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Launch Groups: WhatsApp groups and seller rotation

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Conversa Labs

Last updated on Oct 21, 2026

Overview

Launch Groups solve a classic problem for anyone gathering an audience into WhatsApp groups for a launch: the group fills up and its invite link "dies". You create a launch group with a single smart link. Whoever clicks is taken to the group that is open at that moment. When that group reaches the capacity you set, the platform creates the next group on its own and sends new leads there, without you changing the link you shared.

Each launch group has a target type:

Group: standard WhatsApp groups, created automatically as each one fills.
Community: a WhatsApp Community with the groups inside it.
Channel: an existing broadcast channel that people join through its invite link.
Seller rotation: each lead opens a one-to-one chat with one of your sellers on WhatsApp. No group is created.

In this article, a launch group is what you create in the Launch Groups list, and a unit is each WhatsApp group created inside it. On the launch group's board, units are numbered ("Group 1", "Group 2" and so on).

Prerequisites

Opt-in module: it must be enabled for your account (feature flag launch_group_distribution).
Permissions: agents can view launch groups. Creating, editing, activating, pausing and recovering launch groups is for administrators and for custom roles with the Manage launch groups permission.
A connected WhatsApp Web inbox, or a hybrid inbox with its WhatsApp Web side active. That inbox creates and administers the groups. A Cloud API-only inbox does not appear in the list.
Seller rotation depends on a release by the platform operator. Without it, the option is shown disabled.
A launch group stays inert until it is activated. Nothing happens by default.

Step by step

In Growth → Launch Groups, click New launch group.
In Basics, enter a name and choose:
- the WhatsApp inbox;
- the Rotation inboxes, if you want to spread group creation across several numbers;
- the Target type and the Join mode;
- the Capacity per unit, which is the capacity of each group;
- the Naming template for the groups.
In Distribution, choose how the platform picks the unit and, if you want, create Routing rules. For seller rotation, this tab is called Sellers.
In Schedule, optionally set the date when the launch group should end.
In Entry and exit, choose the Entry triggers, the block and allow lists, and the Waiting page.
In Messages, write the Welcome message and the texts for each moment.
In Destinations, set the identity and permissions of new groups. If the target is a channel, enter the existing channel. For seller rotation, this tab is not shown.
In Settings, adjust the sending pace and the interval between creation steps.
Click Save. A tab with a pending field is marked "(review)", and the Go to button takes you there.
In the list, use Activate. The platform prepares the first unit right away, so the link has a destination as soon as you share it.
Click the address in the Smart link column to copy it, and share it in ads, capture pages and posts.
Follow the launch group with Open. The Units tab shows the board of groups, and the Members tab shows who joined, who is queued and who failed. There is also Engagement and, for seller rotation, Sellers. The board updates by itself when a unit is created, opens or fills and when members join or leave. If something looks out of date, use Refresh.

Settings & options

Target, capacity and join mode

Capacity per unit: how many people each group takes before the platform moves to the next one. The default is 256, or the value set in the account defaults, and the maximum configurable value is 1,023. Use maximum capacity fills in that value only when you click it. The Safety margin starts at 0 and reserves seats below WhatsApp's limit of 1,024. For example, capacity 1,023 and margin 24 allow up to 1,000 people; capacity 256 still allows 256. The form shows the margin's origin, with options to customize it or restore the inherited value. Existing units without a capacity override follow edits to the launch group; an explicit unit capacity takes precedence. A launch group's saved capacity is not increased automatically. A community holds up to 2,000 people in total; after that, WhatsApp may refuse to link new groups, and they still open normally, outside the community. A channel has no follower limit.
Join mode:
- Invite link: the person receives the group link and taps to join;
- Direct add: the person is added to the group directly, which depends on their consent on WhatsApp;
- Both: the platform tries a direct add and, if that fails, sends the invite link.
A channel only supports the invite link.
Rotation inboxes: with no selection, the primary inbox creates every unit. The order is preserved and new selections are added at the end. The list shows the full name, the number when available and the connection state: connected, disconnected or unknown. For a hybrid inbox, the state refers to its WhatsApp Web side. Use the move-up and move-down buttons to choose the order; with the keyboard, press Alt + ↑ or Alt + ↓ while a control in the selected row has focus. Focus follows the inbox, and the new position is announced to screen readers. A selected inbox that no longer appears among the available options stays identified by its ID: you can move or explicitly remove it without losing other selections. If loading fails, use Try again. These choices determine who creates the next groups; another inbox cannot take over groups already created.

