WhatsApp created WhatsApp Business API to enable medium and large organisations to effortlessly operate and communicate with their extensive customer base. It allows businesses to automate conversations and send bulk notifications through chatbots. The API allows thousands of messages per second speed and a secure platform to enable backend systems integrations for a delightful customer experience.

The WhatsApp Business API was made available across 28+ countries in 2019 through verified Business Solution Providers (BSPs). BSPs, in turn, have used the Base APIs to enhance their offerings by supplementing the APIs with enterprise-level features like fallback mechanisms, enterprise ESB integrations, Chatbots, etc. The API packages offered by BSPs allow engagement, notifications, sorting, automating and responding to customer messages at scale.

WhatsApp’s approach towards customer interaction in the API framework is bound by guidelines on content and supported by the extensive technical support team to assist in API deployment and troubleshooting.

To maintain security and privacy, the WABA is offered as a docker container containing an API client, essentially a faceless version of the mobile App that users and businesses can download on individual phones. With the reduction of limitations of Operating Systems and App UIs, the API clients open up to enterprise-level applications like SQL databases, API endpoints, Authentication and Verification services, and other support frameworks.

The WhatsApp Business API framework allows businesses to go through a verification procedure and ensure that the outgoing messages appear with Brand Name without the end-user having to save the phone number.

WhatsApp recently rolled out a new update for business users called Conversational WhatsApp Business API. The Conversational API enables businesses to engage opted-in customers in full-funnel conversations across their customer journey without the transactional-only restriction on messages outside the 24-hour window.

You can now send new types of messages to customers, such as product recommendations based on their recent purchases, timely offers or valuable informational alerts. With Conversational AI, you will be able to:

• Build long-term relationships with your customers and drive desired business outcomes.
• Maintain WhatsApp as a differentiated channel to share valuable and important information.
• Reduce the risk of customer blocks and WhatsApp placing limits on reaching customers.
• However, these messages should be:
• Expected: People have already opted in to receive this information over WhatsApp.
• Relevant: The messages are personalised to the customer, contain valuable information, and outline clear call to action(s) for the customer.
• Timely: People receive these messages at a logical time (ex: soon after engaging with the business, at a requested cadence).

WhatsApp for business is a separate chat App specifically built for people running small businesses. Whereas the WhatsApp for Business API has been published as a dedicated set of APIs, designed to work at an enterprise scale for both outgoing and incoming messages on a dedicated WhatsApp number.

The WhatsApp for Business API comes with requirements of infrastructure, scalability, maintenance, and upgrades of the ever-changing API. In contrast, WhatsApp Business requires a dedicated and operational SIM card with data and a smartphone.

If you are an existing WhatsApp Business App user, you can easily set up automated replies and greeting messages, both of which will benefit your business. But do keep in mind that this is not the same as a chatbot and has limited functionality. If you can handle the messages personally or through employees, the in-built functionality of the business app may be sufficient for you. However, if your business is growing fast and you find yourself overwhelmed by the number of customer queries coming in, you should consider implementing a chatbot to reduce your burden. Medium and large businesses definitely require chatbot functionality for enabling seamless interactions with their growing customer base In this blog, we tell you how to build a WhatsApp chatbot for your business. Read more.

Here are a few key concepts that you should be familiar with before you start using WhatsApp Business API for your business. However, we recommend you check the complete WhatsApp Business API documentation here.

Opt-in and Opt-out

The businesses must deploy a mandatory one-time per-user opt-in service to capture the user’s consent to receive messages from an enterprise number. The user must be informed, and a user action must be initiated to enter the consent database (maintained at WhatsApp server level). The service, however, offers a flexible endpoint that can be invoked through multiple channels like Missed Call Numbers, CheckBoxes on the Website and App, SMS, Emails, QR Codes and direct CTA advertisements on various media outlets.

Without gaining consent, WhatsApp does not allow sending outbound messages to customers. Customers must also be given similar measures to stop receiving messages and opt-out/de-consent of the WABA service. The service for opt-out works on the same endpoint as Opt-In with slight differences in parameters passed in the API.

Transactional Notifications

Guidelines have been placed around the content and nature of the messages that can be sent to end customers. After an Opt-in has been recorded for a customer, enterprises can automate sending welcome messages and other notifications on WhatsApp. The guidelines have been defined such that only transactional messages can be sent to the customers.

The types of messages allowed to be sent in this mode have also been defined under

• Alert Updates
• Account Updates
• Appointment Update
• Issue Resolution
• Payment Update
• Personal Finance Update
• Reservation Update
• Shipping Update
• Ticket Update
• Transportation Update

These messages are whitelisted with WhatsApp as a one-time activity and can be sent to any opt-in customer. These messages are charged on a per-message basis.

Customer Support Window

There are two ways in which any end-user can reach out to the enterprise:

• Reply to the notification message received - Customers have already opted in
• Save the enterprise WhatsApp number in their contacts and start a conversation - Customer may or may not have opted in

In both cases, WhatsApp allows enterprises to respond to the incoming messages in a support window that is open for 24 hours from the last user message

In this window, enterprises can send non-whitelisted content and even open a human agent handover session. Once the 24-hour window closes, the only type of messages that can be sent to the user have whitelisted notifications and only to opted in users. This window opens up possibilities for deploying chatbots to maximise engagements and human agent support over chat through backend enterprise software like CRMs.

