Arabic WhatsApp templates for UAE businesses

Arabic is one of the languages Meta supports for templates, and Meta reviews Arabic templates the same way as English ones. You type the text as normal and it reads right to left on the customer’s phone. Meta’s list of supported languages gives the codes.

• Choose the language when you create the template: ar for Arabic. Meta also lists regional codes, including ar_AE for UAE Arabic. Pick one and use it for all your Arabic templates.
• Keep variables simple: a name, a date, a time. Numbers, order codes and English words inside Arabic text can appear in an unexpected order, so preview the template on a phone before you submit.
• Give Meta sample values in Arabic, such as an Arabic name, so the reviewer sees the message as a customer will.
• Start and end the template with words, not a variable. Meta rejects templates that start or end with one, in any language.
• Write the buttons and footer in Arabic too, so the whole message reads in one language.

Many UAE customers prefer English and many prefer Arabic. WhatsApp handles this with one template name in several languages. In WhatsApp Manager you create the template once and add Arabic as a second language; through the API you submit the same name again with the Arabic code. Meta’s best practices for marketing messages describe both ways.

Each language version is reviewed on its own and counts separately towards your account’s template limit. When you send, you choose the language for each customer, so record which language each customer prefers.

Keep the two versions saying the same thing with the same variables, so one campaign can fill either.

Pulse’s own template editor offers English, Kannada and Hindi. Arabic templates are created in WhatsApp Manager, Meta’s own tool, and Pulse brings them in with Sync from WhatsApp. From then on they are sent from campaigns, the inbox and the API like any other template.

Ramadan 2027 is expected to begin around 8 February, and Eid al-Fitr on 9 or 10 March. Both are confirmed only when the moon is sighted, so plan for either date. Eid al-Adha follows about ten weeks after Eid al-Fitr.

• Greetings such as Ramadan Kareem and Eid Mubarak are marketing templates under Meta’s category rules, because they build the relationship rather than report something the customer did. They are billed as marketing and count towards each person’s marketing limit.
• Submit them at least a week ahead. Meta’s review can take up to 24 hours, and a rejected template needs time to fix.
• Write the Eid greeting without a fixed date, so it can go out as soon as Eid is announced.
• Daily routines change during Ramadan. Avoid sending at iftar, when families break the fast at sunset, and check when your customers actually read messages.
• Send one greeting, not one a week. Meta’s advice is to avoid frequent promotional messages, which people are more likely to block or report.
• Keep booking confirmations and reminders free of greetings and offers. Adding them risks the template being treated as marketing.

Short, standard phrases, with the English meaning. Text in double braces is a variable: a customer’s name, a date or a time.

Pulse costs ₹15,000 a year for businesses outside India, billed in Indian rupees: your card is charged in rupees and your bank converts the amount. Nothing is added per message.

Meta bills each message to your own card at its own rate. The rate depends on the template category and the country code of the number you send to, so messages to UAE numbers are billed at Meta’s UAE rates, published on its pricing page. Meta raised its UAE marketing rate on 1 October 2025, so check the current rate before a large Ramadan campaign.

The same messages are free in the UAE as anywhere: replies within 24 hours of a customer’s message, utility templates sent inside that window, and everything for 72 hours after a click-to-WhatsApp ad chat you answer within 24 hours.