The rules, in plain English
Meta's Business Platform has always drawn a hard line between user-initiated conversations (you replied to a customer, so a 24-hour window is open — you can send freely) and business-initiated messages (you're starting a conversation from cold — you need an approved template and, on the paid tier, a per-message fee).
The direction of travel through 2026 has been toward tighter enforcement of both sides. Categories that used to be tolerated as 'utility' now require an explicit template category. Marketing templates are more expensive. Cold outbound to a number that never opted in still gets numbers deactivated.
What this means for AI assistants
An AI that autonomously sends WhatsApp messages on your behalf is either operating inside an open 24-hour window (fine — but very narrow), sending pre-approved templates (workable, but every phrasing needs prior approval), or breaking the rules (which ends the same way it always does — with a suspended number).
How Nova uses WhatsApp
Nova doesn't auto-send on WhatsApp. It uses WhatsApp two ways:
- As an approval surface — when Nova has drafted a reply to a customer inside your open 24-hour window, it can send you the draft on WhatsApp so you can approve it with a tap, from the same conversation you're in.
- As a signal source — with your explicit connection, Nova can read messages you route to it so it can notice a booking, a quote request, or a supplier reply and turn it into a card.
Both are opt-in and both go through the same approval loop as every other Nova action. Nothing ever sends without your tap — including on WhatsApp.
The trade-off, honestly
You will not get 'set it and forget it' fully-automated WhatsApp replies from Nova. That is a deliberate choice. The vendors that offer it in this category are, at best, operating inside a compliance grey zone that shrinks every quarter. We would rather ship a smaller feature that keeps your number alive in 2027.