Carousels: multi-card messages

A carousel is a single message made of several cards a contact can swipe through inside the chat. Each card holds an image, a short title and body, and one or more tappable buttons. You build one in the carousel builder, preview it, then send it either to one contact from the inbox or to an audience as a campaign.

What a carousel is

Instead of one block of text describing five things, a carousel gives each thing its own card: media at the top, a line or two of copy, and buttons underneath. The contact scrolls horizontally through the set and taps the card that interests them. It turns "read this and reply" into "pick one", which is why carousels convert better than a paragraph for anything that is fundamentally a choice.

Each card is made of:

• An image — the card's visual anchor. Use the same aspect ratio across every card in a carousel so the set scrolls cleanly.
• A title and body — short. The card is a phone-width tile, not a landing page.
• Buttons — one or more per card. A button either opens a link or sends a quick reply back into the conversation.

Build one

Open the carousel builder, create a carousel, and add a card for each item you want to show. Per card, set the image, write the title and body, and add the buttons with their labels and destinations. Keep the structure consistent: if the first card has two buttons, every card should have two buttons in the same order. Inconsistent cards read as broken.

Then use the preview. Almost every carousel problem is visible there — an image cropping badly, a title wrapping to three lines, a button label truncated to something ambiguous.

Send it

There are two ways out:

• From the inbox, for 1:1. Open the conversation and send the carousel from the carousel dialog. This is the right route when an agent is helping someone choose — a size, a plan, a time slot.
• From a campaign, for one-to-many. Attach the carousel to a campaign and send it to your audience. See run a campaign for audience selection, scheduling and consent requirements.

Good uses

• Product showcases — a handful of items with an image, a price line and a "View" button. For a full purchasable catalogue with carts and orders, use the WhatsApp Catalog instead; a carousel is the lighter, curated version.
• Service menus — the four or five things your business does, each with a booking or enquiry button.
• Pick-one option sets — appointment slots, plan tiers, branch locations, delivery windows.

Keep cards few and buttons clear. Two obvious buttons beat four hedged ones, and a five-card carousel almost always outperforms a twelve-card one because the tail never gets seen.

Channel support

Carousels render on channels that support rich cards. On channels that don't, the format has no equivalent, so decide the fallback before you send: a plain text message that lists the same options with links, sent as a separate variant to that part of your audience. Don't assume a carousel degrades gracefully on its own — check the preview for the channel you're actually sending on.

Billing

Building carousels is included in the flat $50/month instance connection and management fee. The messages you send are billed normally on their channel, on your own Infobip account. See billing and plans for rates.

Steps at a glance

1. Build the carouselOpen the carousel builder in Arino One and start a new carousel for the offer, menu or option set you want to present.
2. Add cards and buttonsAdd a card per item, set its image, write a short title and body, and add the tappable buttons — a link out, or a quick reply that continues the conversation.
3. PreviewCheck the carousel preview: image crops, text length on a narrow phone screen, and that every button has a clear label and destination.
4. Send from inbox or campaignFor a 1:1 send, open the conversation in the inbox and send the carousel from the carousel dialog. For one-to-many, attach the carousel to a campaign and send it to your audience.

Frequently asked