Contacts and opt-outs

Contacts are organised into address books. One book is the default and fills itself from inbound WhatsApp messages; the others you build by hand, by import, or by API. Campaigns target a whole book, so the books are also your audiences.

Auto-capture from inbound messages

Anyone who messages your number is saved to the default book, named Saved from WhatsApp when it is created, with whatever WhatsApp reports about them. Nobody types these in.

Turning capture off

The default book carries a Save people who message me checkbox. Unticking it stops new contacts being created; the header then reads “auto-save off”. Capture also stops silently when your plan's contact ceiling is reached, existing contacts still get their counters updated, because that costs no new rows.

Business or person

WhatsApp does not disclose whether an account is a business, so the platform does not guess. A new contact is Not known, and the drawer shows the evidence behind whatever it says. The only thing that sets Business without a human deciding is a shared contact card naming a company.

Shared contact cards

When a customer forwards a contact card into the chat, that card is saved as its own contact with source Shared card, not merged into the sender.

A card is the richest source available: company, job title, department, email, website, postal address and birthday, none of which a normal message exposes. A card whose phone number cannot be read is skipped. The phone is the identity key, and a contact without one cannot be messaged or de-duplicated.

Adding contacts yourself

1. Quick add

   The row above the table takes a number with its country code, a first and last name and an optional company. Entering a company is you telling the platform this is a business, and it is recorded as such.

2. Import a CSV

   Columns are phone, first name, last name, email, company, one per line. A header row is skipped automatically, detected by its first cell containing no digits. Quoted fields and both line-ending conventions are handled, so an Excel export works as-is.

   919876543210,Priya,Sharma,[email protected],Homeomead
   447700900000,Jane,Smith

   Numbers need the country code and no plus. Rows with fewer than 8 digits are dropped, and the panel says how many rows look usable before you commit. The result reports added, updated and skipped counts.

3. Export

   Downloads the selected book as CSV.

Custom fields

Admin-defined attributes, product interest, plan tier, whatever you need, appear in the contact drawer and become {{key}} options in the campaign variable mapper, so a broadcast can be personalised from them. Types are text, number, date, URL, select and boolean.

Opt-outs and STOP

WooCommerce

The plugin keeps its own register and checks it before every send it makes.

Opt-out keywords

STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, OPTOUT, OPT OUT, CANCEL, STOP PROMO

Opt-in keywords

START, SUBSCRIBE, RESUME, UNSTOP

How they are matched

The whole reply must equal the keyword, after trimming and upper-casing. “Please stop sending me these” does not match. A quick-reply button tap matches on its title, so a STOP button works the same way.

Scope

All categories. An explicit opt-out wins in every consent mode, for every category, including authentication. It is the one rule with no override.

Expiry

None. An opt-out is cleared only by an opt-in keyword, by the customer re-ticking the checkout box, or by an admin removing it.

Acknowledgement

None is sent. Replying STOP records the opt-out and writes one log row; replying START clears it silently.

Where to see it

WhatsApp → Logs in wp-admin lists the opt-out register beneath the delivery log, with a remove button per number.

When an opted-out number is targeted, the send is logged with status skipped and the reason Recipient has opted out of WhatsApp messages. Nothing is queued, nothing is sent, and no credit is spent.

Consent modes

The plugin's Consent mode setting decides what counts as permission in the first place. The default is implied.

Separately, Marketing messages need an explicit opt-in is on by default. With it on, a marketing event to a customer who has not actively opted in is skipped with Marketing messages need an explicit opt-in and this customer has not given one.

Customers opt in at the classic checkout, at the block checkout, or from My Account → Account details. Unticking it on the account page adds the number to the opt-out register; ticking the checkout box clears a previous opt-out on that number.

Shopify

The Shopify app keeps the same keyword lists and applies its opt-out check to every event, including utility ones. There is deliberately no override. A subscribe attempt from an opted-out number is refused with This number has asked not to receive messages from this store. Reply START on WhatsApp to opt back in.

The Shopify app reads no Shopify consent field, not accepts_marketing, not sms_marketing_consent. Its only suppression list is the one built from inbound STOP replies.

When a contact is not created

• Auto-save is switched off on the default book.
• The plan's contact ceiling is reached. Existing contacts keep updating; new ones stop being created.
• The message carries no readable phone number, for a shared card, that means the card is skipped entirely.
• An import row has fewer than 8 digits in the phone column. It is dropped before the import runs.

Cost

Storing contacts costs no credits. What contacts cost you is the messages you send to them, see Credits and billing and Campaigns and broadcasts. The number of contacts is a plan limit, though, and hitting it stops auto-capture rather than billing you more.