WhatsApp

Channel Identifier

In the Omnichannel API this channel can be referenced using: whatsApp

This identifier can be used in the rules array, channelOptions and customBody sections.

Sending an WhatsApp message

Sending an WhatsApp message via the Omnichannel API is simple. You are required to ensure that your channel rules include the whatsApp channel and you specify either a phoneNumber in international format or a profileId with a phone number in the to section of your request. The message itself can be of two different types which are described below:

Message Types

The message type you can send is governed by whether you are in a conversation with a WhatsApp user or not. A conversation on WhatsApp is considered to be occurring for 24 hours after the last inbound message you received from a WhatsApp user.

You may send only template messages outside of a conversation window and either template or session messages within a conversation window. See below for details of each type of message:

Template Messages

If you are not in a conversation with a WhatsApp user then you may only send a pre-approved template based message. As part of the onboarding process we will register your templates with WhatsApp for you, and provide you with the template id's and the template namespace.

Currently templates can only be text based and may be defined in multiple languages. Templates can also contain parameters to allow personalization and specifics to be included in the message.

Sending a template message

To use the Omnichannel API to send a template message you will need to include a special message part which is used to identify the template required and pass the parameters required for the template. For more information on using message parts with the Omnichannel API please see Multi part messages.

The MIME type for the message part is whatsapp/template and as only the WhatsApp channel can use this MIME type please include a channel filter using the channels array and include the value whatsApp. The following additional fields are required in the data field of the message part:

Field	Description	Example value	Required
namespace	The namespace for your template, this in combinaiton with your template name makes it unique throughout WhatsApp. You can find this value in the templates section for your WhatsApp channel.	de0464f9_3d87_cb42_b0d7_d7651ab3337a	Yes
templateName	The unique name of the template you want to send. You can find this value in the templates section for your WhatsApp channel.	dispatch_confirmation	Yes
languageCode	The desired language you want the template sent in. You must have pre-registered the language variant of the template prior to using it. Contact your Client Engagement Manager to do this.	en	Yes
parameters	This is the array of parameters to be merged into your template. Ensure the order of the values in the array matches the order you want them merged into the template. The parameters can be of the following types: default – A string value currency – A currency value that will be localized automatically * date_time – A date time that will be localized automatically Each value passed should be a object with a default field and the plain text version of the value required. e.g. { "default": "A text field" } If you want to use one of the localizable types then you need to pass additional details along with the default value, such as currency code etc... Please see the section below for more details on Localizable Parameters. Include values for all the parameters in the template, ensuring the types match those you registered!	[ { "default": "Dave" }, { "default": "1234" } ]	No

❗️
Variable ordering is important!
When passing parameters with your template message sends it is critical to order the parameters match those used in your template.

Localizable Parameters

When sending a template with parameters you may want to send values that need adapting depending on the recipients locality, such as currency values or dates. WhatsApp supports localization of currency and date time parameters, but you must pass additional details for these localizable parameters.

All parameters objects must contain a default value, which is used should any issues be encountered trying to localize the parameter and this should be a generic plain text representation of the value.

Currency Values

In order to send a localizable currency value you need to includes the following fields in your parameter object:

Field	Description	Example value	Required
default	generic plain text representation of the currency value which is used should localization not be possible	199 USD	Yes
currency	A currency object to describe the currency value and source currency	"currency": { "currency_code": "USD", "amount_1000": 100990 }	Yes

currency object

Field	Description	Example value	Required
currency_code	The ISO currency code your charge is based on.	USD	Yes
amount_1000	The amount to charge in one thousandths of the currency. e.g. $9.99 is 9990 , worked out by 9.99 * 1000	9990	Yes

Date Time Values

In order to send a localizable date time value you need to includes the following fields in your parameter object:

