About WhatsApp Business Messaging
WhatsApp helps more than 1 billion people connect and share with the people they care about. WhatsApp is a simple, secure, and reliable way for businesses to reach their customers all over the world. This guide will help businesses on board and build their first official WhatsApp messaging experience using messaging.digital's API.
How Your Business Appears to Users
Depending on your number type, users will see different things. However, if a user has already saved the business number in their address book, the Verified Name will not take precedence; the name from the address book will always be displayed. The phone number will still be visible in the contacts view. Please be prepared for users who may try to call this number and have a plan for how to handle these incoming calls.
If the number is verified, the Verified Name will be visible in the chat list, chat screens, chat groups, and contact view instead of the phone number. There will be a green "Verified" checkmark in the contact view.
If the number is confirmed, the Verified Name will only be visible in the contact view. All other views will show the phone number. The contact view will show a grey "Confirmed" checkmark with the verified name in smaller text. If it is a Regular number, the Verified Name will only be visible in the contact view, all other views will show the phone number. The contact view will show the account is a business account with the verified name in smaller text.
Getting Verified with WhatsApp
By default, all numbers are in the Regular state. Once messaging.digital's API has successfully enabled your number for WhatsApp, messaging.digital's API will submit it to WhatsApp to be verified. WhatsApp will review the request and your business and determine which level to assign it. The Verified business account status is given after at least one month of go live release with an average traffic of at least 1000 messages per day for a 7-day aggregate.
Sending notifications
WhatsApp requires that business-initiated Notifications sent by your application be templated and pre-registered, with exception of messages [] sent as a reply to a user-initiated message.
Both Text & Media content can be sent as a Notification message. Please contact our provisioning team / your account manager to register/configure/whitelist your message template.
Message types: TEMPLATE | AUTO_TEMPLATE | MEDIA_TEMPLATE
Messaging.Digital's API allows businesses to send interactive buttons in notification messages.
There are two types of predefined buttons offered:
Call-to-Action- Allows your customer to call a phone number and visit a website.Quick Reply- Allows your customer to return a simple text message.
Buttons are subject to approval. Hence Media templates or Templates with buttons need to be shared with Messaging.Digital prior, for registering and approval.
Conversational Messaging on WhatsApp
To have a 2-way conversation with a user, you need to receive messages from them. Users can send you a message in response to a templated notification or directly
Customer Care Window
A WhatsApp Customer Care Window begins with a user-initiated message to your WhatsApp number. Sessions are valid for 24 hours after the most recently received message, during which time you can communicate with them using free form messages. In order to send a message outside the 24-hour Session window, you must use a pre-approved template (see Sending Notifications section above).
Message types: TEXT | ATTACHMENT (Image/Audio/Video/stickers/document) |LOCATION | CONTACTS | INTERACTIVE
Deep link format
- whatsapp://send?phone=
&text=Hello!
Click to Chat Web Link
You can create your own link, use https://wa.me/number where the
Format URL
- https://wa.me/whatsappphonenumber?text=urlencodedtext
- Example: https://wa.me/91XXXXXXXXXX?text=I'm%20interested%20in%20your%20car%20for%20sale
Formatting in WhatsApp messages
WhatsApp allows text, emoji’s and some formatting in messages. To format all or part of a message, use these formatting symbols:
Your messages can be bold, italicized, struck-through, or preformatted.
| Formatting | Symbol | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Bold | Asterisk (**) | Your total is **₹1250/-**. |
| Italic | Underscore (_) | Welcome to _WhatsApp_! |
| Strike-through | Tilde (~) | This is ~better~ best! |
| Code / Pre-formatted | Three backticks (```) | ```print 'Hello World';``` |