> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.orbit.devotel.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # MENA channels onboarding: WhatsApp and SMS > Ordered onboarding playbook for Middle East and North Africa senders — pick the right channel per market, prepare sender identity and KYC, get Arabic-first WhatsApp templates approved, navigate the SMS send path and its error codes, and set up quiet hours and local compliance controls. # MENA channels onboarding: WhatsApp and SMS This guide walks you end to end through the Middle East and North Africa channels — WhatsApp in the Gulf, SMS everywhere, voice where it is legal — from first sender readiness through send, delivery, and the error handling you will actually see. It complements the per-channel references ([WhatsApp](/channels/whatsapp), [SMS](/channels/sms)) — those pages document the API shapes; this guide is the ordered playbook you follow the first time. If you operate across regions, run this same playbook shape in APAC ([APAC channels onboarding](/guides/asia-channels-onboarding)) — only the market rules and channel picks differ. ## Pick the right channel per market Do not activate every channel at once. Pick per market: | Market | Default channel | Why | Notes | | ------------------------------------------------------ | --------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | GCC (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman) | **WhatsApp** | Dominant consumer share in Gulf markets — first inbox for order alerts and support. | Require template approval before first send. SMS is the fallback channel. | | North Africa (Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya) | **SMS** | Reliable reach where WhatsApp registration and template approval move slower. | Alphanumeric sender-id is not regulator-guaranteed in most of these markets — test sender-id behavior with a few sends before committing at scale. | | Levant (Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq) | **SMS** | Legal two-way marketing is tightly restricted or blocked; WhatsApp template approval is the workable path. | Expect sender-id registration steps in Jordan; blocked marketing in Lebanon and Iraq. | | All markets | **Voice** | OTP calls and order-delivery calling where voice is permitted. | Legal only in GCC and Egypt; blocked as a marketing channel across North Africa and the Levant. See [country capabilities](/numbers/country-capabilities). | If you are unsure, start with WhatsApp in the GCC and SMS elsewhere — then add the second channel per market once the first is stable. ## 1. Sender and KYC readiness Sender-identity and organization KYC gate everything downstream, so land them before you write a single message: 1. Complete [Organization KYC onboarding](/guides/organization-kyc-onboarding) — the organization profile, legal entity, and the documents a carrier-facing sender will ask you for. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are the strictest sender-identity regimes in the region; KYC holds there stall both SMS sender-id registration and WhatsApp Business Account review. 2. Check [Country capabilities](/numbers/country-capabilities) for the exact markets you send into — it tells you whether two-way SMS, voice, and WhatsApp are open per country before you buy numbers or register sender-ids. 3. Register your alphanumeric SMS sender-id per market where you intend to use one. In the GCC this is usually **pre-registered with the carrier through your organization documents** — budget days to weeks, not hours. In most North African markets sender-id is **dynamic or numeric** — receivers see a phone number, not a brand. Test sender-id behavior in each market before you bulk-send. 4. For WhatsApp, connect your Business Account in [WhatsApp getting started](/guides/whatsapp/getting-started) — the WABA review is where KYC and brand pages get re-checked; a mismatch there is the single most common MENA stall. Sender identity rules are ownership rules — you own the organization documents and registrations; Orbit stores what you connect. ## 2. WhatsApp — template approval for Arabic-first markets WhatsApp in MENA is template-first: you cannot send free-form marketing text — every outbound opens with an approved template. Plan template creation before you plan campaigns. 1. Open the [WhatsApp template creation walkthrough](/guides/whatsapp/templates-create-approve) — name the template, set the category (`MARKETING`, `UTILITY`, `AUTHENTICATION`), and write the body. Arabic or bilingual Arabic-English templates usually pass review faster than English-only in Gulf markets, because Meta's reviewers validate against local-language normativity — keep the body human, not transliterated. 2. Use the right script. Meta accepts the Arabic alphabet (plus digits and common punctuation). Avoid mixing scripts inside a single body — right-to-left and left-to-right text re-order unpredictably in variable placeholders. If you must include a Latin product name, put it in a fixed literal, not a `{{variable}}`. 3. Keep the variable count low. Each added `{{n}}` is another rejection-review vector; [template variable count limits](/troubleshooting/whatsapp-template-var-count) covers the failure shape. 