How the platform picks the unit

In Distribution → How the unit is chosen:

Fill the first one (default): everyone goes to the lowest-numbered open unit until it is full.
Rotate across open units: the platform alternates between the open units, in sequence.
Pick at random: the platform picks one of the open units at random.

Most of the time there is only one open unit, because the platform creates the next one only when none has room. These options matter when more than one unit is open at the same time, for example when a unit that was full has room again because people left.

Routing rules

Rules can route a lead to another launch group based on UTMs, the contact's label or the entry source.

For the smart link, rules receive the address's UTMs and the source link; contact labels are not available through this path. For events handled by the entry triggers, rules receive the contact and the source event; for an automation's enrollment action, they receive the contact and the source automation. These two paths do not receive the link's UTMs. Manual enrollment through the Enroll button goes directly to the chosen launch group, without consulting these rules.

Each rule combines conditions, one per field. For the link, use Campaign source (utm_source) and Campaign name (utm_campaign).
Every condition in a rule must match. For UTMs, capital letters and spaces at the ends make no difference. A label (tag) must exist on the contact with the same value, and the entry source (source) must exactly match the enrollment source.
For Entry source, choose an option supplied by the server; event names are not enrollment sources. For Label, choose a label from your account. Saved values that are no longer available remain visible until you choose a replacement or remove the condition. UTMs remain free text.
The first matching rule wins. Use the arrows to change the order. With no match, the lead stays in this launch group.
The destination must be another active launch group. A rule pointing to a paused, archived or completed launch group is ignored, and the next rule is evaluated.
The destination launch group can have rules of its own. The platform follows at most three hops and stops any loop, leaving the lead in the launch group it reached.
Use Test a link to paste a link with UTMs and see which rule it triggers before you share it.

To start with an example:

Under Destination for examples, choose another active launch group in your account. If no destination is available, create or activate another launch group and return to the form.
Choose the Instagram example (utm_source = instagram), the campaign example (utm_campaign = black-friday) or the example with two conditions (utm_source = google AND utm_campaign = lancamento). The rule is added at the end of the list; previous rules, their order, the values you entered and the test link are preserved.
Use Fill in the example link to change only the test field. The illustrative address is not opened. Check the Expected result in the current draft: an earlier rule may take priority over the example.
Review the destination, conditions and order, then click Save.

The test reads only utm_source and utm_campaign from the URL. It does not evaluate tag or source, save rules or enroll anyone; it also does not confirm available seats or the destination launch group's rules. For example, ?utm_source=instagram matches the Instagram example; the same link without that UTM does not match that rule.

If the saved routing configuration has an invalid format, the original value remains visible. Replace invalid configuration clears only that value in the draft; review inherited rules, build valid rules and save to apply the repair. Editing another field preserves the old configuration without converting its values.

End date and completion

In Schedule → End the launch group on, you set when the launch group ends.

After that date, no new unit is created and nobody else from the queue is placed in a group.
At the next check, which runs every few minutes, the launch group becomes Completed, as long as no unit is being created. Anyone still in the queue at that moment does not join a group and shows in Members as Skipped.
Between the date and completion, the smart link may still lead to a unit that remains open. Once completed, the launch group accepts no new enrollments.
Without a date, the launch group keeps going until you pause it.
If the chosen date has already passed, the screen warns that the launch group may complete in the next cycle. Use Clear the date to remove it.