Response Automation

Once an incoming message is received, the WhatsApp Business API allows connecting to chatbots services. These services can be used to auto-reply and solve queries and connect with backend systems to fetch and store information. At any given point, a user can be directed to a human agent through CRM webhook integrations.

Number Quality Rating

WABA also allows WhatsApp to monitor blocks and spam reports on your enterprise number by end-users. If an enterprise sends unsolicited messages and/or provides incorrect information, users are free to block and report Spam the number. Based on the number of blocks and spam reports, WhatsApp manages number quality ratings. These ratings also come with specific rate limits ranging from Low to High and 1,000 messages per day to 100,000 messages per day respectively. Hence, enterprises are expected to follow opt-in guidelines and messaging etiquette to avoid a reduction in a quality rating.

Analytics

WhatsApp Business API also exposes message metrics. The enterprises can consume the API to get metrics on the Number of Opt-Ins, Opt-Outs, Messages Sent, Delivered, Read, Failed and Blocked in a real-time API method.

There are five broad realms where you can use the WhatsApp APIin your business and see immediately.

Customer support

It is perhaps the biggest application of WhatsApp Business API. It bypasses the concept of waiting in queues, unread emails, and delayed responses. You can deploy a chatbot on WhatsApp to handle the frequently related queries, and if it’s beyond the scope of the bot, the matter can be escalated to your staff. The platform also enables a more conversational means for communication. Moreover, unlike emails and social media platforms that are flooded with marketingmessages, it’s spam-free

Marketing and sales

WhatsApp for Business API provides key insights on your messaging by analysing how many messages were delivered and read. You can also make use of Facebook’s ad targeting feature, which allows you to send ad traffic straight to WhatsApp, thus improving conversion rates.

Recruitment

WhatsApp is widely welcomed by candidates at their workplaces. It also allows you to reach passive applicants looking for low-commitment jobs that don’t need formal applications or documents. Simply generating a QR code to reach your business on WhatsApp can allow you to potentially reach millions of candidates across the globe. Plus, if you start taking advantage of automated responses, the candidates can inquire about their application status and get answers to their follow-up questions any time of the day.

Internal team communication

WhatsApp Business API serves a few special cases for internal communications. For instance, it can offer onboarding support to new joiners via templatised FAQs. The API can escalate more complex cases to the relevant departments. Similarly, you can also collect regular feedback and make urgent announcements through push notifications.

Getting creative

People have now discovered various intuitive ways to build and grow their businesses sustainably using WhatsApp. Russsh for instance, is a Mumbai-based service for running errands that leverages WhatsApp for bookings. Following a similar idea, a great number of restaurants now take orders on WhatsApp. This allows customers to communicate and let their preferences and customisation instructions be known in real-time. Medical professionals, too, have started using WhatsApp for offering consultations, just as pharmacies now accept prescription photos on the platform and accept orders for home delivery of the medicines.

Organisations can leverage WhatsApp Business API to securely message customers directly from within WhatsApp messaging platform. It also helps developers in building interactions that reach out to customers and initiate effective customer engagements.

Private and secure messaging

Unlike SMS, WhatsApp is linked directly to a single phone number. So when a business sends a message to a customer, the customer can recognise the brand or organisation they are receiving the messages from. WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption and strict adherence to protecting subscriber privacy is an added bonus. Additional security features like two-factor authentication (2FA) are helpful for businesses, as they are assured of the customer’s authenticity.

Two-way communication

Primarily, WhatsApp serves as a great channel for notifications and alerts like purchase confirmations, customer support, new product alerts, etc. However, it also enables businesses and customers to interact with each other proactively via reliable two-way messaging. It also allows a more direct way to engage with customers and have two-way conversations that generally take place in a physical store location or over the phone.

Enables conversational commerce

Conversational messaging by integrating WhatsApp business APIs enables conversational commerce. Sales and support teams can answer product related or customer service questions quickly with contextual messages. This would either facilitate new sales or provide customers with support and keep a window for future engagements open.

Engages globally

Since WhatsApp comes preinstalled on many smartphones worldwide, the chances are that most customers are probably already using the app. To connect with a customer, businesses need to just set up a WhatsApp Business profile and associate it with their business number. Companies can send appointment reminders, order notifications, product dispatch alerts, product promotional videos, verification codes, boarding passes, and 2-way customer surveys and generic product/service support messages. It’s instant, more personal, and effective in the longer run.

Gupshup is a conversational messaging platform that can help you avoid the hidden pitfalls of customer interaction automation. The platform assists you in building customer engagement during commercial transactions, marketing and support-related activities. Not only can you build conversational experiences and set up a structured messaging workflow, but you can also maintain your brand voice with Gupshup.

