There are several things to be aware of when formatting and scheduling courses for WhatsApp that differ from SMS or email. Here is a short list of common things to be aware of when planning out and designing your WhatsApp delivered courses:

1. Setting Delivery Time
   WhatsApp has a rule that with a 24 hour lapse in response from the WhatsApp user, the window for custom (course) messages from Arist closes. Several messages can pass back and forth in a 24 hour period as long as the Learner is responsive/engaging. When scheduling, it's best to set it to "deliver anytime" rather than a set delivery time due to the 24 hour constraint. This ensures the best user experience.

2. Delivery Time Defaults
   For Deliver Between or Anytime Schedule settings, the default delivery time will be the time at which the enrollment is created for the learner. This is editable by the learner in their Arist Profile after the fact.

3. Keep Your Activation Message Short and Sweet
   Keep the activation short and repeat the action they need to take.

   [Welcome! and short one-liner of what to expect from this course.]

   Adding asterisks '*' before and after will bold the statement like this: *Respond START to receive your first lesson!*

   EXAMPLE: " Hey! This 3-lesson course will help you drive value with your customers. Respond START to receive your first lesson! "

   Also keep in mind that a default system activation message will always send to the learner even if a custom one is not added. So if you're looking to create the shortest/simplest version possible, you can omit a Custom Activation Message in the Course Builder if you'd like.

   The automated activation message looks like this:

   Hello! This number has been enrolled in [course name].

   Reply with START to begin receiving messages, then add this number to your contacts for a better experience.

   This is a self-paced course, which means that your response to each question will trigger the next lesson until you have made it through the entire course. If your lesson doesn't have a question, just respond with NEXT to continue your course. Reply with STOP at any time to stop receiving messages or visit [magic link] to manage your enrollment. For help, respond with SUPPORT.

4. Using Images In Courses Through WhatsApp
   WhatsApp does not support the sending of GIF images and will display them as a link rather than a picture. If you plan on using images in your courses then be sure to upload in a JPEG or PNG format.

   NOTE: Activation messages do not include images due to WhatsApp Sending restrictions. Users must reply START to initiate the course and then lessons will include media content if uploaded.

5. Character Limit To WhatsApp Messages
   If your lesson and first question have a combined length of more than 1,000 characters, WhatsApp will convert images into URLs and will not display them in the message. To avoid this, we recommend you keep your lesson body and first question prompt's combined length under 1,000 characters so that images send properly through WhatsApp.

   Tips to help with this:

   • Use bullet points to breakup ideas and cut the fluff.

   • Use the response to learner (800 characters) to continue the lesson where needed.

   • Adjust the sequence of questions with the lesson - free-response questions allow for 1000 characters total between the lesson body and the question whereas multiple choice allows for 980. This is especially helpful because multiple-choice questions are longer than a free-response question.

   • Use a True/False multiple-choice question to save character count.

6. Course Enrollment Limit
   WhatsApp only allows users to be enrolled in up to 12 courses at once.

7. Nudges Are Not Currently Supported
   The reason Nudges are not supported is because they skip the activation message which prompts the learner to reply START. Since they're just one message, and it's a custom message, the WhatsApp window can never open to begin with in order to get the Nudge through to the WhatsApp user.

8. Custom Scheduler Cannot Be Used
   The custom scheduler cannot be used for WhatsApp because it would result in a poor learner experience, given the need for learners to respond START, and 24-hour window requirement.