More than 1.5 billion global monthly users in over 180 countries use WhatsApp to stay in touch with friends and family, anytime and anywhere. WhatsApp offers simple, secure, reliable messaging and calling, available on phones all over the world. Now open to enterprises in early access, WhatsApp is poised to be the world’s most powerful business messaging channel.
Channel overview
WhatsApp is a channel that is built fundamentally on trust, safety and privacy. One of the reasons why so many people use WhatsApp is because it’s spam and advertisement free. To this day, users have only been able to receive messages from the people they care about, and WhatsApp guarantees that their messages are secure and encrypted so nobody else can have access to their conversations.
WhatsApp has now introduced an API for businesses. This means that enterprise software can be used to message customers over WhatsApp. It can be used to respond to customer service requests, to resolve urgent customer issues, to deliver timely notifications (receipts, account updates, gate changes, confirmations, etc.), to automate responses for frequently asked questions, and it can also be integrated into a CRM system to track ticket resolution and enrich customer data.
Channel architecture
WhatsApp architecture differs from other messaging channels in a major way. Instead of directly exposing a public REST API, WhatsApp requires deploying a WhatsApp API Client.
The WhatsApp API Client is similar to the WhatsApp application that runs on smartphones but it’s headless and runs in the cloud along with its database and media storage.
The WhatsApp API Client connects to the WhatsApp server using their proprietary ChatP protocol and exposes a REST API and webhooks to send & receive messages. The WhatsApp API Client enables end-to-end encryption, media storage and permanent connection to the WhatsApp network.
The WhatsApp API Client is provided by WhatsApp as a Docker image and requires a MySQL database and a storage volume to be functional.
In this early phase of development, the WhatsApp API Client components are updated every 45 days by WhatsApp and requires upgrade every 90 days. The Smooch API shields your software from breaking changes in the WhatsApp API Client.
WhatsApp API Client hosting
When connecting WhatsApp to Smooch you can either connect your own WhatsApp API Client that you host or leverage Smooch’s WhatsApp API Client hosting solution.
Smooch’s WhatsApp API Client hosting options includes:
-
Multiconnect setup
- Enables a high message throughput of more than 100 message per second - much faster than SMS.
- Daily backups
- 24h monitoring
- High availability deployment
-
Rapid upgrade cycle
- Fast follow WhatsApp updates, without any code change on your side
To have access to Smooch’s Deployment API, contact sales. If you already have access, see the Deployment Guide.
Accounts
Access
The WhatsApp Business Solution program is opening in a Limited Access capacity where WhatsApp approval is required for all businesses entering the program. WhatsApp and solution providers like Smooch are bringing businesses onto WhatsApp slowly and thoughtfully to ultimately provide the most benefit for brands and end consumers. Fill out this form to indicate your interest in this early access program.
While you wait for approval from the WhatsApp team, you can start testing the integration by using the Smooch Sandbox for WhatsApp.
Business Profile
You can configure key business information for each number connected to WhatsApp using our Update Integration Profile API or through the WhatsApp Integration Dashboard page in the Smooch Dashboard.
- A profile picture
- Address of business
- Description of business
- Email for business contact
- Business vertical/industry
- Business website
The business profile is shown to end users in the contact entry corresponding to the connected phone number.
Capabilities
WhatsApp supports a wide variety of capabilities as seen in the channel capabilities grid. Below is a detailed view of each capability.
Content Types
Action Types
Structured Messages
Indicators
Delivery Events
Delivery events allow you to track deliveries of Smooch messages to WhatsApp by subscribing to the message:delivery:channel webhook. Smooch also tracks user deliveries on WhatsApp which let you confirm whether a message has reached the user by listening to the message:delivery:user webhook. Failures to deliver a message to WhatsApp or to a WhatsApp user can be detected by subscribing to the message:delivery:failure webhook.
The WhatsApp message IDs associated with each Smooch message are available in delivery event payloads in the externalMessages property.
Quoted Messages
WhatsApp allows users to quote a specific message in a reply.
When receiving a reply, WhatsApp only includes the reference id of the quoted message. Smooch uses this external message id to match it to a message present in the conversation history and provide the full message content within the message:appUser webhooks (example below). If the message can’t be matched, the external message id is still provided. See quoted messages for details.