Pause, archive, restore and duplicate

Pause stops new entries: the smart link no longer sends anyone to a group and queued members are not placed. The WhatsApp groups already created keep existing.
Archive pauses the launch group and removes it from the main list (Archived filter). Nothing is deleted.
Restore brings an archived launch group back as a draft. Activate it again to receive leads.
Duplicate creates a copy of the configuration, which is useful to change a locked field. The copy starts with a different smart-link address, without the end date and without the group images: review those fields before activating it and share the new link.

Waiting page and unavailable link

Waiting page (in Entry and exit): the address where people land when they click the link while no unit is open yet, or while the launch group is a draft, paused, archived or completed.
Without that address, the visitor sees a short page saying the link is not available right now. The details are in What a visitor sees when the link is unavailable, under Troubleshooting.

Entry triggers and lists

Entry triggers: automatically enroll contacts in the launch group when a chosen event happens, such as a paid charge, a CRM deal won or a captured comment. The 22 options in the catalog supplied by the server are accepted, with translated names and descriptions; other platform event names are not automatically entry triggers. For paid charges, use payment_charge.paid: payment_charge.confirmed is an emitted alias, not an accepted configuration option. An empty list turns off automatic enrollment through events. Use search to find an option by name, description or key, then select the ones you want to use. Search does not hide saved entries. If the catalog fails to load, try again: this refreshes the options without clearing values or changes in progress. Old configurations with unknown keys require explicit correction or removal; entries remain visible, and choosing a replacement changes the list only after you apply the repair. A saved value in an invalid format is also shown; replacing it with an empty list is an explicit action to confirm when saving. Nothing is silently converted or discarded. Editing another field may retain exactly the old list, but changing triggers requires the entire list to be valid. Creating or duplicating a launch group also requires a valid list. The API rejects invalid lists with HTTP 422 and the code invalid_entry_triggers. A catalog entry does not guarantee that the event is produced, that its module is enabled or that the contact is eligible to join. In particular, commerce.due_soon has no automatic producer yet.
Blacklist and Whitelist: one number per line. A number on both lists stays blocked. When the allow list has entries, only those numbers get in. Anyone stopped this way shows in Members as Skipped.
Enroll (on the launch group detail): paste WhatsApp numbers, one per line. The platform removes duplicates, skips the numbers stopped by the lists, and reports how many entered the queue. Pasted numbers only join the group in Direct add and Both modes, when the add succeeds. In Invite link mode, they show as Invited, but nobody receives the link: a pasted number is not tied to a contact, and the invite only goes to contacts who already have a conversation with the platform.

Messages

Welcome message: in Invite link and Both modes (when the person gets the invite), the platform attempts to send the message and group link to people who enter the queue through a trigger, an automation or the API, through its existing conversation with the contact. This send is not attempted for people without an existing conversation or enrolled by number only. People who click the smart link are already on their way to the group and are not sent this welcome. You can use variables, such as the contact's first name.
Spintax variants: add alternative versions. Each send picks one at random, which makes the messages less repetitive. The Generate variants with Maestro button suggests variants.
Message media: use Upload file, Choose from library or Paste link in an available field. Uploads and library selection require the account's library to be enabled and accessible to your role; without access, use an allowed link. If selection fails, the previous value is kept. Wait for the upload to finish, then click Save to apply the choice. External links must use HTTPS; HTTP is accepted only for a file belonging to the platform and authorized for the account.
Moments with media: welcome (welcome) and unit opening (unit_opened) have a media sending path. In the messages-by-moment list, unit opening is the option with media available; welcome uses its own editor. The other five moments — reminder, countdown, waitlist confirmation, removal notice and graduation notice — are unavailable for new media: no automatic send is connected to them yet. Old media is kept and can be removed to repair the configuration. Saving text or a file does not, by itself, schedule a send.
Two messages with media: in the media flow, the platform prepares the text message with the invite and group card first, followed by a separate message with the file. The two messages appear separately in the conversation. A local record or queue submission does not confirm delivery or reading in WhatsApp.
Template selectors unavailable for sending: Template sent, under Direct message on join, and Notice sent before the removal, under post-purchase, use template IDs supplied by the server. You can repair an old ID or restore inheritance, but these two fields are not connected to sending yet. Saving an ID neither sends a message nor schedules a notice, even when choosing welcome or unit opening. This is separate from the media flows above.

