Meta's deprecation of the Message Tags feature on Messenger

Vc tem o link para o aviso da meta sobre isso?

Oi ​@Welington ferreira pode encontrar a documentação da Meta aqui: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/messenger-platform/reference/send-api#message-tag-usages

Hi! Could you please clarify this?

This is actually a very important feature for many businesses. Without it, user engagement drops significantly and it becomes much harder to maintain effective communication.

Is this feature going to be disabled globally, or only in certain countries?

As far as I understand, the only replacement is Utility Messages, but they are available only in the US, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

So the main question is: what about businesses in Europe?
What solution or alternative will be available for European accounts and audiences?

I’d really appreciate your clarification.

I’m trying to understand what this means specifically for businesses in the EU / Europe.

Facebook says the replacement should be Utility Messages, but the problem is that Utility Messages are not available in Europe (and Marketing Messages aren’t available either).
So if Message Tags are removed globally, EU businesses would basically lose the ability to send follow-up messages outside the 24-hour window.

What confuses me is that Facebook documentation about Recurring Notifications says the feature will be disabled worldwide except for specific regions, including the EU:

“On February 10, 2026, the recurring notifications feature via the Messenger API will be disabled worldwide, except for Australia, the EU, Japan, South Korea, and the UK. Starting from that date, the Messenger API will return errors when attempting to send recurring notifications, except in the regions mentioned above.”

So I’m wondering if Message Tags will follow the same regional logic (still available in the EU), or if this is truly a global shutdown.

And if the EU region is actually excluded from the shutdown (meaning the API still works), it’s very important that ManyChat takes these regional exceptions into account, so that European pages/audiences can still have a working API and functionality, instead of it being removed for everyone globally.

If anyone has official clarification or reliable confirmation — I’d really appreciate it.

Hi ​@ctriker thank you for sharing your questions with us, I’ve escalated this to the team who will get back to you here and through the support ticket you submitted. Thank you so much for your patience!  🙏

Hi, I have the same questions as @ctriker, since my company also operates within the EU and we regularly work outside the 24-hour window. In addition, we’re wondering if disabling all the flows where we have that option would start causing errors, and whether that could lead to the account being banned.

Any update on this?

It feels like those of us in Europe should still be able to use message tags for a while longer — or am I missing something?

Hi from malaysia, i got more than 10 different business using manychat - especially broadcast function. Now it seems like no matter what i do my subscriber shows 0 subscriber. As you know it is near to CNY a really happening holiday for us, anytime for this to recover?

Hi all ​@ctriker ​@amorosaurora ​@Thomsson thank you for your questions.  Hope the explanation below helps to clarify this update. 🙏

About Message Tags deprecation:

Meta is deprecating Message Tags on Facebook Messenger globally, and as a result, Message Tags will no longer be available in Manychat after February 9, 2026. This deprecation applies to all countries and regions, including the EU. Unfortunately, there are no regional exceptions for Message Tags, unlike for some other Messenger features. At this time, we want to be transparent that there will not be a direct one-to-one replacement available on February 9.

About Utility Messages:

Meta has announced Utility Messages as the new approach for eligible non-promotional messaging, and we are actively working on supporting Utility Messages in Manychat.
However, at the moment Utility Messages are not yet available in Manychat and Meta has not officially communicated any regional availability or restrictions for Utility Messages.

​@ctriker You mentioned that Utility Messages are not available in Europe. If this information comes from Meta documentation, we’d really appreciate it if you could share the link with our support team, so we can review and align on the same source.

Once Utility Messages are supported in Manychat and Meta provides clearer regional guidance, we’ll be sure to share detailed updates, including any EU-specific considerations.

About Marketing Messages in the EU:
You are correct that Marketing Messages are currently not available in the EU.
You can refer to Meta’s documentation here for confirmation.


Recurring Notifications vs. Message Tags
It’s also important to clarify that Recurring Notifications (RN) and Message Tags are two separate features and follow different rules.

Regarding Recurring Notifications - RN was deprecated on January 12, 2026

• On February 10, 2026, Recurring Notifications via the Messenger API will be discontinued globally except for AU, EU, JP, KR, and the UK
• In those five regions, RN will continue to function, while attempts to send RN elsewhere will return errors

This regional exception, however, does not apply to Message Tags, which are being deprecated globally.
At this time, Recurring Notifications remain one of the primary approved options in the EU for messaging outside the 24-hour window.

One important note: the HUMAN_AGENT message tag is not affected.

All Live Chat messages sent by human agents outside the 24-hour window will continue to work as they do today.


Current state for EU businesses
At this moment:

• Message Tags → fully deprecated globally
• Marketing Messages → not available in the EU
• Utility Messages → coming, but not yet available, with no confirmed regional details
• Recurring Notifications → still available in the EU
• HUMAN_AGENT → unaffected

​@Thomsson Messages containing message tags won’t be sent so, the account won’t be banned. We suggest to pause these flows until we rollout utility message templates, so you’re able to upgrade your flows and use utility message templates instead of message tags.

We fully recognize how impactful this transition is for EU businesses, especially where Message Tags have been the primary way to communicate outside the 24-hour window. While this is a platform-level change driven by Meta, please know that we’re actively working to provide a compliant solution as quickly as possible. Thank you for your understanding! 

​@Raquel C Thank you for the detailed explanation 🙏

However, I’d like to respectfully push back on one important point — because our real API tests show different behavior.

You’re stating that Message Tags are deprecated globally with no regional exceptions.

But based on live tests we conducted via another service (direct Messenger API calls, not ManyChat), Message Tags are currently being enforced using regional logic tied to PSID.

