Whatsapp blocking

It is often thought that blocking WhatsApp is impossible on “white” bots, and only happens on “grey” ones, but this is not true. Let’s go over all the details.

How white and grey bots differ

White bot uses the official WhatsApp mailing mechanism — the so-called WhatsApp Business API or WABA for short. This is a legal way, provided by WhatsApp itself, to send mailings and connect a bot.

Grey bot connects to another computer or phone (as if you were connecting another device yourself) and uses automation tools to send messages from it.

It is important to understand that grey bots operate illegally and violate WhatsApp rules. We absolutely DO NOT support the use of grey bots, and do not use them in our work. This material is provided for informational purposes only.

Key differences:

White bot connects via Facebook business manager — the procedure is quite complicated (if you’ve never done it before), while the grey bot connects via QR code as another device (this is simple).

White bots can have buttons, but grey bots cannot — so they usually use “reply 1 for this, and reply 2 for that”.

With a white bot, you can only send pre-approved templates first (this takes up to 24 hours and may be rejected). With a grey bot, you can send anything you want (anything WhatsApp allows).

When using a white bot, you have to pay for outgoing messages (8-9 rubles per message). For many users, this is expensive. With a grey bot, you only pay for the connected service — usually about 1000-2000 rubles per month.

With a white bot, you can have a limit of up to 10,000 messages per day (for large companies). With a grey bot, you are unlikely to send more than 100-150 messages per day — otherwise you will be blocked.

Overall, blocking is much more likely with a grey bot, but a white bot is not guaranteed against it either.

If you need a white bot for WhatsApp — use the Chotam service — a simple visual builder, extensive help section, and fast support that you don’t have to wait hours for.

WhatsApp blocking — reasons

There are two reasons for blocking:

• Violation of WhatsApp rules — and here not only the bot can be blocked, but also an ordinary person.
• Frequent user clicks on “this is spam”.
• WhatsApp suspects you have connected a grey bot.

There is often an opinion that a white bot is a guarantee against blocking. NO, this is not true! Even a white bot or even a regular user can be blocked if you simply send spam to people.

Nevertheless, a white bot is indeed blocked much less often.

A grey bot is most often blocked because too many messages are sent too quickly — for the system, this is a clear sign that it’s a bot.

Another reason for blocking a grey bot is identical messages in large quantities. For this, grey bots use a message randomization mechanism — that is, replacing individual words or phrases with synonyms or similar ones.

Both of these reasons DO NOT APPLY to the white bot, because it is made for this purpose and uses it legally!

A white bot can only be blocked if, during a mailing, too high a percentage of people (somewhere over 5%) clicked “this is spam”.

WhatsApp blocking — consequences

With a grey bot — you simply can no longer use WhatsApp — so a separate number is always used for the bot. These are often lost. At the same time, you still have the option to file an appeal — explain the situation, and in some cases, your WhatsApp is restored.

With a white bot — blocking is two-stage. First, you will be prohibited from sending a specific template — the one people complain about. And if the complaint rate does not decrease, you will also be prohibited from sending mailings. And you also have a mechanism to file an appeal — explain something, etc. — as a rule, this works, unless you were sending blatant spam.

WhatsApp blocking — what to do?

If you are blocked — both with a white and grey bot, you still have the opportunity to appeal. Just write some explanation in the window, what you were doing, why it’s not spam, and that you should be unblocked.

With a grey bot — this is done directly in the app on your phone.

With a white bot — this is done in a special window inside the FB business manager.