Field	Description	Example value	Required
default	generic plain text representation of the date time value which is used should localization not be possible	1st January 2019, 14:45	Yes
date_time	A date_time object to describe the date and time using individual component parts	"date_time": { "component": { "day_of_week": 5, "day_of_month": 25, "year": 1977, "month": 2, "hour": 15, "minute": 33 }	Yes

date_time object

Field	Description	Example value	Required
component	A component object to describe the date and time using individual component parts	"component": { "day_of_week": 5, "day_of_month": 25, "year": 1977, "month": 2, "hour": 15, "minute": 33 }	No

component object

Field	Description	Example value	Required
day_of_week	The day of the week as an integer with 1 = Monday and 7 = Sunday	5	No
day_of_the_month	The day of the month as an integer	25	No
year	The year as a 4 digit integer	1977	No
month	The month as an integer	2	No
hour	The hour as an integer based on the 24 hour clock	15	No
minute	The minute as an integer	33	No
calendar	The type of calendar you want to use, defaults to Gregorian. Choose from GREGORIAN or SOLAR_HIJRI	GREGORIAN	No

Example Template Sends

{
  "to": {
    "phoneNumber": "447123123123"
  },
  "rules": [
    "whatsApp"
  ],
  "messageParts": [
    {
      "channels": [
        "whatsApp"
      ],
      "type": "whatsapp/template",
      "data": {
        "namespace": "de0464f9_3d87_cb42_b0d7_d7651ab3337a",
        "templateName": "dispatch_confirmation",
        "languageCode": "en",
        "parameters": [
          {
            "default": "Dave"
          },
          {
            "default": "1234"
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

{
  "to": {
    "phoneNumber": "447123123123"
  },
  "rules": [
    "whatsApp"
  ],
  "messageParts": [
    {
      "channels": [
        "whatsApp"
      ],
      "type": "whatsapp/template",
      "data": {
        "namespace": "ce0464f9_3d87_fb42_b0d7_d7651ab3337a",
        "templateName": "dispatch_confirmation",
        "languageCode": "en",
        "parameters": [
          {
            "default": "February 25, 1977",
            "date_time": {
              "component": {
                "day_of_week": 5,
                "day_of_month": 25,
                "month": 2,
                "year": 1977
              }
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ],
  "metadata": {
    "data": "My correlation data"
  }
}

{
  "to": {
    "phoneNumber": "447123123123"
  },
  "rules": [
    "whatsApp"
  ],
  "messageParts": [
    {
      "channels": [
        "whatsApp"
      ],
      "type": "whatsapp/template",
      "data": {
        "namespace": "de0464f9_3d87_cb42_b0d7_d7651ab3337a",
        "templateName": "dispatch_confirmation",
        "languageCode": "en",
        "parameters": [
          {
            "default": "$9.99",
            "currency": {
              "currency_code": "USD",
              "amount_1000": 9990
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ],
  "metadata": {
    "data": "My correlation data"
  }
}

Sending Media Templates

If you have chosen to use media in your WhatsApp templates then to pass the additional information you will need to use the custom body option.

The JSON you need to pass in the custom body to use a media template is described in the WhatsApp docs here

Note: We automatically populate the "to" field within the custom body block, so no need to specify it.

The following example is of a call to send a media template with an image header and two parameters in the body:

{
  "to": {
    "phoneNumber": "447123123123"
  },
  "rules": [
    "whatsApp"
  ],
  "customBody": {
    "whatsApp": {
      "type": "template",
      "template": {
        "namespace": "ce0464f9_3d87_fb42_b0d7_d7651ab3337a",
        "name": "appointment_booked",
        "language": {
          "policy": "deterministic",
          "code": "en"
        },
        "components": [
          {
            "type": "header",
            "parameters": [
              {
                "type": "image",
                "image": {
                  "link": "https://files.readme.io/6102a7e-dotdigital_logo_stacked_reversed_RGB.png"
                }
              }
            ]
          },
          {
            "type": "body",
            "parameters": [
              {
                "type": "date_time",
                "date_time": {
                  "fallback_value": "2021-09-02",
                  "day_of_week": 4,
                  "day_of_month": 2,
                  "year": 2021,
                  "month": 9,
                  "hour": 12,
                  "minute": 00
                }
              },
              {
                "type": "text",
                "text": "London"
              }
            ]
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

Session Messages

Session messages can be sent within a WhatsApp conversation session, which lasts 24 hours from the last inbound you received from a WhatsApp user. Session messages are designed to be used to allow businesses to send the information necessary to answer a WhatsApp users queries and therefore are free format.