{
"trigger": "message:appUser",
"app": {
"_id": "5963c0d619a30a2e00de36b8"
},
"version": "v1.1",
"messages": [
{
"type": "text",
"text": "Great, thanks! I'll be checking in!",
"role": "appUser",
"received": 1550589894.665,
"name": "Steve",
"authorId": "c7f6e6d6c3a637261bd9656f",
"_id": "507f1f77bcf86cd799439011",
"quotedMessage": {
"type": "message",
"content": {
"role": "appMaker",
"received": 1550589894.665,
"name": "Mario",
"authorId": "c7f6e6d6c3a437261bd9656e",
"_id": "55c8c1498590aa1900b9b9b1",
"type": "image",
"mediaUrl": "http://example.org/image.jpg",
"source": {
"type": "whatsapp",
"integrationId": "daf6e616c3a637261bd9656f",
"originalMessageId": "5a1c9fc63905320d87fb5ff1",
"originalMessageTimestamp": 1550581194
}
}
},
"source": {
"type": "whatsapp",
"integrationId": "daf6e616c2a637261bd9656c",
"originalMessageId": "5a1c9fc63905320d87fb5ff1",
"originalMessageTimestamp": 1550581194
}
}
],
"appUser": {
"_id": "80215a432f196bc3b9354207",
"conversationStarted": true
}
}
WhatsApp Message Templates
WhatsApp provides their own templated message mechanism. Message templates are plain text messages that are individually approved by the WhatsApp team to ensure they do not violate the WhatsApp policies. Businesses must use templated messages when first reaching out to users or when sending a message 24h after the last message from the user. This type of message is paid. Here’s an example:
"Your order {{1}} for a total of {{2}} is confirmed. The expected delivery is {{3}}."
Notice the {{1}} parameter that allows you to personalize the message being sent.
Creating templated messages
Message templates are created in the WhatsApp developer portal. When creating a desired message template element, you must have ready the following:
-
Element name
-
Text content
-
All translations desired
The message template element name can only be lowercase alphanumeric characters along with a ’_’ (underscore). No other characters or whitespace are allowed.
Sending templated messages
WhatsApp’s templated messages can be sent on Smooch in 3 ways. You can use shorthand syntax, the Smooch message template, and directly via the API.
Shorthand syntax
You can easily send WhatsApp templated messages by using the Smooch’s rich message syntax within a plain text message.
&[text_fallback](namespace, name, param_1, param_2, ...)
namespace: The namespace within which the template is defined (WhatsApp portal)
name:The name or “element_name” of your template (WhatsApp portal)
param_n: An ordered list of parameters that will be inserted into the relevant fields in the template
text_fallback: Text that will be sent to the user if they are not on WhatsApp and that will be saved to the conversation record.
Example
&[Welcome Bob, I’m Joe](XXXXXXXX_XXXX_XXXX_XXXX_XXXXXXXXXXXX, hello_world, Bob, Joe)
We recommend that you save several versions of your template as “canned messages” or “saved agent replies” in your system so that agents can quickly customize and send these messages without typing the entirety of the syntax.
Message templates
Smooch lets you define rich messages templates and easily send them to users. This functionality can be leveraged to send WhatsApp own templated messages. See our complete guide on message template for more details.
API
WhatsApp message templates can be sent via the passthrough API. Example:
{
"role": "appMaker",
"type": "text",
"text": "Hello there",
"override": {
"whatsapp": {
"payload": {
"type": "hsm",
"hsm": {
"namespace": "XXXXXXXX_XXXX_XXXX_XXXX_XXXXXXXXXXXX",
"element_name": "hello_world",
"language": {
"policy": "fallback",
"code": "en_US"
},
"localizable_params": [
{
"default": "My User Name"
},
{
"default": "My Agent Name"
}
]
}
}
}
}
}
Formatting
WhatsApp allows for basic formatting in messages. To format a message, or a part of a message, use the formatting symbols described in the following table:
| Formatting | Symbol | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Bold | Asterisk (*) |
Your total is *$10.50* |
Italics |
Underscore (_) |
Welcome to _WhatsApp_ |
Tilde (~) |
This is ~better~ best! |
|
|
Three backquote/backtick (```) |
```print 'Hello World';``` |
How to enable the channel
Create a WhatsApp API Client
To connect WhatsApp for production usage, you first need to deploy a WhatsApp API client. Smooch can host and manage a new WhatsApp API client or your own client using the deployments API, or you can deploy your own client following WhatsApp’s instructions. In both cases you can manage the API client using using the deployments API.
Using the deployments API
- Create the deployment using the create deployment endpoint. Call this endpoint with ‘hosting:smooch’ to deploy a new API client on the Smooch infrastructure, or with ‘hosting:self’ to manage your own API client. If you are using the self hosted option, you will need to provide the API client’s baseUrl, username and password. In both cases, Smooch will return a deployment_id to be used in subsequent API calls.
- Activate your deployment using the activate deployment endpoint. This step requires a phone number and a verified name certificate which can be found in WhatsApp Account (WABA). If your self hosted API client is already activated you can skip this step.
- Confirm the registration code received from the previous step using the confirm phone number endpoint. If your self hosted API client is already activated you can skip this step.
