Compliance and guidelines
It is important to implement measures to stay compliant when using Viber channels. Non-compliance may result in being blocked from using the communication channel or being suspended permanently.
Traffic types
Viber Business Messages (VBM) have two traffic types, regulated traffic and non-regulated traffic.
Both traffic types consist of five message types:
- Conversational messages
- Transactional content
- Promotional content
- International messages
- Message templates
Non-regulated traffic
For general industries, including eCommerce, retail, travel, technology, Viber Business Messaging falls under non-regulated traffic.
This category includes all five message types with pricing designed for a broader business use.
Regulated traffic
For industries such as gambling, microcredit, and loans, Rakuten Viber applies stricter terms to meet legal and regulatory requirements. All five message types are available, but pricing differs from non-regulated traffic.
Message types
Conversational messages
Conversational messages are messages that are tracked as part of a session. A session is a 24-hour time window that enables you to communicate with end users. A session begins when an end user initiates a conversation.
You can reply using:
- Session-based messages (text, image, file)
- Transactional messages
- Promotional messages
If you reply using a session-based message type, the session rate is activated. If you reply using other message types, you will be charged according to the message type.
If you use a session-based message type to reply to an end user outside the session, you will be charged the session rate.
Limitations:
- You can send a maximum of five consecutive messages within a session without receiving a response from the end user. Any additional messages you send without a response from the end user are blocked.
- You can send a maximum of 60 messages within a session. Any additional messages that you send outside the session will be charged.
Best practices:
- Do not send more than three consecutive messages without receiving a response from the end user.
- Do not send session-based message types outside of a session.
Transactional content
Transactional content is limited to text messages and does not support rich media.
Refer to the Message templates section for country-specific guidelines.
Promotional content
Promotional content is not allowed in the first message you send to customers.
Refer to the Viber approval section for more information.
International messages
International traffic refers to messages sent when the sender’s registered entity is located in a different country than the recipient.
The international traffic rate is a single fixed rate per country, covering both transactional and promotional traffic. This rate is charged whenever the sender and recipient are in different countries.
Local regulations
Some countries have criteria for using Viber as a communication channel or sending messages to other countries.
Message templates
In Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, any transactional (informative) messages you send to the end users must use registered templates approved by Viber. The templates must follow a predefined message structure and follow Viber guidelines (opens in a new tab).
If your business is based in any of the countries listed in this section, and you want to send transactional messages to customers who are outside these countries, you must use two accounts - one to communicate with customers within the above countries and the other for customers in all other countries.
To send transactional messages, contact your dedicated Infobip account manager or contact Support (opens in a new tab).
OTP template messages
One-time password (OTP) (opens in a new tab) messages are sent through Viber’s verified business messaging service to securely authenticate users.
OTP template messages are a dedicated category available by default through the Viber Business Messages API (opens in a new tab). These messages provide fast and reliable user verification.