# Requirement change

Marketing signed the WhatsApp deal this morning, so **WhatsApp is a channel now**. Legal have
already cleared it and the provider adapter is done, so as far as you are concerned it is just
another way of reaching somebody.

What I need to be true:

- A recipient who has asked for WhatsApp gets WhatsApp, in whatever position they put it in their
  list. If it is their first choice it is tried first; if it is their second choice it is what we
  fall back to. Exactly like the ones we already have.
- If the WhatsApp provider times out we try again, and if it hard-bounces we give up on it and move
  on. Same rules — I do not want a special case for it.
- **A WhatsApp message buzzes somebody's phone**, so during their quiet hours it is held back the
  same way texts and push are. If WhatsApp is all somebody accepts, then during their quiet hours
  they hear nothing from us and that is the correct answer.
- Email is still the one thing we will send at 3am, and that has not changed.
- It is **opt-in**. Somebody who has never told us their preferences must not suddenly start getting
  WhatsApp messages — the people we have nothing on record for carry on exactly as they do today.

Nothing else changes: the same retry schedule, the same attempt counting, the same idempotency, the
same behaviour when everything is exhausted.