To use the Omnichannel API to send a session messages you can use either the standard body field to send text based messages or for multimedia use muli-part messages. For more information on using message parts with the Omnichannel API please see Multi part messages.

The following message types are supported by WhatsApp:

Text (with optional URL preview)
Image (JPG, JPEG, PNG) with optional text comment
Audio (AAC, M4A, AMR, MP3, OGG, OPUS)
Documents (PDF, DOC(X), PPT(X), XLS(X))

Text Formatting

WhatsApp supports simple text formatting in text based messages that can be used to help communicate your message more effectively. The following formatting annotations are supported:

Format	Annotation	Example
Bold	* (Asterisk)	Your order has shipped priority
Italics	_ (Underscore)	This is an _estimated_ delivery date
~Strike through~	~ (Tilde)	~Shipping charge £10.00~
`Code`	``` (3 x Back quotes)	```console.log("test");```

Example Session Message Sends

{
  "to": {
    "phoneNumber": "447123123123"
  },
  "rules": [
    "whatsApp"
  ],
  "body": "A text session message via WhatsApp"
}

{
  "to": {
    "phoneNumber": "447123123123"
  },
  "rules": [
    "whatsApp"
  ],
  "body": "A _formatted_ text session message via *WhatsApp*"
}

{
  "to": {
    "phoneNumber": "447123123123"
  },
  "rules": [
    "whatsApp"
  ],
  "body": "Check out this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJLcwqgVOKM",
  "channelOptions": {
    "whatsApp": {
      "enableUrlPreview": true
    }
  }
}

{
  "to": {
    "phoneNumber": "447123123123"
  },
  "rules": [
    "whatsApp"
  ],
  "messageParts": [
    {
      "type": "image/png",
      "url": "https://files.readme.io/6102a7e-dotdigital_logo_stacked_reversed_RGB.png"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "to": {
    "phoneNumber": "447123123123"
  },
  "rules": [
    "whatsApp"
  ],
  "messageParts": [
    {
      "type": "image/png",
      "url": "https://files.readme.io/6102a7e-dotdigital_logo_stacked_reversed_RGB.png"
    },
    {
      "type": "text/plain",
      "data": "My image caption"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "to": {
    "phoneNumber": "447123123123"
  },
  "rules": [
    "whatsApp"
  ],
  "messageParts": [
    {
      "type": "audio/mp3",
      "url": "https://sample-videos.com/audio/mp3/crowd-cheering.mp3"
    }
  ]
}

{
  "to": {
    "phoneNumber": "447123123123"
  },
  "rules": [
    "whatsApp"
  ],
  "messageParts": [
    {
      "type": "application/pdf",
      "url": "http://cdn.dnky.co/docs/example.pdf",
      "name": "Overview.pdf"
    }
  ]
}

Message Length

The maximum length of a text based WhatsApp message supported is 4096 characters.

Channel Options

The following additional channel options can be used to control the WhatsApp channels most common options. To use the channel options create a object with your options in the requests channelOptions section in the whatsApp property:

Property	Type	Description
phoneNumber	string	The registered WhatsApp phone number to send the message from. Default from channel configuration will be used if not specified.
enableUrlPreview	Boolean	If set to true any URL's sent in a text session message will have a URL preview rendered underneath.

{
  "to": {
    "phoneNumber": "447123123123"
  },
  "rules": [
    "whatsApp"
  ],
  "body": "A text session message via WhatsApp",
  "channelOptions": {
    "whatsApp": {
      "phoneNumber": "447860041651"
    }
  }
}

{
  "to": {
    "phoneNumber": "447123123123"
  },
  "rules": [
    "whatsApp"
  ],
  "body": "Check out this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJLcwqgVOKM",
  "channelOptions": {
    "whatsApp": {
      "enableUrlPreview": true
    }
  }
}

Custom Body

The Omnichannel API automatically creates WhatsApp messages for you if you only define the body property or multi parts when sending a message, but you can override this if you use the customBody property and define a whatsApp object within it This can be useful for accessing features in the channel we don't support in our common message format.

Details of how to create a WhatsApp business message can be found here.

