WhatsApp Broadcast Message: 5 Limits and the Business Way

A WhatsApp broadcast message is one message sent to a list of contacts that arrives for each of them as a separate one-to-one chat, so nobody sees who else got it. As of October 2026 a broadcast list holds up to 256 contacts, and only the people who have saved your number in their phone receive the message. You create the list on your phone under Chats and New broadcast; WhatsApp Web and the desktop app show existing lists but cannot create one.

To send one: open Chats, tap New broadcast, tick the contacts, write the message, send. Each person gets it as if you had written to them alone, and each reply comes back as a normal one-to-one chat. That is the whole feature, and for a short list of people who know you it is a good one.

The trouble starts when the list is long and the people never saved your number, which is exactly what a webinar registration list looks like. The rest of this page is about that gap, and how a business closes it with WhatsApp for webinars in Webinly.

Every wall below is how WhatsApp's own app behaves as of October 2026. None is a setting you can change.

It is enough when the list is short and warm: a cohort of 30 who all have your number, a team, the clients who message you anyway. One list, a message that reads as personal, replies you handle one by one.

It is not enough for a webinar with 500 registrants. They typed a phone number into a form; most never saved yours, so under the saved-number rule most never get the message, and the app will not say which. You need two lists at least, the replies arrive as 500 separate chats, and nothing links the message to the person's registration, attendance or purchase.

A webinar also needs more than one message. Webinly's WhatsApp page lists the five a registrant expects: a confirmation when they register, reminders before the start, the link to join when it goes live, the recording afterwards, and a follow-up for people who registered and did not attend. Five broadcasts to two lists each is ten sends per webinar, by hand, each bound by the walls above.

Sends to many people, with a record, happen on the WhatsApp Business Platform, the API that tools connect to through Meta. As of October 2026 the shape is fixed: the business connects its own number, Meta approves each message template, the tool sends that template with fill-ins such as a first name, and Meta bills the conversations. Promotional messages need consent, and a stop word ends them.

In Webinly that rail is the pricing page row called WhatsApp reminders, inbox and campaigns, included on every plan. The business connects its own WhatsApp Business number in Meta's own sign-up window, the number and the Meta bill stay theirs, and Webinly only holds permission to send and receive on their behalf, which they can withdraw at any time. There is no SMS: with WhatsApp not connected, the messages go by email. Prices in the Webinly column were read on 25 October 2026 from the pricing page.

From a broadcast list, 500 people reply into 500 separate chats on one phone, and whoever holds the phone is the inbox. Two people cannot share it, and nothing in the chat says whether the person registered, watched or bought.

In Webinly, replies come back into the account, so the business answers the person who wrote. For each conversation Webinly keeps the phone number, the message text and any picture, document or voice note, only to provide the service: nothing is sold or shared, one customer never sees another's conversations, and when a business disconnects its number, or a person asks to be erased, the conversation and its media are deleted.

The person replying is also a contact already. Every registrant lands in a contact record with registrations, attendance, watch milestones, questions and purchases on one timeline, and engagement and buyer-intent scores that update as they act. So when a reply asks about a payment plan, the webinar CRM shows whether that person reached the pitch and opened the checkout before you type an answer.

Not from a broadcast list, as of October 2026: no open or click figures, and no record of who was skipped. A WhatsApp Channel is the other way round: followers get your posts, cannot reply in the channel, and you never see their numbers.

In Webinly the figures sit in two places. An automation that sends WhatsApp messages shows where people are and the delivery per step once it is live. And WhatsApp groups and channels, the pricing row with scheduled posts, quiz polls and an AI post writer, report who read, clicked and bought; that row is a $29 a month add-on on Starter and included on Pro and Scale. To have those posts go out while you sleep, the WhatsApp schedule message guide covers the clock end to end.

Six steps, each taken from how Webinly works today. Steps three and four are where a broadcast list fails silently.

On the pricing page, Starter is $39 a month and runs one automated webinar at a time, with unlimited registrants; live broadcasting starts on Pro at $159, and Scale is $349. WhatsApp reminders, inbox and campaigns are included on all three, and so is the plain WhatsApp chat button for your website. Who read, clicked and bought comes with WhatsApp groups and channels, $29 a month on Starter and included on Pro and Scale. The WhatsApp AI assistant, 1,500 answers a month with a person able to take over, is $39 a month on any plan.

Meta's bill for the conversations is separate and goes to you, because the number is yours. The price is per account, not per seat, and co-hosts are included. There is no SMS. A first plan is $1 today and the plan price 7 days later, with one webinar and 50 registrations in between.

At 500 registrants the sum is short. Two broadcast lists cost nothing in money and everything in the saved-number rule and the 500 chats. A Webinly campaign is the plan you already pay for the webinar, plus Meta's conversation bill, and the message reaches the number the person typed on your form. For the email side of the same list, email marketing broadcasts start at $29 for 10,000 emails.