Launch group and individual group photos

Under Destinations, configure the launch group's identity photo. To customize just one group, use that group's settings on the board. The individual group's photo override takes precedence over the launch group identity. Without an override, the launch group identity applies; without that, the inherited URL is used, when present. Remove media on an individual group's photo restores its inherited image after saving.

Use a JPEG or PNG file up to 8 MiB (8,388,608 bytes), uploaded from your computer, chosen from the library or supplied as a link. This is the photo limit, not a general limit for all message attachments.
Use HTTPS for external photo links. HTTP is accepted only for a file belonging to the platform and authorized for the account; do not use an external HTTP address or modify a library link to try to make it valid.
A rejected file or link keeps the previous selection. Choosing and saving an image does not, by itself, confirm that the photo has been applied in WhatsApp.

Group message history

Selecting and sending historical originals through the Launch Groups interface is not available yet. The policy defined for this feature distinguishes:

Automatic with proof: requires proven business authorship of the originals and complete verification of the message set being considered. That proof is still absent; automatic sending remains unavailable.
Older messages by manual selection: provides for choosing up to 100 originals with a preview. This flow is also unavailable in the current interface. Manual selection must not be called the "latest messages from the business" and does not prove business authorship, retention of the originals or message delivery.

The existence of local records does not establish which messages are the most recent or guarantee 90 days of retention. A failure or an unconfirmed outcome does not authorize resending as a new attempt or with new identifiers; preserve the existing attempt for investigation.

Seller rotation

With the Seller rotation target type, the smart link does not lead to a group: it opens a WhatsApp chat with one of your sellers, with a ready-made message such as "Hi! I came from the link and would like to know more.". No group is created.

Sellers are managed on the Sellers tab of the launch group detail.

Add seller: enter the name, the phone number with country and area code, and the weight. The same phone number cannot appear twice. On the seller's row, you can link an Inbox and a Linked agent.
Order and Paused: reorder the queue with the arrows, and pause a seller without removing them.
How the seller is chosen: Take turns in order (default), Weighted (a seller with weight 2 gets, on average, twice as many leads as one with weight 1) or Random draw.
Daily limit per seller: how many leads each seller receives per day; 0 means no limit. The day follows the account's time zone. Repeated clicks from the same browser and network within 30 minutes are not counted again.
Pause sellers who are offline: skips a seller whose linked agent is offline.
With no seller available (all paused, offline or at their daily limit), the link uses the Waiting page or shows the unavailable page. When the launch group is active and has no sellers, or all of them are paused, the tab warns that leads are going to the fallback destination.
Until the platform operator releases seller rotation, the tab shows the sellers read-only.

Inherited settings and "Restore default"

Some options can come from three sources: the system default, the account setting or a value set on this launch group. The launch group's value wins over the account's, and the account's wins over the default. A chip next to the option shows where the current value comes from.

On the Sellers tab, each option starts inherited ("Inherited value: …"). Use Customize to set a value for this launch group only, or Inherit to drop it before saving.
When the option already has a value saved on the launch group, Restore default appears. It deletes the customization, and the launch group goes back to following the account or, without it, the system default. It does not copy the inherited value into the launch group.
In the form, the interval between creation steps works the same way: the chip reads "Inherited from the system default" or "Set on this launch group", and Restore the default goes back to the inherited value.
The Max sends per second and Max sends per hour fields use the system default when left blank. Both limits apply together.

