What error 131060 means
Sometimes WhatsApp accepts an inbound message but can't hand over its actual content. Instead of the text or media the customer sent, your webhook payload carries a messages event whose message has an errors array attached — with code 131060. The message exists and WhatsApp acknowledges it, but whatever the customer wrote or sent never reaches your integration.
Why it happens
There are exactly two documented causes, and both are specific to numbers connected through Coexistence — a business's real WhatsApp Business app account linked in alongside the API (see Connect WhatsApp for the full walkthrough):
- First-time messaging. A WhatsApp user messages the business for the first time — often seconds after tapping a Click-to-WhatsApp ad. This one is transient: it typically clears within a few seconds, and normal delivery resumes on its own once WhatsApp finishes registering the conversation.
- An unsupported companion device. The customer sent or received the message through a linked device WhatsApp doesn't relay to Cloud API for Coexistence — specifically WhatsApp for Windows or WhatsApp for Wear OS. Every other companion client (another phone, tablet, or desktop app) works fine.
Not something you can fix from your side: Both causes are Meta's own platform limitation, not something a webhook change or a retry on your end prevents — see the "Errors" section of Meta's WhatsApp Business app onboarding documentation.
How AssistantLabs handles it
When this happens on a Coexistence-connected number, the AI never guesses at content it never received, and the gap never disappears silently into server logs either — it's handled on both ends:
- A visible notice lands in the thread — quoting the exact code Meta sent, so your team can see why a reply looks off instead of wondering if the assistant misread something.
- The assistant opens fresh — it's steered to greet the customer naturally, as if this were the start of the conversation, instead of pretending to have understood text or media that never arrived.
In the thread, that notice reads like this:
⚠️ WhatsApp couldn't deliver this message's content (code 131060): <the reason Meta reported>
Nothing to configure: This runs automatically on every Coexistence-connected WhatsApp channel — there's no setting to turn on and nothing to enable.
What to actually do about it
Most of the time, the right response is no response at all. Use this to decide when it actually needs a second look:
- Happened once, on a new conversation — ignore it. That's the expected first-touch blip; the customer's next message will carry real content normally.
- Keeps happening on the same customer's thread — ask them to check the WhatsApp Business app on the business's primary phone. The content likely arrived there, sent from a companion device WhatsApp doesn't relay to Cloud API.
- You have direct API or webhook access — the raw error (code, title, and details) is always logged server-side the moment it's received, even when the content itself can't be delivered, so you can audit how often it's hit.