Official Accounts use message templates for service notification. Developers set parameters in the templates (the parameters must start with "{ {" and end with ".DATA
} }") and assign values to these parameters when the templates are called. Message templates are notifications triggered by users' certain operations, and therefore cannot be actively issued to users without any operations or without their consent to receiving messages, except for fault notifications and disaster alerts under special circumstances. Official Accounts can only select templates in the template libraries of their industries. If there is no template you want, you can add new templates as appropriate to the template libraries after carefully reading the following content:
I. Message templates allowed to be sent
These message templates are only allowed to be sent to users who have received services from the Official Account before. The message template to be sent cannot contain any advertising content which may harass users. Once the content is found to involve marketing purposes, the Official Account will be severely punished.
- Service instant message template
This kind of message templates is instant. After a user triggers an event or activity, a message template is instantly pushed to the user to inform the user of relevant information. Such message templates include:
Data change notification, government service instant notification, item (including virtual items) receiving notification, purchase transaction notification, sign-in notification, status notification, and login notification.
- Service non-instant message template
This kind of message templates is non-instant. After a user triggers an event or activity, the result may be pushed to the user after a certain period of time of processing instead of being pushed instantly. Frequency control is important for such template messages, and we strictly monitor the frequency of message pushes. Once we find that an Official Account pushes such message templates too frequently which may harass users or when we receive complaints from users, the Official Account will be severely punished. Such message templates include:
2.1 Message templates regularly pushed each month
Such messages can be actively sent only after users have agreed to receive them. Such messages include:
Monthly bill notifications such as phone bill notification and utility bill notification, property management fee notification, and other notifications pushed regularly each month.
2.2 Message templates not regularly pushed
Except for fault notifications and disaster alerts under special circumstances, other types of message templates can be actively sent only after users have agreed to receive them. Such message templates include:
Fault notifications, alerts/warnings, expiration notifications, payment notifications, meeting reminders, event reminders, departure reminders, flight delay notifications, to-do task reminders, and other notifications important for users.
Note: Such notifications must be important and beneficial from the users' point of view. Activity announcements or irrelevant information is not allowed. The sending frequency and use cases of expiration notifications shall be compliant. The to-do task reminders shall not contain any marketing content.
2.3 General non-instant notifications
Such message templates include:
Review result notifications, refund result notifications, bid result notifications, order acceptance result notifications, registration result notifications, feedback notifications, and other non-instant notifications that are important to users.
We provide examples of templates allowed to be sent for you: Click to download
II. Message templates not allowed to be sent
1. Templates whose content does not match the service scenario (including title and keyword)
The content of such message templates does not match the service scenario. This is considered misuse of template messages and is not allowed. In case of such misuse, the Official Account will be severely punished.
- Message templates containing advertising content
Such message templates contain advertising content with the intention of inducing consumption. Once such templates are found, the Official Account will be severely punished, with the APIs being blocked, or the account being disabled depending on the severity. Such message templates include:
Discount notifications, rebate notifications, price reduction notifications, product update notifications, and other marketing notifications related to consumption inducing.
- Message templates frequently sent that may harass users
Such message templates will harass users and cause users' antipathy. We strictly monitor such message templates, and once we find that an Official Account pushes too many message templates that have harassed users or when we receive complaints from users, the Official Account will be severely punished, with the APIs being blocked, or the account being disabled depending on the severity. Such message templates include:
Too frequently sent expiration notifications, payment notifications, message reminders, and subscription notifications that have harassed users.
- Message templates involving red packets, offers, general coupons, cash coupons, member cards, and points
As such message templates can be used for marketing purposes, they are not allowed to be sent from now on. The application for such templates will also be rejected. The existing templates in the template libraries are not treated until relevant treatment specifications are available. Access Weixin Cards and Offers to implement features related to coupons, cards, and points.
Note: If there is any template in the template library that violates the specifications, follow this specification. Operators should stop using non-compliant templates as soon as possible and delete them. We will clean up non-compliant templates in the template libraries and will not allow non-compliant templates in the future.
