> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.gallabox.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# WhatsApp Groups
> Create and run small WhatsApp Groups from Gallabox — invite customers, approve join requests, and message everyone from your Inbox.
> **Who can use this?**
>
> * Accounts with **Groups** enabled. It's currently in **Alpha** — if you don't see it, talk to your Gallabox account manager or support to have it turned on.
> * Roles: anyone who can **manage WhatsApp, Instagram and Web channels** (Owners and Admins by default) can create and manage groups. Agents can read and reply in the group conversation from the Inbox.
## Plan Availability
Groups is an **Alpha** feature and is enabled per account. Once it's on, you'll find it in the left navigation under **Assets → Groups (Alpha)**.
## What Is a WhatsApp Group in Gallabox?
A WhatsApp Group in Gallabox is a **small, business-owned group chat** that you create from your WhatsApp Business number — not from a phone.
Your business number is the group **Admin**, and up to **8 customers** can join. Everything that happens in the group — messages, joins, exits, join requests — lands in a single group conversation in your Inbox, so your team replies to the whole group in one place.
This is very different from a Broadcast. A Broadcast sends the same message to many people in **separate, private** conversations. A Group puts everyone in **one shared** conversation where members can see and reply to each other.
| | Broadcast | Group |
| ---------------- | ------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Audience size | Thousands | Up to 8 customers |
| Who sees replies | Only your team | Everyone in the group |
| Conversation | One per contact | One shared thread |
| Best for | Announcements, campaigns | Small cohorts — VIP customers, a batch of students, a project team, a dealer circle |
## Before You Start
**1. A connected and Verified WhatsApp channel.** Groups are created on a specific WhatsApp number. If you have several, you'll pick one when you create the group.
**2. Groups enabled on your account.** It's Alpha — support switches it on.
**3. The right permission.** You need the channel management permission to create groups, change settings, remove members, or delete a group.
**4. An approved template for invites.** To invite a contact from Gallabox you send them a WhatsApp template containing the group's invite link. Have one approved in **Assets → Templates** before you start — a template with at least one body variable works best, because Gallabox drops the invite link straight into it.
Your business number can only start a limited number of groups, and WhatsApp may pause group creation for a number that creates too many too quickly. If group creation fails, wait a while and try again.
## Create a Group
1. Go to **Assets → Groups (Alpha)** and click **Create Group**.
2. Pick the **WhatsApp Channel** the group should belong to.
3. Enter a **Group Name** — up to 128 characters. This is what members see at the top of the chat.
4. Choose **Approval Required**:
* **Permission** — an admin has to approve every person who tries to join through the invite link.
* **Auto** — anyone with the invite link joins instantly, no approval needed.
5. Click **Create Group**.
Gallabox asks WhatsApp to create the group and waits for confirmation, which usually takes a few seconds. When it's done you'll see **Group created successfully** along with the group's **Invite Link**, ready to copy.
From there you can **Send Invite** straight away, or **Go to Group** to open the group's detail page.
**Approval mode is fixed at creation.** You can rename a group, change its description and photo, and reset its invite link at any time — but you can't switch a group between Permission and Auto afterwards. Choose carefully. If you need the other mode, create a new group.
## Invite People to the Group
You can't silently add someone to a WhatsApp group — WhatsApp requires people to join themselves. So inviting always means getting the invite link in front of them.
There are two ways to do it.
### Send an invite from Gallabox
1. Open the group and click **Send Invite** (also available right after you create a group).
2. Search and pick up to **8 contacts**. Each contact needs a phone number or a WhatsApp identifier on file.
3. Click the template picker, choose an approved template, and fill in its variables. Gallabox automatically fills the group's **invite link** into the first empty body variable.
4. Click **Send**.
Invites are queued and sent as normal WhatsApp template messages. Each contact you invite is billed as a template message.
### Share the link yourself
Open the group → **Settings** → **Invite Link** → **Copy**. Paste it anywhere you like — a broadcast, an email, your website, a support reply.
