Order messages: one WhatsApp template for each order status

About 20 minutes, plus Meta’s template review · Last checked 31 October 2026 · Plugin 2.10.0

At the end, every order status you choose sends its own WhatsApp message to the customer, filled from the order (name, number, total, tracking number…), and you get a WhatsApp alert for every new order.

What you need

• Any plan, from Starter up (see the plans)
• Your number connected to Meta’s WhatsApp Cloud API, with every check working in Connection Doctor
• One approved Utility template in Meta for each status you want to message. The message templates guide shows how to create them.
• The customer’s phone number on the order (the WooCommerce billing phone)
• At least one order in the store, so you can preview and test with real data

Steps

1. Create your templates

   The quickest way is WAPI Connect → Templates: the ready order-update pack has an order received, a shipped message with the tracking link, a delivered message and a cancelled message, in Arabic and English. You can also create a template in Utility in Meta’s WhatsApp Manager for each status, in the language your customers read, with blanks such as {{1}} where the customer’s name, the order number or the tracking number go. Meta reviews each template, usually within a few minutes and at most within 24 hours. Only approved templates show up in the order messages list.

   Once Meta approves a template, press “Use for” on it in the Templates screen and choose “Order message: <status>” to put it on that status. If you choose “Order message: Processing” while the order confirmation in Settings → WooCommerce is on (at Processing, at payment or when the order is placed), the screen warns you that the customer could get two messages.

2. Add “Out for delivery” and “Delivered” (optional)

   WooCommerce has no status for an order on its way. To add two, open WAPI Connect → Settings → WooCommerce, tick “Enable custom statuses” (“Add the “Out for delivery” and “Delivered” statuses to WooCommerce”) and press “Save Settings”. Your orders can then move to “Out for delivery” and “Order delivered”, and both show up on the Order messages screen.

3. Turn order updates on

   Open WAPI Connect → Order messages and tick “Send order updates on WhatsApp” at the top. This is the same switch as “Order Status Updates” in Settings → WooCommerce: while it is off, no status sends anything.

   

4. Choose a template for a status

   Every WooCommerce status has a card, including statuses added by other plugins. A template whose header is a location sends the place you enter for that status. Open one, for example “Processing”, and tick “Send this message when an order becomes “Processing””. In “Template”, pick your template from the list: utility templates come first under “Utility (order updates)”. Templates under “Marketing (not for order updates)” get a warning: order updates belong in a Utility template, and marketing messages usually cost more.

   A template you just approved is not in the list yet? Press “Refresh the template list” at the bottom of the screen.

5. Tell each blank what to show

   Under “Variables” there is one row for each blank of the template. Choose what fills it:

   • Customer first name, Customer full name, Order number, Order total, Products in the order, Order date, Order status
   • Payment method, Shipping method, Delivery area / address
   • Tracking number, Tracking link, Order page link (My account)
   • Store name, Website link, Your WhatsApp number, or Fixed text (you type it in “Write the text”)

   Under each row you see the value from your latest order (“e.g. …”), or “empty in the latest order”. Fill in “If empty, use… (optional)” for anything that can be missing, such as a tracking number on a new order. WhatsApp refuses an empty blank, so without it the plugin sends a dash.

   If the template has a picture, video or document at the top, paste its link in “Header file”. A link button with a blank at the end of its address gets a “Button link end” row (the order ID by default, or the tracking number for a courier’s tracking page). A copy-code button gets a “Coupon code” row.

6. Check the preview and send a test

   On the right, “Preview with order #…” shows the message filled in with your latest order. In “Send a test to”, your number from “Admin WhatsApp Number” is already there; change it if you like and press “Send test”. You see “Sent with order #…. Check WhatsApp on that phone.” and the message arrives on that phone.

7. Save, then repeat for the other statuses

   Press “Save”. The card now shows ✓ and the template name. Do the same for each status you want to message, for example Processing, Out for delivery and Completed. From now on, when an order moves to one of these statuses, the customer gets that message once.