Units: identity, invite and members

Additional co-admins: optional. The connected inbox number already creates the group as its owner; add only the other people who should also administer the unit.
Max confirmed attempts per launch unit: in WhatsApp Hub → Settings → Broadcast throttling, set per inbox how many confirmed WhatsApp rejections each unit may have before the launch group pauses. The limit comes from the inbox that creates that unit, and the same limit applies to rejections of the unit's optional adjustments, except that the launch group does not pause: the adjustment is left out and the unit opens anyway. The screen identifies whether the value comes from this inbox, the account or the installation default; a timeout or uncertain outcome never uses this budget and still requires reconciliation.
Fields locked after the first unit: as soon as the launch group creates its first group, the inbox, the target type and the smart-link address are fixed, because the groups already created belong to them. The form shows those fields as read-only and the server rejects the change. To change any of them, duplicate the launch group and adjust the copy before activating it; the copy has a different smart link. An address that was once used by more than one launch group cannot be chosen: it is retired for good (see An address used by more than one launch group under Troubleshooting).
Invite link per unit: administrators and roles with Manage launch groups can manage the invite of open units, in groups and communities; these actions do not apply to channels. On the units board, Fetch invite link re-reads from WhatsApp the link the group holds right now (the safe fix when the stored copy went stale). Generate a new invite link is different: it revokes the current one, so every link already shared in an ad, a post or a sent message stops working immediately. The platform asks for confirmation, naming the unit, before doing that. Once the invitation is confirmed, the launch group smart link points to it. If another invite update is in progress, wait for it to finish before trying again. If the response does not confirm the new link, use Fetch invite link to recover the current invite before sharing it. While a new link is being generated, the previous one is not available to copy. If the screen cannot confirm the current invitation, use Try again to check it before sharing it; this check does not generate another link or revoke an invitation.
Member states: on Members, filter by state and by source. The states are Pending, Queued, Invited, Added, Joined, Failed, Skipped, Waitlisted, Left, Removed and Graduated.
Retry the failed ones: on the Members tab, administrators and people with the Manage launch groups permission in a custom role can return every member in Failed to the queue; they will be placed into the next open unit. The platform reports how many went back to the queue, and that number comes from the server, not from the page in front of you. Before confirmation, the dialog checks the launch group's total failed count and explains that filters and pagination do not limit the action. If that check fails, load the count again; confirmation stays disabled until a valid count is available.

What is recorded for each click

When someone clicks the smart link, the platform records the campaign of origin (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term and utm_content), the domain of the page the person came from, the browser family and a short code derived from the IP address. The IP address, the full browser string and the full address of the page of origin are not stored. For seller rotation, the click also records which seller received the lead.

Use cases

Launch warm-up gathering thousands of people into groups without swapping the link.
Communities split into units, keeping each group within a manageable size.
One launch group per acquisition channel: a single link in your ads, with routing rules that send people from Instagram, YouTube or a specific campaign to the right launch group.
One-to-one sales service with seller rotation, respecting each seller's daily limit.
Automatically enroll people who arrive through a click-to-WhatsApp ad, with the Ad lead captured (CTWA / lead form) trigger.
Use the same smart link in link ads, posts and on the capture page.

Tips, limits & best practices

Always promote the smart link, never the direct link of a specific group.
Respect WhatsApp's member limit when setting the capacity. To reserve seats below the 1,024 ceiling, configure the Safety margin; the default is 0. Manual joins and previously shared invites can occupy seats before the next count refresh.
Watch the join rate to avoid triggering WhatsApp anti-spam blocks. Use the sending pace in Settings to limit sends per second and per hour.
Generating a new invite link invalidates the links already shared. Prefer Fetch invite link, which only re-reads the current link, and revoke only on purpose.
Nobody is added to a channel directly. WhatsApp only lets people join a channel through its invite link, so a launch group with the Channel target always works by link, and the fetch and generate invite actions do not apply.
Automatic channel creation is still in test-only mode and is not available to accounts. The channel must exist first, created for example in WhatsApp Hub → Channels → Create channel. A channel launch group only activates with the Channel identifier and the Channel invite URL filled in Destinations, and no screen in the platform shows that identifier today. The platform cannot change an existing channel's name, description or photo.
Check your routing rules with Test a link before publishing ads with UTMs.
For seller rotation, keep at least one seller unpaused and with a daily limit that fits the expected volume.
Monitor occupancy to ensure there is always a unit with room.