Here is what we observed:

• Message Tags fail for PSIDs from the US and most non-exception regions.
• Message Tags successfully deliver for PSIDs from EU / UK / AU / JP / KR.

Concrete example:

We tested:

• United Kingdom → message tag delivered successfully

• Bosnia and Herzegovina → message tag rejected

Neither country is in the EU.
However, the UK is in Meta’s exception list (AU, EU, JP, KR, UK), while Bosnia is not.

The behavior perfectly matches the same regional logic Meta applies to Recurring Notifications.

So from a technical standpoint, this does not look like a fully global shutdown — it looks like a regionally enforced restriction at the API level.

Right now, the issue is that ManyChat has disabled Message Tags globally on the platform side, without checking PSID region. That effectively blocks messaging even in regions where Meta still allows it.

This is critical for EU/UK businesses because:

• Marketing Messages are not available

• Utility Messages are not available

• Message Tags appear to still work in EU/UK via API

• But ManyChat blocks them entirely

So the real question is:

Has ManyChat verified this directly with API tests using PSIDs from EU/UK regions?

Because based on our own testing, the API behavior does not match the statement that Message Tags are fully deprecated globally with no exceptions.

We genuinely love ManyChat and do not want to move to another platform.
But if the API technically still allows Message Tags in certain regions, disabling them globally creates an artificial restriction that severely impacts EU businesses.

Would really appreciate if this could be escalated to the technical team for verification 🙏

​@Raquel C 

I kindly ask you to run the same tests on your side (via ManyChat / Messenger API), because I’m 100% sure the results will match ours.

It’s enough to test sending a Message Tag to different PSIDs:

• from the US (or any region outside the exception list)

• from UK / EU / AU / JP / KR

You will immediately see the difference: in some regions Meta rejects the request, while in the exception regions it still delivers successfully.

And if this is confirmed, I’d strongly ask you to re-enable / keep Message Tag sending for those regions, where Meta still accepts them.

I also believe Meta may simply not have gone into regional details for Message Tags in the documentation, because the main focus of the announcement was Recurring Notifications — and that’s why they described the regional exceptions there in more detail.

But in practice, Meta seems to be applying the same logic: global deprecation with regional exceptions.

Please help us with this 🙏
This is critical for EU businesses, because right now ManyChat is blocking functionality even in regions where Meta still allows it.

​@Raquel C 

One more important point:

You mentioned that Recurring Notifications are still available in the EU, which fully aligns with Meta’s documentation.

However, in practice, ManyChat has removed / disabled Recurring Notifications in the interface for all users, and right now they cannot be sent even in the EU, because the restriction is applied on the ManyChat platform side.

So effectively, Meta still allows RN in the EU, but ManyChat is blocking this functionality at the platform level.

That’s why we kindly ask you to review and investigate both issues:

• Recurring Notifications (EU availability)

• Message Tags (PSID-based regional logic)

Because right now EU businesses are effectively losing multiple compliant communication tools at once, even in cases where Meta still allows them in the exception regions.

This is not a theoretical concern — it directly impacts operations, customer support, and revenue.

I strongly ask you to escalate this to the technical team, verify it properly, and align ManyChat’s behavior with the actual regional logic enforced by Meta’s API.

I truly hope you can review this carefully and help us 🙏

Hi ​@ctriker thank you for sharing! Could you please send me the account(s) ID via DM so we can investigate it with the team? Thank YOU so much for the cooperation! 

​@Raquel C  Sure! 🙏🏻

​@Raquel C I sent you a DM — please check it.

Hi ​@Raquel C  and team — I need a clear clarification specifically for EU/Europe.

I’m using Messenger Lists (Recurring Notifications). The list is still shown as “Active”, and the day before yesterday my broadcast delivered normally. But since yesterday, the broadcast gets stuck exactly at the step where the message should be sent — nothing is delivered.

So what’s going on right now?

• Has Recurring Notifications / Messenger Lists been disabled or blocked in ManyChat for EU as well, even though Meta indicates RN should still work in certain regions (incl. EU/UK)?

• Or is this a current sending issue / Meta API error, where the list remains “Active” but delivery fails?

If needed, I can share my workspace/page ID and screenshots from the broadcast history/error details.

Any updates?
My Make.com automation is not working well because of this problem.

i see meta already has utility messages, which replaces tags, is it going to be implemented as well?

Any updates on this?

If there isn’t any update, I’m guessing we might as well all stop paying for the contacts we have got, communication is vital on this or il be stopping all of my accounts and I’m guessing I am not the only one, any help appreciated Manychat admin 

Hello ​@Lee1989 I’m the Product Manager of Messenger and WhatsApp in Manychat. As mentioned in our communication sent earlier this month, we’re working on the release of Utility Message Templates, the new Meta solution meant to replace Message Tags globally. This new solution will be rolled out toward the end of next week, starting from the accounts that used Message Tags during the last 90 days and then gradually expanding it to all the accounts with Messenger connected in the following weeks. I apologize for the inconvenience and I want to take the chance to reassure all the accounts impacted that my team and I are taking this release with the utmost priority to reduce to the bare minimum any possible disruption. In case of any further questions, please feel free to DM me. Regards, Alessio

Thank you for the prompt reply, I have sent you a DM, Thanks Lee 

Hi,
If there’s no update, I assume we may as well stop paying for the contacts we’ve collected. Communication is crucial here — otherwise I’ll be shutting down all of my accounts, and I doubt I’m the only one who feels that way. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated, ManyChat team.

Thanks ​@Alessio for sharing how the process works ...

Hello, i saw utility messages has been rolled out as a beta option for FB messenger, but now its not available anymore as nas well as marketing messages are no longer there, any update on it ?