Tracking numbers, filled in for you

When a blank is set to “Tracking number” or “Tracking link”, the plugin looks on the order in this order:

1. WooCommerce Shipment Tracking and Advanced Shipment Tracking: the latest tracking number, and its link when one is saved with it
2. AfterShip’s tracking-number field (_aftership_tracking_number)
3. Simple order fields: _tracking_number or tracking_number, and _tracking_link, tracking_link, _tracking_url or tracking_url

If your courier plugin saves the number somewhere else, a developer can copy it into one of these fields. Move the order to “Out for delivery” only after the tracking number is saved, so the message carries it.

Statuses without their own template

A status you do not set up here keeps the plugin’s general settings, and its card says what happens today:

• “General template: …”: the status is ticked in Settings → WooCommerce → “Send Status Message For”, so it sends the general “Order status update” template from Settings → Templates (customer name, order number, order status).
• “Out-for-delivery template: …”: “Out for delivery” uses its own template from Settings → Templates.
• “Nothing is sent”: no message for this status.
• “Off”: you chose a template here but unticked “Send this message when an order becomes …”. Nothing is sent for this status.

“Remove (use the general settings)” in an open card deletes your choice for that status and goes back to the general settings.

Cash-on-delivery orders: Confirm or Cancel

For orders paid on delivery, you can send a template with Confirm and Cancel reply buttons. The customer’s tap adds a note to the order and can move it to the status you choose.

1. Create or pick the template

   In WAPI Connect → Templates, create the cash-on-delivery confirmation from the ready pack (“Cash-on-delivery confirmation (Confirm / Cancel)”), or pick your own template that has these two reply buttons. Wait until Meta approves it.

2. Choose it on a status

   In WAPI Connect → Order messages, open “Pending payment”, “On hold” or “Processing” and choose the template.

3. Choose the statuses for Confirm and Cancel

   In the “Cash on delivery confirmation” box, choose the status an order moves to when the customer confirms (“When the customer confirms”) and when the customer cancels (“When the customer cancels”). Leave one empty to keep the order’s status and only add the note.

   

4. Save the App Secret

   In Settings → WhatsApp API, save your Meta app’s App Secret. Without it, a tap only adds a note marked “not verified” and never changes the status, because the plugin cannot tell a real WhatsApp message from a faked one. Order messages and Connection Doctor tell you when it is missing.

5. Test it

   After Meta approves the template, place a cash-on-delivery order from your own number and tap Confirm, then do it again and tap Cancel.

• The message goes only to unpaid cash-on-delivery orders that are pending payment, on hold or processing. Orders paid another way get the general status message instead.
• A cash-on-delivery template is not saved for any other status.
• Confirm and Cancel work by the position of the buttons. An edit that moves or rewords them is refused. If you change the buttons in WhatsApp Manager, choose the template again on the status.

The new-order alert to you

A WhatsApp message to your own phone for every new order. It is a template message too.

1. Create the alert template

   In the Templates screen or in WhatsApp Manager, create a Utility template with five blanks, in this order: {{1}} order number, {{2}} customer name, {{3}} customer phone, {{4}} total, {{5}} payment method.

2. Enter it and your number

   In Settings → Templates, write its exact name and language code next to “Admin New Order Notification”. In Settings → General, fill in “Admin WhatsApp Number” with the country code. Use your own WhatsApp number, not the store’s business number.

3. Turn it on

   In Settings → WooCommerce, tick “Admin New Order Notification” (“Notify the admin WhatsApp number on every new order”) and press “Save Settings”. It works with WooCommerce’s block checkout and with orders created in other ways. Each order sends one alert.

Want a message every time an order changes status? Tick “Admin Status Update Notification” in the same tab. It uses its own template, set in Settings → Templates, with five blanks: order number, customer name, customer phone, status, total.

Check that it worked

• Place a test order with your own phone number as the billing phone, then move it to a status you set up. The message reaches your phone once; moving the order back and forth does not send it again.
• Open WAPI Connect → Health & tools → Message log and type the order’s ID in “Order ID…” to see every message of that order.
• In Health & tools → Connection Doctor, the “New-order alert to you” check shows when the last alert went out, or why it failed.

Common problems