Therefore, when you connect your WhatsApp Business API via Gupshup, you benefit from the expansive reach of WhatsApp and the communication capabilities of Gupshup for your brand. You can also build your very own chatbot, integrate your tech-stack with WhatsApp, and operate at a large scale.

Some features include:

• Automated onboarding
• Early access to features
• Automated management of contracts
• Better API controls and tagging mechanisms to manage your customer apps
• Transparent process with a super incentivised commission program
• Superior insights and analytics on app usage and partner performance.

To begin with, you need a verified company account in Facebook Business Manager so that you can connect your contact numbers with WhatsApp Business API. You can check whether your company has a verified account or not by visiting theinformationor security pages on Facebook’s website for businesses.

If your company is not verified, you can click on the ‘Start Verification’ button provided on the security page and follow the given steps to verify your company. Once your company is verified, you can then connect your official contact numbers with WhatsApp Business API.

You can follow the steps given below to connect your phone number via Gupshup.

• Login to the Gupshup website using your email id or a Facebook or GitHub account.
• Upon logging in, you will be able to access your very own Gupshup dashboard to manage various tools. Since you are a new user, you will see a ‘Create your first app’ button on the very first screen of your Gupshup dashboard. Click on this button to begin your WhatsApp Business API connection process.
• The platform will then ask you to select the type of app you want to create. For this, select the ‘Access API’ option and proceed further.
• The platform will then ask you to enter a unique name for your WhatsApp messaging app. Define the app name as per your brand name, and scroll down the page to click on the ‘Next’ button. However, make sure to check the availability of the app name to avoid any confusion for your customers or setup delays.
• The next screen will ask you to go to your Gupshup dashboard Click on this button, and you will arrive on your dashboard, where you can finally see a ‘Go Live’ button next to your newly created app.
• As you click on ‘Go Live’, the next screen will show you a checklist of things that you will need to provide. Review the checklist and click on the ‘I’m ready’ button to progress further.
• You will need to select your country/region to view and accept pricing details. Once that’s done, the platform will then ask for your essential business information.
• Fill in all the relevant business details in sync with the information that you have provided on your Facebook Business Manager account Refer back to the account to ensure there are no discrepancies, and then click on the ‘Next’ button.
• The Gupshup platform will then ask you to verify your linked email account. Click on the ‘Verify Now’ button to complete the process.
• Once your email is verified, return to the business information form, check all your entered information, and click on the ‘Confirm’ button
• You will need to verify your company’s ID on the Facebook Business Manager on the next screen. Enter the id and click ‘Save’ to successfully submit your application.
• Now, you can finally connect your phone number using WhatsApp Business API via Gupshup and set a Company Name.
• To ensure seamless interaction between Gupshup and WhatsApp Business API, you need to approve the received request for linking Gupshup in your Facebook Business Manager account. Once you are done, return to your Gupshup dashboard and click on the ‘Request Approved’ button.

WhatsApp typically takes anywhere between 2-7 working days to process and approve linking requests. Once you get the approval, you can effectively start using your WhatsApp Business API via your very own Gupshup app.

Gupshup offers the best-in-class WhatsApp business API. onboarding program. There are some unique features that make us stand out from the crowd, such as:

• No commitments and a pay-as-you-go model
• Set up of an automatic prepaid wallet
• No setup costs, no maintenance costs and no hidden costs whatsoever
• You pay only the per-message cost
• Simple automated wizard flow with no follow-ups or requirement of manual intervention
• Local language assistance is provided for all the geographies that we support, which includes all Latin American countries, India, Russia, Spain, Italy, Turkey and more.
• I18N compliant with Cyrillic support

Once you or your clients are ready to migrate to Gupshup, follow a few steps to get on board:

• Fill up the BSP Form with all the necessary details.
• On receiving the details, the support team will initiate the migration process.
• Simultaneously, you can visit our website gupshup.ioand sign up to create a new account
• You can start testing Gupshup with the free credit we provide there.

The WhatsApp Business API for developers makes it easy to integrate WhatsApp into their customer service setup. The WhatsApp Business API uses a REST API Architecture that follows the standard HTTP request-response exchange, plus JSON data formats This WhatsApp for Business API documentation is designed for developers and business teams looking to get a handle on all the specifications of the Gupshup Messaging API for WhatsApp Business. With this guide, you will understand everything you need to know about sending and receiving messages on WhatsApp via a simple REST API through HTTP/HTTPS modes. Now you no longer have to scramble in different places for WhatsApp business API docs, because this comprehensive guide will explain it all.

The introduction of WhatsApp as a business tool is strategic. With its extensive reach, highly engaged user base, and multi-faceted communications capabilities, it has the momentum to tap in the full potential of customer engagement. Gupshup, being one of the officially authorised partners of WhatsApp, offers the simplest and efficient way to get WhatsApp Messaging up and running. The conversational messaging platform assists you in building customer engagement during commercial transactions, marketing and support-related activities. Not only can you build conversational experiences and set up a structured messaging workflow, but you can also maintain your brand voice with Gupshup.

Empower your brand with WhatsApp Business API by booking a demo with our experts to learn more about the solution. #LetsGupshup