Guide · Opt-in · For the owner planning a subscribe campaign
A WhatsApp link that signs customers up: Meta's In-App Signup, what the customer sees, what the owner must supply, and where it is not available
The usual WhatsApp link opens a chat and leaves the rest to the customer: they have to type something, and the business has to treat that first message as permission to keep writing. Meta now documents a second kind of link. It opens a short consent screen inside WhatsApp, the customer taps to subscribe, a confirmation arrives in their chat, and the business is told. Here is what Meta's page says the link does, what the owner has to supply, where it is not available, and how it differs from a QR code and from an ordinary opt-in.
Published 1 October 2026
What the customer sees
- The consent screen
- Opening the link shows a screen inside WhatsApp with the business's own description of what the customer is signing up for, in up to 300 characters, with WhatsApp's text formatting allowed. The customer confirms there, before any message is exchanged.
- The confirmation
- Immediately after confirming, the customer receives a message from the business, again up to 300 characters, which can carry a promotional code the business set on the link, so a welcome discount arrives in the same moment as the subscription.
- What the business gets
- A notice to the connected system that this person subscribed, and the person added to what Meta calls a messaging customer base: a named list of subscribers. A default list is created with the first link; more can be created for different campaigns.
How it differs from the links you already have
What the owner has to supply, and the rules
- A privacy policy link, fixed for good. Meta requires one when the link is created and says it cannot be changed afterwards. A business without a published privacy policy cannot create a signup link, and one that later moves its policy needs a new link.
- The two texts. The description on the consent screen and the confirmation message, each up to 300 characters. Both are the business's words and both can be edited later; only the privacy link is frozen.
- Meta's terms, accepted once. The first link a business creates requires accepting Meta's marketing messages terms; later links do not ask again.
- One code, any of your numbers. Meta says the signup is not tied to a single number: the same code can be paired with any business number under the same WhatsApp account, so a business with several numbers can run one campaign across them.
- Switched off, never deleted. A link can be disabled, after which a customer who opens it sees an error, and re-enabled at any time. Meta provides no way to delete one, so a printed code is safe to leave in the world; it can simply be turned off.
The feature sits behind the management permission on the Messaging account, which is one of the five described in the provider access guide, so in practice the provider creates and manages the links.
Where it is not available
Meta lists the places where the feature is withheld for policy or legal reasons: the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, Nigeria, South Africa and Turkey. The restriction cuts both ways. A business whose number is in one of those places cannot use it, and a business elsewhere cannot use it to sign up customers who are there. For a business in the Gulf or Pakistan with customers in the same region it is available; for one with a large European customer base those customers will need the ordinary opt-in route.
Questions
Is this the same as the WhatsApp QR code we already print?
No. The QR code opens a chat with a pre-filled message. The signup link opens a consent screen with your description, records the customer's yes, sends a confirmation and adds them to a subscriber list. It can still be turned into a QR code for printing.
Can we change the privacy policy link later?
Meta says no; that field is fixed when the link is created. Everything else, the description, the confirmation, the promo code and the website, can be updated. Publish the policy at an address you intend to keep before creating the first link.
Someone who subscribed through the link is now asking to stop. What happens?
Meta's page describes the signup and the subscriber list, not the leaving. Stopping messages remains the business's duty under its opt-in and marketing rules: honour the request in your system at once and record it, as the opt-in guide explains.
Does a subscription through the link let us send marketing without templates?
No. It records consent; it does not change what may be sent. Marketing messages still go through approved templates and are still subject to Meta's limits and quality rules.
Sources
- Meta's developer documentation: In-App Signup, read 1 October 2026.
More plain-language notes like this one are on the guides page.
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