Opt-outs

WhatsApp sends can be blocked by a suppression or a recipient preference. Each record has a scope: a business account or the whole workspace. A preference also states whether it covers marketing or all messages. Open WhatsApp > Suppressions to inspect the separate Suppressions and Preferences tabs.

From the Suppressions tab, create a suppression for a phone number and pick the business account it applies to. Only messages from that account are blocked; the address still hears from every other account in your workspace. The list's Business account column names the account a suppression is scoped to, or reads All accounts for one that covers your whole workspace.

Some recipients want out of every business account in the workspace at once rather than one at a time. That's a stated preference, not a suppression, and it lives on the Preferences tab instead of the list above. Record it there with Every business account in the workspace: the address stops receiving WhatsApp messages from every account in your workspace, including accounts you connect later. An opt-out recorded on this tab covers all messages; to record one that stops only marketing, use the workspace-wide Contacts > Preferences page, whose dialog offers the coverage choice.

When Bird receives a valid Meta event saying a recipient has stopped marketing messages, it records a recipient-origin preference for that WhatsApp Business Account. The preference covers non-transactional messages; it does not create an all-message suppression or opt the person out of every account in the workspace.

A later resume event updates that account's preference. Independent suppressions and other applicable preferences still apply, so a resume event alone does not prove that a send is eligible. Read the Preferences tab as well as Suppressions before changing a recipient's records.

Provider delivery errors can still report a stop before Bird has recorded a matching event. Preserve the recipient's choice and investigate the preference and event history rather than treating a missing local record as permission to send.

Ending a suppression, rather than deleting it, is what the Delete action on a suppression row does: the block stops, but the record is kept and stays readable, with when it ended and who ended it.

A preference on the Preferences tab follows who stated it. One you recorded yourself, you can remove there once the recipient asks you to resume sending. One the recipient stated themselves is theirs to reverse: Bird refuses a workspace's attempt to end it.

Both stores are checked before a WhatsApp send goes out. A suppression blocks every message to the address. An opt-out preference blocks what its recorded coverage says: All messages stops everything, while Marketing only keeps transactional messages such as verification codes flowing. Since sending and delivery are separate stages, the block does not surface as an immediate error: the send is still accepted, then fails asynchronously with a whatsapp.rejected event carrying error.code: "recipient_suppressed".