WhatsApp error 131047: re-engagement message

What causes error 131047?

A free text message sent to someone whose last message to you is older than 24 hours.

The WhatsApp Business Platform only lets a business write freely inside a customer service window, and that window opens when the customer messages you and lasts 24 hours. Inside it you can send whatever you like. Outside it, the API rejects free text with 131047 rather than delivering something the recipient never invited.

The reason this surfaces in production and not in testing is timing. Anyone testing an integration sends a message, then replies to it seconds later, which is always inside the window. The first overnight case, or the first customer who goes quiet for a day, is when the error appears.

How do you fix it?

Send an approved template instead of free text.

Templates are messages you submit to Meta in advance and Meta reviews. Once approved, a template can be sent at any time, including to someone who has never written to you. Sending one reopens the conversation, and the moment the customer replies you have a fresh 24 hours of free text.

So the durable fix is not retrying. It is a branch: before sending, check how long ago that contact last messaged. Inside 24 hours, send free text. Outside it, send the template that fits the situation. An integration that only knows how to send free text will keep hitting this, and it will look like silence rather than an error to whoever is watching the conversation.

Does this apply on a Coexistence number?

Yes, and with one extra consequence worth knowing.

The window works identically whether the number was onboarded through Coexistence or not, because it is a rule of the platform rather than of any onboarding mode. What differs is who can act on it. On a Coexistence number the WhatsApp Business app cannot send templates, so anything outside the window has to go through the API.

That means a team answering from the phone can reply freely to a live conversation, but cannot restart a cold one from the app. Restarting is an API job, which is one of the practical reasons a business connects the number in the first place.

Common mistakes

• Retrying the same free text message. The window does not reopen on its own, so the retry fails identically.
• Measuring the window from your last message rather than theirs. It is their message that opens it.
• Assuming a template can be written and sent in the same moment. Meta reviews it first, usually within minutes but sometimes a day.

Frequently asked questions

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