. The box is pre-filled with the template's
   own, and WhatsApp fetches it itself, so it has to be a public address.
5. **Fill the link, if a button has one.** A button whose link ends in a
   placeholder — an order number, a booking reference — gets its own box.
6. **Check the preview**, which shows the message as the customer will read it.
7. **Send.**

Each number is sent to one at a time, and each gets its own result — so if one
is refused and three go, you are told exactly that rather than "failed".

<Note>
  The same number typed twice in different formats — `+91 98765 43210` and
  `919876543210` — is one person, and gets one message.
</Note>

## The handler

Before sending you can choose **which agent manages the chat**.

Left alone, the chat is handled by the agent that owns the number. Choose a
different one and that agent answers when the customer replies — not just for
this message, but for the conversation that follows.

This is how a chat reaches an agent that has no number of its own: a specialist
that handles bookings, say, while the number itself belongs to your main agent.

## Who you have messaged

The panel beside the composer lists **every WhatsApp number you have a
conversation with**, newest first. Open one to read the thread without leaving
the page, or jump straight to it in the [inbox](/workspace/inbox) to reply, take
over or see the contact's details.

A message you send appears there immediately, and replies land in your inbox
like any other conversation.

## What it will refuse

* **A customer who has opted out**, when the template is marketing. Utility and
  authentication still reach them, and must — see [Opting
  out](/channels/whatsapp#opting-out).
* **A template Meta has not approved.**
* **A media template with no picture**, saying so by name. WhatsApp refuses
  those outright, so it is better caught here than reported as a failed send.
* **Carousels.** A template with swipeable cards is a
  [broadcast](/whatsapp/broadcasts) job — the cards are per-recipient, which is
  the thing this page deliberately does not do.
* **Anything at all**, if no number is connected. The page says so at the top and
  links to [Connect WABA](/channels/whatsapp#connecting), which is where you fix
  it.

## When to use a campaign instead

|                        | Send                       | [Broadcasts](/whatsapp/broadcasts) |
| ---------------------- | -------------------------- | ---------------------------------- |
| Who                    | Up to ten numbers you type | An audience you define             |
| When                   | Now                        | Now or scheduled                   |
| Cost known first       | No                         | Yes, priced before it runs         |
| Retries a failure      | No                         | Yes, per person                    |
| Record of who got what | The conversation           | A full report                      |

Ten is a deliberate ceiling. Past that you want the things a campaign gives you,
and the most expensive mistake in messaging is sending to more people than you
meant to.