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Trigger: Template paused

Fire a workflow automatically when Meta pauses a WhatsApp template due to low quality, so your team can react before losing sends.

Jul 11, 2026

The Template paused trigger (whatsapp.template_paused) starts a workflow whenever Meta temporarily pauses one of your WhatsApp message templates, typically because of sustained low quality in recipient responses. While a template is paused you can't use it to send messages until Meta lifts the pause or the review period ends.

When to use it

  • To instantly alert your Marketing or Support team that a template stopped being usable.
  • To automatically pause campaigns or downstream workflows that rely on that template, so they don't keep failing.
  • To log the event into a spreadsheet or external system and keep a history of template quality issues.

Available variables

When the workflow fires, these variables become available for use in later steps:

Variable Description
$template.id Template ID in Meta
$template.name Template name (e.g. promo_summer)
$template.language Template language (e.g. en)
$template.category Category (MARKETING, UTILITY, AUTHENTICATION)
$template.paused_reason Pause reason reported by Meta

You can also filter the trigger by a specific channel (if you have several WhatsApp numbers) and by template category.

How to set it up

  1. Go to Workflows in the main menu and click New workflow.
  2. On the trigger step, select Template paused under the system category.
  3. (Optional) Set a filter by channel or template category if you only want to react to certain templates.
  4. Add the actions you need: for example, send an internal notification, create a task on a board, or send a message to a connected Slack/Telegram integration.
  5. Save and turn the workflow on with the status toggle.

Example

A workflow named "Template paused alert" uses this trigger with a Notify user or team action, targeting the Marketing team, with the message: "Template {{$template.name}} was paused by Meta. Reason: {{$template.paused_reason}}. Review quality before re-enabling it."

Tips

  • Also check the WhatsApp quality changed trigger, which usually gives an early warning before a pause when the quality rating drops to yellow or red.
  • You can check the real status of your templates from Templates inside the settings of the corresponding WhatsApp channel.

Troubleshooting

If the workflow doesn't fire, confirm the workflow is active and that the channel filter (if configured) matches the channel where the pause happened. This event depends on Meta delivering the corresponding webhook; there can be a delay of a few minutes between the actual pause and the notification.

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