4. Wait for approval before you send — no send path works until the template is `APPROVED`. Rejection reasons are most often a `MISLEADING` sample or a variable that does not match the sample — read [WhatsApp template troubleshooting](/troubleshooting/whatsapp-template) before you re-submit. Approval typically lands in minutes to hours; budget a day in GCC markets where local review queues stretch. ## 3. SMS — the send path and the errors you will actually see SMS in MENA goes through the standard send endpoint — one `POST /api/v1/messages` against your sender identity, with the body in plain text or Unicode for Arabic. ```bash theme={null} curl -X POST https://api.orbit.devotel.io/api/v1/messages \ -H "X-API-Key: dv_live_sk_..." \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{ "to": "+971501234567", "body": "Your order has shipped.", "channel": "sms" }' ``` | Field | Required | Description | | --------- | -------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `to` | yes | E.164 recipient — MENA numbers must carry the country code (+971, +966, +20, etc.). | | `body` | yes | Message text. Arabic is Unicode — a character costs more per segment than GSM-7, so Arabic bodies paginate earlier than English; re-check the segment preview on the compose screen before bulk send. | | `channel` | no | Use `sms` for the MENA default channel; WhatsApp templates go on the WhatsApp channel. | A `202 Accepted` means queued; terminal `delivered` / `failed` arrive on the delivery-status webhook (or on `GET /messages/{id}` if you do not subscribe). Common SMS failure shapes in MENA: | Code | HTTP | Cause | Fix | | ----------------------- | ---- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | `INVALID_RECIPIENT` | 422 | `to` misses the country code or is malformed. | Send in E.164; check the market's numbering plan in [Country capabilities](/numbers/country-capabilities). | | `VALIDATION_ERROR` | 422 | Body/channel malformed; sender-id not registered for the destination market. | Register the sender-id per market or drop the field; confirm the sms channel is intended. | | `SENDER_NOT_REGISTERED` | 422 | GCC sender-id pre-registration missing. | Complete the sender-id registration with your carrier; see [Sender resolution errors](/troubleshooting/sender-resolution-errors). | | `RATE_LIMITED` | 429 | Over the per-tenant throughput ceiling. | Honour `Retry-After`; stage bulk sends through [Campaigns](/api-reference/endpoints/campaigns). | | `MESSAGE_SEND_FAILED` | 502 | Carrier rejected or upstream timeout. | Check `metadata.classified_error_code` on the message row before support; re-check number validity with a [Lookup](/numbers/lookup). | | `KYC_HOLD` | 403 | Organization KYC incomplete for the destination. | Finish [Organization KYC onboarding](/guides/organization-kyc-onboarding) and re-send. | Read the full send path in [Send and receive messages](/guides/send-receive-messages) and the machine-readable statuses on the message row before you branch anything on label strings. ## 4. Quiet hours and local compliance pointers Every compliance control on Orbit is tenant-owned and fail-open: you — not the platform — decide the windows you will not send in, and the platform applies them to your traffic only when you opt in. A few controls matter specifically in MENA: * **Quiet hours** — define a recipient-local sending window (for example, no marketing SMS 21:00–08:00) per market in [Campaign limits and quiet hours](/guides/campaign-limits-quiet-hours). Because quiet hours fail open, an unset window never blocks a send — set the window only for the markets where you want one. * **Country-level requirements** — [Country requirements](/compliance/country-requirements) lists per-market legal duties (sender registration duties in Saudi, opt-in requirements in Egypt, voice marketing bans in North Africa). These are your obligations to fill in; Orbit's compliance checklists make the country rules visible without hard-gating them. * **Frequency caps** — use [Frequency caps](/guides/frequency-caps) to avoid over-sending in markets with low SMS tolerance; caps are tenant-side and default off. * **Consent and DNC** — wire opt-out handling through [Consent management](/compliance/consent-management) and [DNC scrub](/compliance/dnc-scrub) where local law requires it. ## 5. Troubleshooting accordions Arabic templates most often fail on a variable that no longer matches the approved sample. Re-check the template body and sample exactly, keep variables to one or two, and re-submit. If you need to localize, create a separate Arabic template rather than mixing languages — see [WhatsApp template troubleshooting](/troubleshooting/whatsapp-template). Most of North Africa does not carry regulator-guaranteed alphanumeric sender-id. Receivers see a numeric sender even where you registered one elsewhere. This is expected — register sender-id per market where required, and do not bulk-send until you have validated what a recipient actually sees. See [Sender resolution errors](/troubleshooting/sender-resolution-errors). GCC sender regimes require complete organization KYC before any sender registration. A hold means the onboarding checklist is incomplete — finish [Organization KYC onboarding](/guides/organization-kyc-onboarding), then retry the send. In North Africa the carrier DLR path is lossy; `submitted_no_receipt` does not always mean the handset did not get the message. Read [Message status lifecycle](/concepts/delivery-lifecycle) before you re-send — a `submitted_no_receipt` row can still flip to `delivered`. Inbound replies must be answered inside the 24-hour customer-service window; after it closes, you must open with a template again. Manage windows deliberately in high-volume markets — see [WhatsApp 24h window](/guides/whatsapp/24h-window). ## See also * [APAC channels onboarding](/guides/asia-channels-onboarding) — the same playbook shape in APAC (LINE / WeChat). * [WhatsApp getting started](/guides/whatsapp/getting-started) — the WABA connect path. * [Send and receive messages](/guides/send-receive-messages) — the cross-channel send pattern. * [Country capabilities](/numbers/country-capabilities) — per-market channel coverage.