Understanding WhatsApp consent collection

Learn how you can collect consent to send WhatsApp messages, including what methods are available and best practices for doing so.

Types of WhatsApp messages and consent

WhatsApp classifies their messages into 4 categories.

In most cases, you need explicit consent to send a WhatsApp message, meaning that someone must directly tell you that they wanted to receive certain messages from your brand.

Currently, Klaviyo supports importing both marketing and transactional consent for WhatsApp, and you can collect marketing consent via forms. However, it’s on our roadmap to add Support consent as well as the ability to collect WhatsApp transactional consent in forms.

Best practices when collecting WhatsApp consent

A few practices are to: 

• Never assume that you have someone’s consent already.
  • If someone consents to another channel (e.g., signing up for SMS) or provides their phone number, this isn’t the same as agreeing to receive WhatsApp messages.
• Include clear disclosure language wherever you collect consent for WhatsApp.
  • This includes on forms, your website, emails, etc.
• Verify the phone number before sending (i.e., use double opt-in to confirm the number is real and belongs to the person who signed up).

Ways to collect WhatsApp consent

There are several ways you can grow your WhatsApp subscriber list:

• Klaviyo form
• Keyword
• Klaviyo API
• WhatsApp subscribe link or QR code

Build a sign-up form

By creating a sign-up form, you can ask anyone on your website to consent to WhatsApp.

If you want to add WhatsApp to a form:

1. Navigate to the Sign-up forms tab.

2. Find the form you want to update.

3. Click the 3 vertical dots on the right-hand side.

4. Select Edit from the dropdown.
   

Option 1: Add a new step 

• Click +Step.

• Choose Mobile opt-in, then click Next.

• Choose WhatsApp.

• Pick the list you want to add subscribers to, then click Add step.

• To also collect consent for text messages, click the Phone Number block, open the Channel dropdown, and select WhatsApp.

• Finally, add a Consent dropdown field with options: Promotional, Transactional, or Both

Option 2: Add a new block (Phone number block)

• Select Add block.

• Drag in a Phone Number block.

Option 3: Add a new block (Button block – tap-to-text form)

Using a Button block instead of a Phone Number block makes subscribing as easy as possible. With a single click, subscribers are taken directly into WhatsApp with a pre-filled opt-in message, so all they need to do is hit Send to confirm.

• Select Add block.

• Drag in a Button block.

• Set the action to Subscribe to WhatsApp.

• Review the pre-filled message and select the subscribe keyword your subscribers will send to confirm consent.

Finally, select Publish to set your changes live!

Use a keyword

You can add keywords to make it easier for people to opt in. For example, you can post the keyword along with your WhatsApp number so that anyone who sends it will be signed up to receive your WhatsApp marketing messages.

You can also add a keyword to the Subscribe link that’s configured in your WhatsApp Business Account. When someone clicks the link and sends the prefilled message with the keyword, they’ll automatically be subscribed.

You can create or edit your keywords anytime in your WhatsApp settings.

Collect via API

You can use an API call to collect consent similar to email and SMS by including WhatsApp in your API call.

"whatsapp": {
  "marketing": {
    "consent": "SUBSCRIBED",
    "consented_at": "2025-01-01T00:00:00+00:00"
  }
  "transactional": { 
    "consent": "SUBSCRIBED", 
    "consented_at": "2025-01-01T00:00:00+00:00" 
  } 
}

• Full curl request example

  curl --location 
  '<https://a.klaviyo.com/api/profile-subscription-bulk-create-jobs>' \\ 
  --header 'Authorization: Klaviyo-API-Key <private-key>' \\ 
  --header 'accept: application/vnd.api+json' \\ 
  --header 'content-type: application/vnd.api+json' \\ 
  --header 'revision: 2024-10-15' \\ 
  --data '{ 
      "data": { 
          "type": "profile-subscription-bulk-create-job", 
          "attributes": { 
              "profiles": { 
                  "data": [ 
                      { 
                          "type": "profile", 
                          "attributes": { 
                              "phone_number": "+18573905002", 
                              "subscriptions": { 
                                  "whatsapp": { 
                                      "marketing": { 
                                          "consent": "SUBSCRIBED", 
                                          "consented_at": 
                                          "2025-01-01T00:00:00+00:00" 
                                      }, 
                                      "transactional": { 
                                          "consent": "SUBSCRIBED", 
                                          "consented_at": 
                                          "2025-01-01T00:00:00+00:00" 
                                      } 
                                  } 
                              } 
                          } 
                      } 
                  ] 
              }, 
              "historical_import": true 
          } 
      } 
  }'
  

To learn about about how to collect channel consent via API.

Create WhatsApp subscribe link or QR account

If you log in to your WhatsApp Business account, you can create a link or QR code to allow people to easily subscribe. You can add this link in an email, use the link as a button in a form, or print the QR code on business cards.

Next steps

• Import WhatsApp consent
• Verify your WhatsApp account