Smart template groups

Smart template groups are created and managed in the admin console — this page covers the one API surface they expose to integrations: sending a message by group name instead of a specific template name. There are no create / list / update endpoints in the public API; use the System guide to build and maintain groups.

Send with a group

Scope: messages:send

Same endpoint as a normal template send — the only difference is that template.group_name replaces template.name. Everything else (path :phoneNumberId, auth, response shape, error body) is identical, so a Meta Cloud API client keeps working after the field swap.

Template object

Example: simple group send

A group whose templates take no variables. Just name the group — no language, no components.

{
  "messaging_product": "whatsapp",
  "to": "15551234567",
  "type": "template",
  "template": {
    "group_name": "promo group"
  }
}

curl -X POST https://api.sigfollow.com/v1/PHONE_NUMBER_ID/messages \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sflo_live_xxx" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d @- <<'JSON'
{
  "messaging_product": "whatsapp",
  "to": "15551234567",
  "type": "template",
  "template": {
    "group_name": "promo group"
  }
}
JSON

Example: group send with body variables

Pass components exactly as you would for a single template. Because every member of a group shares the same parameter signature, the values line up no matter which member SigFollow selects.

{
  "messaging_product": "whatsapp",
  "to": "15551234567",
  "type": "template",
  "template": {
    "group_name": "promo group",
    "components": [
      {
        "type": "body",
        "parameters": [
          { "type": "text", "text": "Alice" },
          { "type": "text", "text": "ORD-90211" }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

curl -X POST https://api.sigfollow.com/v1/PHONE_NUMBER_ID/messages \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sflo_live_xxx" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d @- <<'JSON'
{
  "messaging_product": "whatsapp",
  "to": "15551234567",
  "type": "template",
  "template": {
    "group_name": "promo group",
    "components": [
      {
        "type": "body",
        "parameters": [
          { "type": "text", "text": "Alice" },
          { "type": "text", "text": "ORD-90211" }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}
JSON

Response

Identical to any other send — the standard Meta shape. The body does not reveal which member was picked; correlate delivery via the returned WAMID through status webhooks.

{
  "messaging_product": "whatsapp",
  "contacts": [{ "input": "15551234567", "wa_id": "15551234567" }],
  "messages": [
    { "id": "wamid.HBgLMTU1NTEyMzQ1NjcVAgARGBI...", "message_status": "accepted" }
  ]
}

How a member is picked

At send time SigFollow builds the candidate pool from members that are APPROVED, still attached to the group, and belong to a group whose status is ACTIVE. Candidates are then ordered and one is chosen:

• Quality first — ordered HIGH > UNKNOWN > MEDIUM > LOW. (UNKNOWN ranks above MEDIUM on purpose: an unknown rating is usually a freshly approved template Meta has not scored yet, and the business preference is to favor new templates over ones already known to be mediocre.)
• Then oldest-first — ties within the same quality tier are broken by earliest creation time.
• Then the group's scheduling strategy — EARLIEST (default) takes the top-ranked candidate; RANDOM_TOP_N takes the top N and picks one at random. The strategy and N are configured per group in the admin console, not per request.

Default header media

If the group's templates carry an image header and your request omits the header parameter, SigFollow injects the group's default media automatically (the picked member's archived image, falling back to the group's reference image). You only need to send a header components entry when you want to override it with a per-message image. This mirrors the single-template behavior described in Send recipe #1.

Errors

Group-specific failures surface as a Meta-style error body with code 131000 and type GraphMethodException. The message names the exact reason so you can react programmatically.

Example — group name not found:

{
  "error": {
    "message": "Template group \"promo group\" not found in this tenant",
    "type": "GraphMethodException",
    "code": 131000
  }
}

Standard send errors (401 invalid key, 403 missing scope, 429 rate limit, 131026 outside the 24-hour window) apply exactly as they do for any message send. See the error reference for the full body schema.

Related

• System guide · Smart template groups — create, configure, and let AI replenish a group.
• Messages · Template recipes — the single-template send shapes that groups extend.
• Templates — submit templates for Meta approval before adding them to a group.