A pre-filled WhatsApp message is the sentence already sitting in the chat box when a shopper taps your button. On a Shopify product page, that sentence is how you stop the first reply from being “which item?”. Squadkin’s WhatsApp Chat Button can open WhatsApp with the greeting you write. The only verified template variable is {{ current_page_url }}. The catalog does not document a product-title variable, so the app will not drop “Oak side table” into the text by itself.
You still have a workable setup. Type the words you want, include the page URL when the product address is enough context, and test the result on a phone. The shopper can edit the text before they send. The thread then lives in WhatsApp, not as a Shopify ticket.
One store-wide greeting
The default message is one store-wide field. Every page that shows the button starts from that text, plus the current URL if you used the variable. A greeting that names one product is wrong on the next product. A greeting that says the question is about the page they are on stays true, and the URL tells your team which page it was.
Popup mode puts that text in a box the shopper can change, under a header and a canned greeting bubble. Send builds the WhatsApp link from the box, so an extra line the shopper types, such as a size, is included. Direct-link mode skips the box and uses the button as the link, with the default message attached. Use the popup when you want the shopper to add a detail. Use the direct link when the URL alone is the context you need.
If you sell a handful of flagship products and you are willing to limit the button by URL, you can write a greeting that names one product and show that configuration only on that product’s address. Page rules include or exclude by page type or URL. They do not give you a different saved greeting per product in the catalog. Anything more granular than one default message is you, typing, or you, scoping where the button appears.
What you can put in the text
Write for the person who will answer, and for the shopper who must not feel tricked. The message should sound like something they meant to send.
- Current page URL: the documented variable. On a product page it is the address of that product. On a collection page it is the collection. Check both.
- A handwritten product name: type it only when the button cannot appear on other products, or when the name is your shop rather than the item.
- A blank for the shopper: “Size, colour, and question:” gives the agent a structure without inventing a variable.
- Your hours: one short clause so a night-time tap does not expect a night-time reply. The offline popup text is a separate field and should agree with this sentence.
Agent greetings follow the same rule. Each agent can have a name, number, avatar, and greeting, optionally limited to page types. A sales greeting can ask for size. A delivery greeting can ask for an order number. None of those fields are documented as product-title merge tags. The shopper chooses the agent. The app does not choose for them.
Keep the sentence short. Long pre-filled text is easy to send by accident and hard to read on a phone. If you need a policy paragraph, put it on the page. The WhatsApp box should carry the question, not your terms.
QR codes for packaging are outside this app
A hang tag that opens WhatsApp is not a feature in this catalog. There is no documented QR generator. Create a wa.me link and the code in a separate tool, then scan it before you print.
Point the tag and the website button at the same number unless you have a deliberate split, such as a retail agent and a wholesale agent. Two numbers mean two phones to check. The website can still add the current page URL. The printed code cannot.
Test on a phone, on a real product
Desktop previews hide line wraps and the way WhatsApp encodes a long URL. Use a phone with WhatsApp installed. Open two products and, if you have one, a collection.
- Confirm the pre-filled text matches what you saved, including spelling of any product name you typed by hand.
- Confirm the URL in the message is the page you were on, not the homepage, when you used the variable.
- Edit the box, if popup mode is on, and confirm the edited line is what arrives in WhatsApp.
- Send yourself the message. Confirm it does not appear in Shopify admin as an order or a ticket.
- Reload outside business hours. The button should remain, dimmed, with the offline popup text. Your pre-filled line and that offline line should not contradict each other.
If the URL is ugly in the chat, that is still the documented way to name the page. You can ask the shopper, in the same sentence, to add the product name in their own words. You cannot turn on a hidden title variable that the catalog does not list.
What is not a per-product variable
It is worth stating the boundary in one place. The catalog does not support a product title token, a variant token, a price token, or a SKU token in the WhatsApp greeting. Price in particular should not be copied into a chat by assumption. If prices are hidden for wholesale, the quote app’s own WhatsApp contact button is a separate product, with its own label, and it is not this pre-filled widget.
Analytics will not show you the text people sent. They show button clicks, popup opens, and send taps by day. A send tap means someone continued toward WhatsApp. It does not mean the pre-filled words were right. Read a sample of real threads on the phone for that.
A consent checkbox can sit above Send and block the link until it is ticked. The wording is yours. It does not change which variables exist. Google Analytics and Meta Pixel passthrough, if enabled, record the click, not the sentence.
Questions about pre-filled text
Can the message insert the product title automatically?
No. The only verified variable is the current page URL. Type a product name yourself when that name is correct on every page where the button shows.
Can I add a page URL by hand?
You can paste a fixed URL into the greeting, and you can use the variable so the URL matches the page the shopper is on. A fixed URL is wrong on every other product. Prefer the variable for a sitewide button.
Does the shopper have to send your exact sentence?
In popup mode they can edit the text area before Send. The link is built from what is in the box. Direct-link mode uses the default message without that on-page edit step.
The greeting controls are on the WhatsApp Chat Button page. Install WhatsApp Chat Button when you are ready to write that sentence and test it on a phone.