Examples of sends using WhatsApp custom bodies are:

{
  "to": {
    "phoneNumber": "447123123123"
  },
  "rules": [
    "whatsApp"
  ],
  "customBody": {
    "whatsApp": {
      "preview_url": true,
      "text": {
        "body": "You have to check out this amazing messaging service https://www.whatsapp.com/"
      }
    }
  }
}

🚧
Ensure you specify a "to" block still!
When using the customBody option with the SMS channel you still need to specify the phoneNumber in the to block as this will be used for profile identification.

Receipts and Inbounds

To receive feedback or inbound messages from WhatsApp sends please see the following:

Inbound Messages

Allows you to receive messages sent from WhatsApp users to your hosted WhatsApp phone numbers. Messages are delivered to a URL of your choosing using the webhook system. See the Inbound event in the Message Events section for more details.

Receipts

If you need to to know the status of messages you've sent using one of our APIs, you can request that delivery receipts are forwarded to a URL of your choosing using the webhook system. See the events in the Message Events section for more details on the receipt events you can receive.

You can receive the following types of receipts:

Sent
Delivered
Read
Expired
Failed

Specific Channel Data

The WhatsApp channel carries the following extra channel specific data in the message.sent webhook event which may be of use in your integrations. The channel data can be found in the message.sent webhook events in the payload -> channelData node as illustrated below:

"channelData": {
    "whatsApp": {
      "virtualDeviceNumber": "447123123123",
      "isTemplateMessage": true,
      "isWithinConversationWindow": false,
      "phoneNumberCountryCode": "GB"
    }
  }

{
    "eventId": "802dd5d4-6c4b-4dc5-894b-45cb9093edc6",
    "accountId": 1234,
    "apiSpaceId": "ae1f5482-2438-41ce-ac1a-9137491f701d",
    "name": "message.sent",
    "payload": {
        "id": "0cae9944-e9cc-4e02-8b57-6b6fdda5bf83",
        "details": {
            "channel": "whatsApp",
            "channelStatus": {
                "id": "gBEGRHcVF4YFAgkZWbkNtLCDl3Q",
                "status": "sent",
                "timestamp": "1553856524"
            }
        },
        "channelData": {
            "whatsApp": {
                "virtualDeviceNumber": "447123123123",
                "isTemplateMessage": true,
                "isWithinConversationWindow": false,
                "phoneNumberCountryCode": "GB"
            }
        },
        "metadata": {
            "data": "My correlation data"
        },
        "updatedOn": "2019-03-29T10:48:44.000Z"
    },
    "revision": 3,
    "etag": "\"2e-1+NMqmJkP6uO+VSvP40vKRcl0nw\"",
    "timestamp": "2019-03-29T10:48:44.963Z"
}

The data is as follows:

Path	Field	Description
whatsApp	virtualDeviceNumber	The identifier WhatsApp is using to target the device you sent to.
whatsApp	isTemplateMessage	Boolean indicating whether the message sent was a template based message or not
whatsApp	isWithinConversationWindow	Boolean indicating whether the message was sent within a conversation window or not.
whatsApp	phoneNumberCountryCode	The two character country code for the phone number you sent to.

WhatsApp

Channel Identifier

Sending an WhatsApp message

Message Types

Template Messages

Sending a template message

❗️
Variable ordering is important!

Localizable Parameters

Currency Values

Date Time Values

Example Template Sends

Sending Media Templates

Session Messages

Text Formatting

Example Session Message Sends

Message Length

Channel Options

Custom Body

🚧
Ensure you specify a "to" block still!

Receipts and Inbounds

Inbound Messages

Receipts

Specific Channel Data

Channel Identifier

Sending an WhatsApp message

Message Types

Template Messages

Sending a template message

❗️Variable ordering is important!

Localizable Parameters

Currency Values

Date Time Values

Example Template Sends

Sending Media Templates

Session Messages

Text Formatting

Example Session Message Sends

Message Length

Channel Options

Custom Body

🚧Ensure you specify a "to" block still!

Receipts and Inbounds

Inbound Messages

Receipts

Specific Channel Data

❗️
Variable ordering is important!

🚧
Ensure you specify a "to" block still!