Connect a WhatsApp API client to a Smooch App
Once your WhatsApp API client is deployed and registered with a WhatsApp phone number, you can integrate it with your Smooch app by using the Integration API and providing the deploymentId.
Smooch Sandbox for WhatsApp
You can start building and prototyping with WhatsApp immediately without waiting for your number to be approved using the Smooch Sandbox for WhatsApp. It uses a pre-provisioned WhatsApp phone number that is shared across all Sandbox users.
To enable it:
- Log into your Smooch account and select the app you want to connect to WhatsApp.
- Select WhatsApp from the integrations directory.
- Register your phone by following our instructions.
- Send and receive messages between your phone and your Smooch app, via WhatsApp.
Read our blog post for step-by-step instructions.
How to start conversations
Business initiated
To initiate a conversation with a user for which you know their phone number, you can use the Pre-Create User API as well as the Link User To Channel API. For more information on business initiated conversations, consult the guide.
If the appUser that you would like to message on WhatsApp does not exist yet, use the pre-create user API to create one.
Example:
curl https://api.smooch.io/v1.1/apps/5963c0d619a30a2e00de36b8/appusers \
-X POST \
-d '{"userId": "3w7AQigJkJDkfnnKW5fF1I", "credentialRequired": true}' \
-H 'content-type: application/json' \
-H 'authorization: Bearer your-account-jwt'Then, use the link user to channel API to add a WhatsApp client to the user.
Example:
curl https://api.smooch.io/v1.1/apps/5963c0d619a30a2e00de36b8/appusers/3w7AQigJkJDkfnnKW5fF1I/channels \
-X POST \
-d '{"type": "whatsapp", "confirmation": {"type": "immediate"}, "phoneNumber": "+15555555555"}' \
-H 'content-type: application/json' \
-H 'authorization: Bearer your-account-jwt'If the user has a WhatsApp account, the link will succeed and a WhatsApp client will be added to the user. You can then start sending messages to the user. If the user does not have a WhatsApp account, the link attempt will fail. Your application can listen to link event webhooks to be notified when the link attempt succeeds or fails.
Example:
{
"type": "whatsapp",
"phoneNumber": "+15555555555",
"confirmation": {
"type": "immediate",
"message": {
"role": "appMaker",
"text": "Hello there",
"type": "text",
"override": {
"whatsapp": {
"payload": {
"type": "hsm",
"hsm": {
"namespace": "XXXXXXXX_XXXX_XXXX_XXXX_XXXXXXXXXXXX",
"element_name": "hello_world",
"language": {
"policy": "fallback",
"code": "en_US"
},
"localizable_params": [
{
"default": "My User Name"
},
{
"default": "My Agent Name"
}
]
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
User initiated
Users can start a conversation with a business in two ways
- Creating a new contact in WhatsApp and using the business’s WhatsApp phone number
- Following a WhatsApp link
Creating a WhatsApp Link
You can easily create a deep link to automatically redirect user to a business in WhatsApp. The format of the deep link is as follows:
https://api.whatsapp.com/send?phone=<business-phone-number>
For more information on formatting a deep link, see the “using click to chat” documentation.
Passthrough API
The passthrough API is a way to send message types for which there is no corresponding Smooch type. To accomplish this, the developer provides Smooch with the raw payload to send to the messaging provider’s API, and the Smooch platform will “pass it through”.
To use the passthrough API, you first craft a valid Smooch message of any type, then you specify an additional override parameter for the channels you would like to use passthrough. Under the channel name (in this case whatsapp), the payload field contains the exact structure of a valid WhatsApp API call to the Send Messages endpoint.
Example:
{
"role": "appMaker",
"type": "text",
"text": "Hello there",
"override": {
"whatsapp": {
"payload": {
"type": "hsm",
"hsm": {
"namespace": "XXXXXXXX_XXXX_XXXX_XXXX_XXXXXXXXXXXX",
"element_name": "hello_world",
"language": {
"policy": "fallback",
"code": "en_US"
},
"localizable_params": [
{
"default": "My User Name"
},
{
"default": "My Agent Name"
}
]
}
}
}
}
}
The above example depicts a simple override example, where the text message will render as “Hello there” on every channel except WhatsApp, where it would render a WhatsApp templated message. Note that all fields under payload in the above example (payload, hsm, namespace, etc.) are WhatsApp-specific fields, exactly as the WhatsApp API would accept them.
Reserved Fields
In order to ensure the message is correctly delivered, Smooch will automatically set some fields in the payload for you. If you supply these fields, they will be ignored and replaced.
| Key | Reserved Behaviour |
|---|---|
| to | The username of the WhatsApp user. Smooch will populate this value based on the target user. |