Troubleshooting

The link doesn't route to a group: check that the launch group is active and has an open unit.
New leads don't enter a new unit: check the capacity and that the launch group has not passed its end date.
A routing rule did not send the lead to another launch group: identify the entry path. For the smart link, check the UTMs and the source link. For events handled by entry triggers and for the automation's enrollment action, check the contact's labels and the literal source event or automation, respectively. Also check that the destination launch group is active and whether an earlier rule matches first. The Enroll button bypasses routing. Test a link checks only UTMs; it does not simulate labels or the entry source.
The launch group does not complete: completion only happens after the date in End the launch group on, and only when no unit is being created. Without a date, the launch group never completes on its own; to end it, pause or archive it.
The Seller rotation option is disabled: it depends on a release by the platform operator.
The seller rotation link goes to the Waiting page or the unavailable page: no seller is available at that moment. They are all paused, offline (with Pause sellers who are offline on) or at their daily limit. The Sellers tab only shows the warning when there are no sellers or all of them are paused; in the other cases, check the agents' status and the daily limit.
I can't activate a channel launch group: the platform does not activate a channel launch group without the Channel identifier and the Channel invite URL in Destinations. No screen shows the channel identifier today, so a channel launch group cannot yet be activated from the platform alone.
A unit could not be created: open the unit on the board to see its diagnosis. It states what happened, at which step, how many attempts there were and when the next automatic attempt is due. Review the inbox connection and additional co-admins.
The unit already has a group and its configuration is in progress: when the group already exists in WhatsApp, the platform resumes the pending work on its own. The card says so and does not offer "Confirm absence", because authorizing a new attempt there would create a duplicate group. That action only appears when the platform allows reconciling an unconfirmed creation. Having no group recorded in the platform does not prove that it is absent from WhatsApp: an administrator must check before confirming.
The unit is open, with pending adjustments: a unit can open and take members even when an optional adjustment was not applied (logo, description, co-admins, community link). The card lists exactly which steps were left out. Those adjustments are not reapplied automatically: fix the configuration and apply them in WhatsApp whenever you want. Message permission, join approval (when requested) and the invite link (in the link modes) are essential steps: they must be applied before the unit opens.
The creator account is unavailable or lost group access: another inbox in the rotation cannot take over an existing group. Check the creator connection and its WhatsApp access. When the diagnosis requires a configuration fix, keep the launch group paused until access is restored, then reactivate it.
WhatsApp did not confirm the outcome: the launch group pauses to avoid creating a duplicate group; first confirm in WhatsApp whether the group exists. Only if it does not, use Confirm absence and retry; it reuses the same unit and does not create another sequence.
Deleting a launch group does not delete the WhatsApp groups: deletion removes the configuration, the units and the member history inside the platform. The groups already created keep existing in WhatsApp, and closing them has to be done there.
An address used by more than one launch group: the smart link does not carry the account name, so one address can never belong to two launch groups, and the platform prevents that for good. If your installation already had launch groups under the same address, the platform retired that address permanently and gave each affected launch group a new one, made of the old address followed by the account number (for example, promo becomes promo-12), with extra suffixes when needed to keep it unique. Always copy the confirmed address from the launch group detail rather than deriving it from this example. The launch group detail shows a notice with the previous address, and the copy button already hands out the new link. The old links stopped working: the visitor sees the unavailable page, with no fallback URL and no lead recorded, and this also applies to paused or archived launch groups. Share the new link everywhere the old one was published. A retired address cannot be chosen again by any launch group, not even after the others are deleted.
What a visitor sees when the link is unavailable: for a launch group with a valid address, if it is a draft, paused, archived, completed or has no open unit, the smart link uses its configured Waiting page when one exists. Unknown or retired addresses never use that fallback. Without a valid destination, the platform shows a short public page saying the link is not available right now. When the address belongs to exactly one launch group, the page uses the owning account's language: Portuguese, English or Spanish; another account language uses English. For an unknown, retired or ambiguous address, it uses the browser's primary language when it is one of these three, or English otherwise. The page does not reveal the account or launch group name and does not appear in search engines.
I don't see the module: it may not be enabled for your account or your role.