Got blocked on WhatsApp — what to do?

When your number gets blocked on WhatsApp — the usual question is, of course, how to remove it. We will talk about this in our article below.

But first, we offer a slightly different perspective on this question — how to PROTECT YOURSELF from being blocked on WhatsApp, or at the very least — how to MITIGATE THE CONSEQUENCES.

Blocking a number on WhatsApp — what can cause it?

Let’s first figure out why your number on WhatsApp can be blocked.

There are only 2 main reasons for blocking:

• You are doing something that your message recipients complain about — usually — sending spam (or some other unwanted information).
• You have connected your number to a «grey bot» for sending out information.

The most important thing is to understand about user complaints. No one at WhatsApp will investigate whether it was really spam (sending advertising without the recipient’s permission), or if your recipient actually checked a box on some paper form at your clinic — «I agree to receive information from the clinic».

If a person receives a message and clicks «report» — and if about 5% of your recipients do this, you can be blocked.

There are quite a few cases where people managed to get blocked without doing any mailings at all, just by chatting with someone. The «triggers» that can lead to this are not fully understood.

The second scenario is when WhatsApp’s internal systems «see» that some person is sending an excessively large number of messages, and they are very much the same.

If you use a «grey bot» to do your mailings — you need to make sure that you have a sufficiently large interval between messages (a few minutes — should be enough for a regular person to type this text manually).

It is also necessary to insert so-called «randomization», that is, special blocks where words or phrases are replaced in each subsequent message with synonyms or similar expressions.

Attention: WE DO NOT use «grey bots», WE DO NOT endorse the practice of grey mailings (it obviously violates WhatsApp’s rules) — and we urge you NOT to use them.

How to protect yourself from blocking or prevent negative consequences

The path to try to overcome blocking will be described below, but for now — let’s talk about reducing the consequences.

Imagine, you have a webinar today, you need to send reminders, and then your number gets BLOCKED. What to do? The webinar is ruined, or at the very least — the attendance will take a serious hit!

Therefore, the most reasonable way to reduce this risk is DUPLICATION.

If you are a regular user — get yourself one or two or as many extra SIM cards as you can, from which you can send information.

If you are a WhatsApp Business API user — create another «business« in Facebook, and add 2-3 numbers to both businesses. Connecting them in Chotam costs NOTHING on the free plan, but in case of problems you will have a «plan B».

And as a maximum measure — create another FB account (under a different name), create a business in it, and connect numbers there. This may seem excessive, BUT there have been cases where, due to spam, ALL WhatsApp numbers connected to FB were blocked at once — not just the one that sent spam.

But here everything depends on the ratio of your effort/energy spent on this (it costs almost no money) and how much you would lose if your WhatsApp number is blocked.

All this will help protect you from being left WITHOUT a communication channel with your information recipients at a critical moment.

Blocking a number on WhatsApp — stages

When a number is blocked, there are 4 stages (for a regular user — only 2, and 2 — the first and last only for those who use WhatsApp Business API).

• Template blocking — this template cannot be sent temporarily. Only for WhatsApp Business API — NOT for regular users.
• Number blocking with the possibility of «appeal» — that is, you cannot send anything, you can only click the «request review» button — there you can write something about not sending spam, these are our clients, etc. (more on this below).
• Permanent number blocking — occurs after your «appeal» is reviewed, if the moderators do not agree with your arguments. You can no longer use WhatsApp with this number, and there is nowhere else to appeal.
• Blocking the entire business account in Facebook — all connected numbers are blocked and you cannot connect new ones. Only for WhatsApp Business API.

How to «appeal» or «request review»

If your number is blocked, but not permanently — there is a «request review» button (the name of the button may change as WhatsApp’s interface and localization change, but the essence is the same).

For regular WhatsApp users, this button will be in the app on your phone.

For WhatsApp Business API users — in the business dashboard in Facebook — in WhatsApp Manager.

When you click it, you are prompted to enter some text.

You need to write something there that describes your situation and says that this is not spam.

Example: «please take a look, we are a clinic, we send information to those who have visited us. This is not spam — all these people signed a consent form for information, and there were very few of them. This is not a mass mailing, and not spam.»

You can try writing the same thing in English. There is an unverified rumor that this improves your chances of being unblocked.

In general, with a fairly high probability, after the first preliminary block you will be unblocked. Apparently, something like «give a second chance» works.

Usually after the second or third block — it will not be possible to recover.