WhatsApp bans general-purpose chatbots on Business API, mandates narrow use cases

WhatsApp updated its Business API policy to bar general-purpose chatbots from operating on the platform, targeting assistants that answer broadly across topics. The change affects products from companies such as OpenAI and Perplexity, and independent WhatsApp bots that route to large models. Meta says approved use cases must be task-specific, like order status or customer support, with clear brand control and safety checks. Developers now need to redesign flows, add intent boundaries, and provide fallback escalation to human agents, or risk enforcement that includes access revocation and message sending limits.