We provide examples of templates not allowed to be sent for you: Click to download
III. Template review criteria
1. Compliance with the requirements mentioned above in the message templates allowed to be sent.
2. Correct format - Template standard format (three-section)
{ {first.DATA} }
Keyword 1: { {keyword1.DATA} }
Keyword 2: { {keyword2.DATA} }
Keyword 3: { {keyword3.DATA} }
{ {remark.DATA} }
3. Content:
① Titles and keywords containing brand names, company names, or any content that are not commonly used in the industry are not approved.
Including but not limited to: "XX company service notification" and "XX product purchase notification".
② Titles that contain punctuation marks or other special characters and do not end with "notification" or "reminder/alert" are not approved.
Including but not limited to: "Get red packets" and "Weather alert".
③ Templates that can be used for broadcasting, or templates whose titles or keywords cannot describe the service or use case are not approved.
Including but not limited to: admin notifications, announcements, and system notifications.
④ Too frequently sent templates that may harass users are not approved.
Including but not limited to: update notifications, reply notifications, and interaction notifications.
⑤ Templates containing promotional and marketing content are not approved.
Including but not limited to: red packet notifications, coupon notifications, activity notifications, point notifications, and reward notifications.
⑥ Templates already existing in the template libraries are not approved.
IV. Rules for completing the templates
Follow the rules below when completing the templates; otherwise, they will not be approved.
1. The length of the template content cannot exceed 200 characters, and the content must contain at least 10 fixed words or punctuation marks.
2. The parameters in the template can be specified when the template is to be sent, and the parameters must start with "{ {" and end with "`.DATA`} }").
3. The content example is a copy of template content in which the parameters are exampled individually. It must be completed in compliance with requirements so that reviewers can understand the purpose of the template.
4. "\n" can be added in parameters as the line break. Therefore, we recommend that parameters be placed closely to the previous line and "\n" be used to wrap text to the next line. In this way, the message template can be extended easily.
5. The first sentence in the template shall be polite with appellations. This sentence is uniformly summarized by the { {`first.DATA`} } parameter to avoid modifying the template when the appellations are changed in the future.
6. The middle part of the template content must be an array of 2 to 5 "Keyword name:Keyword content parameter", which offers the best effects in the Weixin app.
7. In the template content, there must be a { {`remark.DATA`} } parameter at the end, which allows users to add content needed for more lines. For example, there are two keywords "Name" and "Time" in the template, but you also need "Place" as an additional keyword, and then you can add the keyword of "Place" in the remark parameter (\n can be used as line break as necessary). In this way, the keywords are extended via the remark parameter, greatly improving the universality of the template.
8. The parameters directly connected together shall be simplified into one parameter so that the template content is not too complex. In this way, the content assigned to two parameters can be simply assigned to one parameter.
9. To maintain the universality of the template in the industry, the template title and content cannot contain any keywords such as brand name.
V. Penalties
Principles of determining violations
- Behaviors of sending templates:
① Message templates cannot be actively sent to recipients that have never received the services of the Official Account (except for fault alarms, disaster alarms, and notifications not involving marketing content)
For example, a user only follows an Official Account and never interacts with the Official Account and its entity, but receives the message templates sent by the Official Account. This is a violation.
② Message templates cannot be sent too frequently which will harass recipients
For example, a user taps the custom menu of an Official Account once or performs other trigger operation, and then receives 3 or more repeated message templates consecutively. This is a violation.
- Template content:
① The message template cannot contain any content intended for marketing, promotion, incentivized sharing, and incentivized downloading of apps.
For example, after a user purchases a product, the Official Account sends a template that sells other products to the user which is unrelated to the service received by the user. This is a violation.
② The template content is not associated with the template title or keywords
For example, the title is about a card payment success notification while the template content is about products or activity notifications. This is a violation.
③ The template content is a broadcasted activity announcement with marketing purposes
For example, the title is about a community property management notice while the template content is a broadcasted activity marketing information.
It is determined by combining the above two principles that, for the cases of actively sending message templates, sending templates whose content involves malicious marketing, sending templates too frequently which causes harassment, and filling in the parameters incorrectly, relevant APIs will be blocked. For multiple violations conducted using the same template, the violating template will be recycled, and is not allowed to be used again. The violation penalty will be notified to the operator through internal messages of the Weixin Official Accounts Platform.