What Are Broadcasts?

Broadcasts in Bugalou let you send messages to multiple customers at once. Whether it's a WhatsApp order update to hundreds of customers, a marketing promotion, or an SMS notification — broadcasts help you communicate at scale. Broadcasts are available on Pro and Enterprise plans.

Supported Channels

• WhatsApp — Send approved template messages via the WhatsApp Business API
• SMS — Send text messages via Twilio

How Broadcasts Work

Bugalou has a dedicated Broadcast Wizard that guides you through 4 steps:

1. Channel — Choose WhatsApp or SMS
2. Content — Select a sender, schedule, and configure your message (WhatsApp template or SMS text)
3. Audience — Target all contacts, contacts with specific tags, or contacts in a lifecycle stage
4. Review & Send — Preview everything and send or schedule your broadcast

Key Features

• Sender selection — Choose which WhatsApp phone number or Twilio number to send from
• Scheduling — Send now or schedule for a specific date and time
• Audience targeting — Filter by tags, lifecycle stage, or send to all contacts
• Opt-in filtering — Only contacts who are opted in for the selected channel receive the broadcast
• Inline template creation — Create WhatsApp templates directly in the wizard with a live preview
• Rich templates — Add headers (image, video, document), footers, and buttons (Quick Reply, URL, Phone)
• Progress tracking — Monitor sent, delivered, read, and failed counts in real-time
• Inbox integration — Every broadcast message appears in the recipient's conversation in your team inbox with a purple "Broadcast" label and megaphone icon
• International phone validation — Only contacts with phone numbers in international format (starting with +) are included

Opt-in & Opt-out

Bugalou has a built-in opt-in/opt-out system for broadcast compliance. Only contacts who are opted in for WhatsApp or SMS will receive broadcasts on that channel.

How Contacts Get Opted In

• Automatic on first message — When a customer sends you a WhatsApp message or SMS for the first time, they are automatically opted in (customer-initiated = implicit consent)
• Webshop orders — Contacts created from WooCommerce or Lightspeed orders are automatically opted in for WhatsApp
• CSV import — You can set opt-in status via WhatsApp_Opt_In and SMS_Opt_In columns
• Manual toggle — Toggle opt-in per contact in the contact edit form
• Bulk opt-in — Select multiple contacts in the contacts table and click "WhatsApp Opt-in" or "SMS Opt-in"
• START keyword — Customer sends START or Inschrijven to opt back in

How Contacts Opt Out

• STOP keyword — Customer sends STOP, Uitschrijven, Afmelden, Unsubscribe, or similar phrases. Bugalou automatically processes the opt-out and sends a confirmation message.
• Manual toggle — You can manually opt out a contact in the edit form

Contacts who have explicitly opted out (sent STOP) will not be automatically re-opted in, even if they send new messages. They must send START to re-subscribe.

Inbox Integration

When a broadcast is sent, Bugalou creates a message record for each recipient in their conversation. This means:

• The broadcast message appears in each contact's conversation in the team inbox
• A purple "Broadcast" label with a megaphone icon is displayed on the message bubble, so your team can distinguish bulk messages from regular conversations
• For WhatsApp broadcasts, the actual template body text is shown (e.g. "Hi, we have a special offer for you!") — not just the template name
• If the contact didn't have an existing conversation, one is automatically created
• Your team can reply directly to any contact from the inbox to continue the conversation after the broadcast

WhatsApp vs SMS Broadcasts

Feature	WhatsApp	SMS
Message type	Approved templates only	Free text (up to 1600 chars)
Media support	Images, videos, documents in header	Text only
Buttons	Quick Reply, URL, Phone	Not available
Cost	Meta conversation fees	Twilio SMS fees
Approval required	Yes (Meta reviews templates)	No
Delivery rate	Very high (99%+)	High (95%+)

Getting Started

Go to Dashboard → Broadcasts and click "+ New Broadcast" to open the wizard. Make sure you have at least one channel connected (WhatsApp or Twilio) in Settings → Channels.