Meta is testing a change to how WhatsApp handles messages from large companies. In an email to businesses on its platform, the company said it is trying out an ‘Offers & Updates’ folder for business threads, starting with a small number of users in Indonesia and Colombia. A message from a bank, an airline or a retailer would still arrive as normal, but after a few hours it would move out of your main chat list and into a folder of its own.
TechCrunch, which reported the test first, says WhatsApp moves a message into the new folder automatically after a set number of hours, Meta is trying different durations, up to 24 hours. The messages still land in your inbox first; the folder is where a thread goes once it has been quiet for a while.
What lands in the folder, and when
For users in the test, a business message shows up in the inbox as usual and also appears in the ‘Offers & Updates’ folder. If the thread then sits inactive for a set period, it auto-archives from the inbox but stays easy to reach in the folder. The moment a business sends something new, or you reply, the thread comes straight back to the inbox, so a delivery update you actually answer doesn’t get buried. Meta says marketing, utility, authentication and service messages sent through the WhatsApp Business Platform may all appear there.
You can turn the setting off if you’d rather keep everything on the main timeline. What you can’t do, according to TechCrunch, is decide when a message moves. The timing is automatic and set by WhatsApp during the test.
Big businesses only, for now
The test covers large senders (TechCrunch names banks and airlines as examples) that message through the official WhatsApp Business Platform. Small businesses and individual accounts on the WhatsApp Business app are left out for now, though Meta said it could look at moving their messages into the folder later. WhatsApp is running the test with select partners and says it will expand based on what it sees.
Why WhatsApp is doing this
Business messaging has turned into real money for Meta. On the company’s Q2 2026 earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg said other revenue in the Family of Apps segment passed $1 billion, largely from WhatsApp paid messaging and subscriptions. More businesses on WhatsApp means fuller inboxes, and the personal and group chats people open the app for can get lost among discount codes and verification texts.
This isn’t Meta’s first attempt to keep that in check. In 2024 it let people unsubscribe from a brand’s marketing messages. In 2025 it capped how many broadcast messages a business or person can send in a window, and in October 2025 it went further, limiting how many messages a business can send before a customer replies. TechCrunch reports the first two are fully rolled out while the third is still being adjusted. The folder is a different tack: rather than block messages, it moves the ones you haven’t engaged with out of the way.
What it means if you message customers on WhatsApp
If you send marketing, utility or authentication templates through the Business Platform, your threads are exactly the kind that could land in the folder once a customer stops replying. The practical read: a message someone acts on returns to their inbox, and one they ignore drifts into ‘Offers & Updates’. That rewards conversations people want and sidelines the rest. Meta said it will look at both consumer and business engagement before deciding whether and how to roll the folder out more widely.
It also arrives as WhatsApp leans harder on automation. Meta opened its AI business agents to everyone in June and says more than a million businesses already use them; on the earnings call, Zuckerberg pointed to the Brazilian car-rental company Movida seeing more conversions and more support handled through its agent. If you’re weighing what all this costs, our WhatsApp API pricing calculator prices marketing, utility and authentication messages by market, and the account-types guide covers who the official Business Platform is for. For the different ways to reach a lot of people without tripping WhatsApp’s limits, see how to message many people on WhatsApp.
The test is small for now (two countries and a set of partners) and Meta hasn’t said when or whether it reaches everyone. What it decides will come down to whether people open the folder, and whether businesses still get read once their messages are in it.
