How to Create a WhatsApp Broadcast List (iPhone & Android)

A WhatsApp broadcast list is a saved group of up to 256 contacts that you can message all at once from the WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business phone app, where each person receives it as a private one-to-one chat rather than a group. It is free, it takes about two minutes to build, and there is one rule that makes roughly half of first attempts under-deliver.

This page is the practical version: the exact taps on Android and iPhone, how to reuse and edit a list, why some recipients get nothing, and the specific point at which a shop should stop maintaining lists by hand. If you are still comparing options rather than building one, read broadcast vs. broadcast list first.

Before you start: the one prerequisite

Every person you want to reach must have your number saved in their phone's address book. WhatsApp states that only contacts who have added your number will receive your broadcast message (WhatsApp Help Centre, about broadcast lists). This applies in the free WhatsApp Business app too (WhatsApp Help Centre, broadcast lists in the Business app).

You also need each contact saved in your phone — the picker only offers people already in your address book, so a number you have never saved cannot be added to a list at all. Save the contacts first, then build the list.

How to create a broadcast list on Android

1. Open WhatsApp and stay on the Chats tab.
2. Tap the three-dot menu in the top right corner.
3. Tap New broadcast.
4. Tick each contact you want to include. The counter at the top shows how many you have selected — it stops at 256.
5. Tap the green check button to create the list.
6. Type your message and tap send. Each recipient receives it as a private 1:1 chat.

How to create a broadcast list on iPhone

1. Open WhatsApp and go to the Chats tab.
2. Tap Broadcast Lists in the top left corner.
3. Tap New List.
4. Add the contacts you want, up to 256.
5. Tap Create.
6. Type your message and send.

The steps are the same in the free WhatsApp Business app on both platforms — it is the same feature with the same cap, not an upgraded version.

Reusing, editing and deleting a list

• To send again: open the broadcast list from your chat list like any other conversation and type a new message. The list persists; you do not rebuild it each time.
• To add or remove people: open the list, tap its name at the top, then edit the recipients. Removing someone does not notify them.
• To rename it: same screen — useful once you have four lists and cannot remember which is which.
• To delete it: long-press the list in your chats and delete. This removes the list, not the individual conversations you have already had.

What recipients actually see

This is the part that reassures most people: a broadcast-list message looks exactly like a normal message from you. There is no "broadcast" badge on the customer's side, no member list, and no way for them to see who else received it. Their reply comes back to you as an ordinary private chat, and other recipients never see it.

Because it lands as a normal chat, a broadcast-list message does not read as marketing to the recipient. That is an advantage and a trap: the same intimacy that makes it effective also means an unwanted message feels more intrusive than an email would, and the customer's only remedies are blocking you or reporting the number. Treat a list of 200 people with the restraint you would use messaging one of them individually.

The one visible tell is on your screen, where the message sits under the broadcast list rather than in an individual chat. Delivery ticks in a broadcast list reflect the whole list, so you cannot easily see which specific person read it.

Why some people did not receive it

If your list has 200 contacts and you get four replies, the usual cause is not a bad message. Work through these in order:

1. They have not saved your number. The most common cause by far. WhatsApp filters them out silently — no error, no warning, and your ticks still appear.
2. They saved a different number. A customer who saved your old shop number will not receive a broadcast from the new one.
3. They saved it in a different format. A number saved without the country code may not match the number you are sending from.
4. They blocked you at some point, which you will not be told about.
5. They did receive it and simply did not reply — which is normal, and is exactly the thing a broadcast list cannot measure for you.

Note that only the last of these can be distinguished from the others with the app's own information. That ambiguity is the underlying problem with broadcast lists as a business tool.

The three ceilings you will hit

None of these is a bug or a setting you have missed. They are deliberate anti-spam design in the consumer app, and no amount of configuration removes them.

Getting customers to save your number

Because the whole feature depends on the address book, growing the number of people who have saved you is the only lever that increases a broadcast list's reach. Four things that work in practice:

1. Ask at the point of purchase. "Save this number and I'll message you when the next batch lands" converts far better in the moment than a later request.
2. Put it on the packing slip or receipt with the reason attached — people save numbers that promise something specific, not numbers labelled "customer service".
3. Send a first message worth saving. An order update they actually needed makes saving the contact an obvious move.
4. Use a memorable display name on your WhatsApp Business profile so the saved contact is recognisable months later.

Even done well, expect a minority of customers to save you. That is the honest ceiling of the app-based approach and the reason merchants eventually move.

Practical tips while you are still on lists

• Ask people to save your number first. Put it on the packing slip, in the order confirmation, on the shop door: "Save this number to get our restock alerts." Without this the whole mechanism does nothing.
• Keep lists under 256 with room to spare so you are not rebuilding when you add three customers.
• Name lists by intent — "VIP regulars", "wholesale", "Tuesday market" — not "List 2".
• Send from a business number, not your personal one, so customers are saving the right contact.
• Keep your own opt-out record. The app will not do it for you, and continuing to message someone who asked you to stop is how numbers get reported.
• Do not send daily. There is no frequency cap in the app, so restraint is entirely manual.

When to stop and switch

The switching point is not a feeling, it is one of four concrete triggers:

1. You need to message more than 256 people in one send.
2. You need to reach customers who never saved your number — which is what a win-back or a first-purchase follow-up requires.
3. You need the message to contain their name, order number or delivery date rather than one generic line.
4. You need to answer "how many read it" with a number rather than a guess.

Any one of those and the app has run out. The alternative is the WhatsApp Business API through a tool like ConvoFly: the same private 1:1 delivery, but bounded by your messaging tier — 250 → 2,000 → 10,000 → 100,000 → unlimited unique recipients per rolling 24 hours, starting at 250 for a new number (Meta, WhatsApp messaging limits) — with personalization, automatic opt-out handling and full delivery stats.

What changes when you switch

Two things get harder and several get easier, so go in knowing both. Harder: business-initiated messages outside the 24-hour customer service window must use a template that Meta reviews before you can send it in bulk, so spontaneous "we just got these in" messages need planning. And there is a per-message fee — Meta charges when a template message is delivered, at rates that vary by category and country (Meta, WhatsApp pricing).

Easier: no 256 cap, no address-book rule, personalization, scheduling, automatic STOP handling, a shared inbox so more than one person can answer replies, and a report at the end. When you are ready, how to send your first WhatsApp broadcast is the step-by-step, and what a WhatsApp broadcast is covers the concepts underneath it.