Sending Flows via Message Templates

WhatsApp Flows are always triggered by a button inside an approved message template. This article explains how to create that template, get it approved, and send it via Baat.

Step 1 — Create your Flow in Meta Business Manager

Go to Meta Business Manager → WhatsApp → Flows
Click Create Flow, give it a name and category
Build your screens using the visual Flow Builder (or paste your Flow JSON in the code editor)
Click Publish — the Flow gets a permanent flow_id

Note the flow_id — you’ll need it when creating the template.

Step 2 — Create a template with a Flow button

Go to Meta Business Manager → WhatsApp → Message Templates
Click Create Template
Choose a category (e.g. Utility for service flows, Marketing for lead gen)
Add your message body and, under Buttons, select Flow
Fill in the button fields:

Field	Description
`flow_id`	The ID of the published Flow from step 1
`flow_cta`	Button label shown to the customer (e.g. “Book Now”)
`flow_action`	`navigate` (opens a specific screen) or `data_exchange`
`navigate_screen`	The `id` of the screen to open first (required if `flow_action` is `navigate`)

Submit for review — templates in the Utility category are typically approved within minutes

Step 3 — Send the template via Baat

Once the template is approved, it appears automatically in Baat under Settings → Channels → Templates. You can now send it from:

Inbox — Click Send Template, select the Flow template, and send
Broadcast — Create a new broadcast and select the Flow template
Journey Builder — Add a Send Template step and choose the Flow template

The API payload (for reference)

Baat handles this automatically, but for reference, here is what the Cloud API call looks like when sending a Flow template:

POST https://graph.facebook.com/v19.0/{phone-number-id}/messages

{
  "messaging_product": "whatsapp",
  "recipient_type": "individual",
  "to": "919876543210",
  "type": "template",
  "template": {
    "name": "book_appointment_v1",
    "language": { "code": "en" },
    "components": [
      {
        "type": "body",
        "parameters": [
          { "type": "text", "text": "Priya" }
        ]
      },
      {
        "type": "button",
        "sub_type": "flow",
        "index": "0",
        "parameters": [
          {
            "type": "action",
            "action": {
              "flow_token": "FLOW_TOKEN_abc123",
              "flow_action_data": {}
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

flow_token is a unique string you generate per send — it ties the Flow submission back to the specific conversation. Baat generates this automatically when sending via the dashboard. If you use the API directly, generate a UUID per send.

What happens after the customer submits

The Flow overlay closes and the customer returns to the chat
WhatsApp delivers a webhook notification to Baat containing the submitted form data as a JSON payload
Baat stores the response data in the conversation and makes it available to Journey Builder for the next step
If you have a Journey step after the Flow, it triggers automatically using the submitted data

Webhook payload shape

{
  "object": "whatsapp_business_account",
  "entry": [{
    "changes": [{
      "value": {
        "messages": [{
          "type": "interactive",
          "interactive": {
            "type": "nfm_reply",
            "nfm_reply": {
              "response_json": "{"full_name":"Priya Sharma","service_type":"spa","appointment_date":"2024-06-15"}",
              "body": "Sent",
              "name": "flow"
            }
          }
        }]
      }
    }]
  }]
}

The response_json string contains all submitted field values keyed by the name attribute you defined in your Flow JSON.