Anyone holding the invite link can use it. If a link has spread further than you intended, click **Reset link** in Settings. The old link stops working immediately and a fresh one is generated — people already in the group stay in.
## Approve or Decline Join Requests
This applies to groups created with **Permission** approval.
When someone taps your invite link, they appear as a **pending join request**. You'll see them in two places:
* At the top of the group conversation in the **Inbox**, as a **Pending Join Requests** card with **Approve** and **Decline** buttons.
* In the **contact panel** on the right of the group conversation, with a **Review** button that takes you to the group.
Approve, and they join and appear under Active Members. Decline, and the request is dismissed — they can request again later with the same link.
A full group can't accept anyone new. Remove a member first, then approve the request.
## Manage Members
Open a group and go to the **Members** tab. Members are grouped into three lists:
| List | What it means |
| ------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Active Members** | Everyone currently in the group, with your business number marked **Admin**. The counter shows how full the group is. |
| **Invited** | Contacts you've sent an invite template to who haven't joined yet. |
| **Past Members** | People who were **Removed** by your team or who **Left** on their own. |
To remove someone, hover their row and click the remove icon, then confirm. They're moved to Past Members and can re-join later if they still have a working invite link.
Contact names are shown wherever Gallabox recognises the number as one of your contacts; otherwise you'll see the phone number.
## Message the Group
Every group has one conversation in your **Inbox** — open it from the group's **View Conversation** button, or find it in the conversation list.
**Replies work as usual.** Type in the composer and send. Everyone in the group receives the message, and every member's reply appears in the same thread, labelled with who sent it.
**Delivery status is aggregated.** Because a group message goes to several people, the tick beside your message reflects the whole group — it moves to delivered once it's delivered, and to read once it's been read, across recipients.
**Mentions.** When a member mentions someone with `@`, Gallabox shows the mention with the contact's name where it can resolve it.
**Pin important messages.** Hover any message in a group conversation and click the pin icon, then choose how long the pin should last — **1 day**, **7 days**, or **30 days**. You can pin up to **3 messages** at a time; unpin one to make room. Pinned messages are visible to everyone in the group.
**The 24-hour window applies here too.** Like any WhatsApp conversation, a group has a service window that reopens each time a member sends a message. Outside it, send an approved template to start the conversation again.
## Group Settings
Open a group and go to the **Settings** tab.
| Setting | What you can do |
| --------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Group photo** | Upload a **square JPEG**, at least **192 × 192 pixels** and under **5 MB**. Gallabox checks the shape and size before uploading, so crop it square first. |
| **Group name** | Up to 128 characters. |
| **Description** | Up to 2,048 characters — a good place for group rules or what the group is for. |
| **Approval Required** | Shown for reference only. Fixed when the group was created. |
| **Invite link** | Fetch it, copy it, or **Reset** it to invalidate the old one. |
| **Delete group** | Removes the group for everyone. This can't be undone. |
Changes are sent to WhatsApp and confirmed in the background, so a rename may take a few seconds to appear for members.
## Group Statuses
You'll see a status against each group in the list.
| Status | What it means |
| ------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Pending** | Gallabox has asked WhatsApp to create the group and is waiting for confirmation. |
| **Active** | The group is live and you can message it. |
| **Suspended** | WhatsApp has suspended the group, usually for a policy violation. You can't message it until the suspension clears. |
| **Failed** | WhatsApp rejected the group creation. Check the reason and try again. |
| **Deleted** | The group has been deleted. |
Use the **status filter** and **search** at the top of the Groups page to find what you need, and the channel selector to switch between WhatsApp numbers.
## What a Group Costs
Group messaging is billed the same way as any other WhatsApp conversation — **per delivered message, per recipient**.
That means sending one template to a group of 8 members counts as **8 charges**, not one. A group of 8 is roughly 8× the cost of the same message to a single contact, so groups are for small, high-value cohorts rather than reach.
Invite templates are billed the same way — one charge per contact you invite.
