How To Use Whatsapp API On C#

 WhatsApp is together with Facebook Messenger, WeChat, Line and Telegram  one of the biggest messaging services. A programmatic access via a  WhatsApp API would be a fundamental requirement to create chatbots,  support systems or other services which live on top of the Whatsapp  ecosystem. Unfortunately, WhatsApp hasn’t released an official API yet.  In this article, we talk about what is actually available, unofficial  APIs and alternatives. Moreover, this article will constantly be updated  with the latest news around the WhatsApp APIs.  

 

How to get access to the WhatsApp API?

The answer is, currently there is no official way to get full programmatic access to the Whatsapp ecosystem. There are some libraries available  which use an unofficial API to send and receive messages, but this is  only limited to a single number. All those libraries are basically hacks  which try to act like a standard WhatsApp client which you see on  Android or iOS in combination with WhatsApp Web. This is a cool way to  run some tests, but for a real chatbot or a sophisticated support  system, especially in an enterprise context, it’s not the right choice.  Moreover, it seems like WhatsApp doesn’t tolerate these libraries and  regularly forces the developers to discontinue their projects.  Nevertheless, there is one official offering by WhatsApp: the Click to  Chat API. 

The Click to Chat API

WhatsApp offers a very simple “Click to Chat”  API which is basically only a link containing a target number and a  prefilled text. Once a user clicks on this link, the WhatsApp client  (Android, iOS, Web, etc) opens with a new message to the prefilled  number with the prefilled text. This is a cool way to add a fast contact  option for example if you want to sell your car. The link needs to  contain the phone number in international format and the URL-encoded  text. So if you want to send “I’m interested in your car for sale” to  +1(555)1234567 the link must be: https://api.whatsapp.com/send?phone=15551234567&text=I'm%20interested%20in%20your%20car%20for%20sale 

Will there be an official WhatsApp API in future?

Yes, we think so. Facebook already opened the Messenger platform via  an API a while ago and since WhatsApp got acquired by Facebook there is  hope. Once there are updates, you will read it here and in case we see  an official WhatsApp API, it will definitely become part of the CloudRail Unified Messaging API. Edit: Today (Jan 18th 2018), WhatsApp announced the WhatsApp Business App  which allows small business to get in touch with their customers. This  is not an API, but at least a way to officially communicate as a brand  rather than a normal user (phone number). It comes with features like  automatic answers if you are not available, quick replies or welcome  messages.  Edit: On Aug 2nd 2018, WhatsApp released the so-called WhatsApp Business API  into a limited public preview. It seems very selected customers like  KLM or Booking.com got access to this API already. Everyone can apply  for an API key, but it seems like WhatsApp is very selective currently.  Moreover, Facebook seems to see this as a way to monetize WhatsApp and  thus charges companies for each message which is not a direct answer to a  customers message within 24 hours. 

WhatsApp API Alternatives / The Universal Messaging API

If you want to play around with messaging platforms to build chatbots  or other systems, have a look at Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Viber,  Slack or Line. All of these services offer a full API which is easy to  implement with CloudRail. With our Unified Messaging API,  you can access all services via a single interface. So e.g. the  function to send a message works exactly the same for Facebook Messenger  as for Telegram (and hopefully soon WhatsApp). Check out our tutorial how to create a chatbot for Facebook Messenger.
Once an official WhatsApp API becomes available, it will be added to  this universal API as well. This means you can start building your  system based on other messaging services and make WhatsApp available to  it with just a line of code eventually.