Glossary
WhatsApp Business and omnichannel terms, explained
Short, plain definitions of the terms you will meet when choosing a customer communications platform.
Meta Verified Technology Provider
Official WhatsApp Business Platform- WhatsApp Business API (Cloud API)
- Meta's official interface for companies to send and receive WhatsApp messages at scale from software, with multiple agents and automation.
- Technology Provider
- A company verified by Meta to onboard businesses onto the WhatsApp Business Platform through its own software. Kanalia is a Meta verified Technology Provider.
- BSP (Business Solution Provider)
- A Meta partner that resells WhatsApp access and may bill messages on behalf of the business.
- Message template
- A pre-approved message format required to start a conversation with a customer outside the 24-hour window, categorised as marketing, utility or authentication.
- 24-hour customer service window
- The period after a customer's last message during which a business can reply freely without a template.
- Omnichannel
- Handling every channel — WhatsApp, voice, email and others — in one inbox with one customer history.
- Human handover
- The moment a bot passes a conversation to a person, with the full context attached.
- RAG (retrieval-augmented generation)
- A technique where an AI bot searches your own documents before answering, so replies are grounded in your information. In Kanalia each bot has its own isolated knowledge base.
- Opt-in
- A customer's recorded consent to receive messages on a channel, required before sending marketing campaigns.