## Limits at a Glance
| Limit | Value |
| ------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------- |
| Members per group | Your business number (Admin) + up to **8** customers |
| Group name | 128 characters |
| Group description | 2,048 characters |
| Group photo | Square JPEG, minimum 192 × 192 px, maximum 5 MB |
| Contacts per invite send | 8 |
| Pinned messages | 3 at a time (1, 7, or 30 days each) |
| Channels supported | WhatsApp only |
## What You Can't Do (Yet)
**Meta limitations** — platform rules that apply no matter what Gallabox does:
* A group holds a maximum of 8 customers. This is far smaller than a personal WhatsApp group.
* You can't add someone directly — they have to join via the invite link themselves.
* Approval mode can't be changed after the group is created.
* WhatsApp limits how many groups a number can create, and may temporarily disable group creation for a number that creates too many.
* Group photos must be square and at least 192 × 192 pixels.
* A suspended group can't be messaged until WhatsApp clears the suspension.
**Gallabox limitations** — product gaps we're working on:
* Groups are **WhatsApp only**. Instagram and Web Chat aren't supported.
* Bots, AI Agents, Broadcasts, and Sequences don't run on group conversations — group replies are handled by your team in the Inbox.
* Members can only be invited from your existing Gallabox contacts, or by sharing the invite link manually.
* There's no bulk group creation or bulk invite import.
* A per-group cost breakdown isn't surfaced in the app yet — group message spend appears in your regular WhatsApp usage.
## Example
**Scenario:** Nova Interiors runs a premium design service and wants a shared chat for each project.
1. The project lead goes to **Assets → Groups (Alpha)** → **Create Group**, picks the studio's WhatsApp number, names it **Sharma Residence — Living Room**, and chooses **Permission** so nobody wanders in from a forwarded link.
2. The group is created and the invite link appears. The lead clicks **Send Invite**, selects the three people on the client's side, picks the approved `project_group_invite` template, and sends. The invite link is filled in automatically.
3. Two clients tap the link. They show up as **Pending Join Requests** at the top of the group conversation in the Inbox. The lead clicks **Approve** for both.
4. The designer shares mood boards in the group. She pins the final approved layout for **30 days** so nobody scrolls back looking for it.
5. When the project wraps, the lead opens **Settings → Delete group**.
## FAQs
That's WhatsApp's limit for groups created through the Business Platform, not a Gallabox restriction. Groups are designed for small cohorts — for larger audiences use a [Broadcast](/whatsapp/broadcasts/overview).
No. WhatsApp requires people to join themselves through the invite link — you can send them the link via a template from Gallabox, or share it any other way. This protects customers from being added to groups they never agreed to.
You can't — the setting is locked when the group is created. Create a new group with the right mode and invite your members across.
Open the group → **Settings** → **Reset link**. The old link stops working immediately. Current members stay in; anyone new will need the fresh link.
WhatsApp only accepts a **square JPEG** of at least **192 × 192 pixels** and under **5 MB**. If the image is rectangular, crop it to a square and try again — Gallabox tells you the dimensions it found.
No. You're charged per delivered message per recipient, so one template to 8 members is 8 charges. Keep groups small and purposeful.
Not today. Group conversations are handled by your team in the Inbox. Bots, AI Agents, Broadcasts, and Sequences run on one-to-one conversations only.
WhatsApp suspended it, usually after a policy report or violation. You can't message the group while it's suspended. Review WhatsApp's Business Messaging Policy, and contact support if you believe it's a mistake.
The most common reasons are that your number has hit its group creation limit, that group creation has been temporarily paused for the number, or that the number isn't eligible for Groups yet. Wait and retry — if it keeps failing, contact support with the group name and the WhatsApp number.
Only if the 24-hour window has closed. Each time a member messages the group, the window reopens and your team can reply freely. Outside it, send an approved template first.
The group is removed for everyone and can't be recovered. The conversation stays in your Inbox history, but you can't message it any more.
## Note
* Ask support to enable **Groups (Alpha)** if you don't see it under **Assets**.
* Start with one small pilot group — a VIP cohort or a live project — before rolling groups out across your team.