Flow Languages

WhatsApp templates are per-language — each approved template carries exactly one language. A WhatPro flow therefore holds one language variant, and you create a second variant by creating a second flow of the same type in a different language. This page explains how a flow’s language is chosen, how WhatPro routes the customer to the right variant, and how it falls back when there’s no exact match.

One language per flow

Every flow has a language field, chosen from Meta’s list of template languages (English, Arabic, and many others). The language is fixed once the flow’s template has been submitted to Meta: changing it would orphan the approved template and force a fresh review cycle, so the field becomes read-only after submission. To support an additional language, create a new flow of the same type and set its language there.

Note

When you switch a flow’s language before submitting, WhatPro re-seeds the default message copy in the new language if you haven’t customized the body yet. Once you’ve edited the message, your text is kept so your work isn’t overwritten.

Choosing a flow’s language vs. sending in the customer’s language

There are two distinct ideas:

• A flow’s language — the language of the template a flow holds. Every flow has one, on every plan.
• Send in the customer’s language — WhatPro detecting each customer’s language and automatically picking the matching flow variant. This is a Plus capability.

Plan	Language behaviour
Starter	One language per flow. Sends use the shop default.
Basic	One language per flow. Sends use the shop default.
Growth	One language per flow. Sends use the shop default.
Plus	Auto-detects the customer’s language and sends the matching flow variant, with fallback.

See Plans for the full capability comparison.

On Starter, Basic, and Growth

Each flow sends in its single chosen language. You can still run multiple flows of the same type in different languages, but WhatPro does not auto-detect the customer’s language to choose between them — it uses your shop default language. In practice you pick the language each flow targets and the available approved variant is what sends.

On Plus

WhatPro detects the customer’s language (from the storefront locale and the customer’s Shopify locale fields) and looks for an approved flow variant in that language. If it finds one, that variant is sent. This lets a single store serve, for example, Arabic customers in Arabic and English customers in English from the same flow type — provided you’ve created and approved both variants.

There is also a per-shop toggle for language-aware routing. When it’s off, every send is forced to the shop default regardless of the detected locale. Auto-detection therefore requires both the Plus capability and the per-shop preference being on.

How WhatPro picks the variant

When an event fires, WhatPro chooses among your active flows of that type using this order. A flow is only eligible to send if its template is Approved (or, for legacy flows, has no linked template).

1. Exact language match — the variant in the target language (the detected language on Plus, otherwise the shop default). If it’s approved, it’s used.
2. Shop default language — an approved variant in your default language.
3. English — an approved English variant, as a widely-readable fallback.
4. Any approved variant — the most recent approved flow of that type, in any language.

The key principle: an active, approved flow always wins over sending nothing. If the customer’s exact language has no usable variant, WhatPro sends the best available approved one rather than skipping the message. When the variant sent differs from the customer’s detected language, that’s recorded as a fallback so it’s visible in your logs.

Note

If a customer’s exact-language variant exists but its template is still Pending or Rejected, WhatPro skips it and falls back to an approved sibling variant rather than queueing a send that would fail. Get every variant approved to guarantee customers receive the language you intend.

Right-to-left languages

For right-to-left languages — Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Urdu — the editor automatically sets the body field and live preview to RTL based on the flow’s language, so the text, caret, and punctuation render correctly while you compose.

Translate & Adapt

Shopify’s Translate & Adapt can supply translated values that influence the copy customers see, layered with WhatPro’s own defaults and your explicit edits. Your explicit edits in the flow editor always take precedence over translated defaults. For the authoritative per-language message, set the language on the flow and review the live preview before submitting to Meta.

Recommended setup for multiple languages

1. Create the flow in your primary language, write the message, and submit it to Meta.
2. Create a second flow of the same type in the second language; the editor seeds the translated default copy you can refine.
3. Submit and wait for both templates to reach Approved.
4. On Plus, leave language-aware routing on so customers automatically get their language; on other plans, the available approved variant is what sends.

See Create a flow for the full build-and-submit steps and Message editor for composing each variant.