Consent and messaging rules
Messaging people who want to hear from you is good business, and it's also required: by Meta's WhatsApp Business policies and by India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act).
Note
This page is practical guidance, not legal advice. For your specific situation, speak to a lawyer.
#The rules in short
- Get consent before you message first. A customer should agree to receive WhatsApp messages from your business before you send them templates.
- Say who you are and what you'll send. For example: "Get order updates and offers from Sharma Interiors on WhatsApp."
- Make it easy to stop. Honour every opt-out quickly.
- Send what they signed up for. Order updates are not permission for daily offers.
- Keep a record of when and how each person agreed.
#Good ways to collect consent
- A tick box on your website or order form, with clear wording, that isn't ticked in advance
- A "Message us on WhatsApp" button or QR code. When the customer messages first, they're starting the conversation.
- A WhatsApp Form with a consent checkbox
- Asking in person at the counter, and noting it on the contact
A phone number in your phone book, on a visiting card or on a purchased list is not consent.
#Handling opt-outs
- Add a footer like "Reply STOP to opt out" to marketing templates.
- When someone asks to stop, set their status to Blocked, or add a tag like
opted-outand exclude it from campaigns. - Never message people who opted out from another number or account.
#Under the DPDP Act
The DPDP Rules were notified on 13 November 2025, and their main obligations apply from 13 May 2027. For businesses using WhatsApp, this means:
- Consent must be free, specific, informed and unambiguous, given for a stated purpose.
- People can withdraw consent as easily as they gave it.
- People can ask to see, correct or delete their data. In Nexora you can edit or delete a contact. See Data and privacy.
- Keep data only as long as you need it for the purpose.
#Meta's rules
Meta can limit or block numbers that send unwanted messages. Follow the WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy and see Protect your number's quality.