Bookings, order updates and the menu, on the app your guests already have open. The distinction that decides everything: a table confirmation is a utility message and reaches everybody; Tuesday's offer is marketing and reaches only the people who agreed to it.
The category decides everything else: the price, whether it reaches somebody who opted out, and the criteria it is reviewed against.
| Message | Category | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| Booking confirmed, table ready, running late | Utility | About something the guest did. Reaches them even if they opted out of marketing. |
| Order accepted, out for delivery, arrived | Utility | The delivery update is the single most-approved template category there is. |
| The menu, as a browsable catalog | Interactive | Free-form, so it only delivers inside the 24-hour window a guest's message opens. |
| Friday brunch, a new season menu | Marketing | Priced higher, and excluded for anybody who opted out. Zanii removes them before it shows you the count. |
A guest who booked three days ago and never messaged since is outside the 24-hour window, so a free-text "are you still coming?" will not deliver. It has to be an approved template, and the approval takes hours to days — which means writing it before the season, not during it. Zanii shows the window on the conversation and swaps the composer for a template picker when it closes.
Hi {{1}}, your table for {{2}} at {{3}} is confirmed. Reply here if anything changes — we hold it for 15 minutes.
Category: Utility
The double braces are variables WhatsApp fills per recipient. Meta rejects a template whose numbering has gaps, and Zanii catches that before you submit it.