Seamless Integration: WhatsApp Cloud API

The WhatsApp Cloud API enables medium and large businesses to interact with customers using Meta’s cloud-hosted version. WhatsApp Cloud API offers many features that empower businesses to connect and engage with customers.

You can integrate the API with different backend systems, including marketing platforms or CRMs.

Meta emphasizes the following:

Meta doesn’t provide a platform for direct customer interaction with the WhatsApp Cloud API. To send and receive messages, you need to connect them to a BSP or customer conversation management software (CCM) like Kommo.

Alternatively, you can develop your own app to bypass third-party services.

If you're seeking a reliable and powerful WhatsApp Cloud API provider, Kommo may be the one.

Kommo is the world's first WhatsApp CRM and an officially badged Meta Business Partner, indicating that Kommo's expertise has been verified and recognized by Meta. 🤝

Now, let’s look at the benefits of WhatsApp Cloud API 👇

The functionality of your WhatsApp Cloud API may vary based on the chosen BSP or CMM, but the core features of the WhatsApp Cloud API remain consistent across solution providers.

There are a number of features that the WhatsApp Cloud API + Kommo integration offers. Let’s take a look at them.

Kommo offers various automation features, such as:

• Integration in lead profiles: Effortlessly incorporate WhatsApp communication into their client’s lead profiles.
• Digital Pipeline compatibility: Seamlessly connect WhatsApp Cloud API with their Digital Pipeline for streamlined sales processes.
• Chatbots: Enhance their sales strategy by integrating Salesbot for automated interactions.
• Broadcasts: Reach out to multiple customers simultaneously with broadcast messages.

Businesses can now offer their clients a variety of options for sending messages:

• Text messages: Communicating through traditional text messages.
• Media sharing: Sharing photos, videos, and documents with ease.
• Templates: Sending CRM templates and pre-approved WhatsApp templates.
• Interactive messages: Sending messages with quick reply buttons and list messages.
• Stickers and reactions: Expressing themselves with stickers and reactions for added engagement.
• Voice and audio messages: Sending voice messages for a more personal touch.
• Replies: See which messages clients are referring to.

When receiving messages from clients, users can include:

• Text messages: Communicating through traditional text messages.
• Media sharing: Sharing photos, videos, and documents with ease.
• Location sharing: Easily sharing locations with customers when needed.
• Contact sharing: Exchanging contact information within chats.
• Stickers and reactions: Expressing themselves with stickers and reactions for added engagement.
• Voice and audio messages: Sending voice messages for a more personal touch.
• Replies: See which messages clients are referring to.

Businesses can tailor messages to suit their needs with various formats, including:

• Templates: Use pre-defined message templates for consistent and efficient communication.
• Free-form messages: Craft custom messages tailored to individual clients.
• Interactive messages: Incorporate interactive buttons to prompt user engagement.
• List messages: Present information in a structured list format for clarity and ease of reference.

Businesses can keep track of message statuses to ensure effective communication, including:

• Message status updates: Monitor message statuses, including sent, delivered, read, and error notifications.
• Pipeline and source name customization: Users can personalize their message pipeline and source names for better organization.
• Multi-number connectivity: Connect and manage multiple phone numbers seamlessly within the platform.

Users can receive timely notifications and track key metrics to optimize their business strategy, including:

• 24-hour countdown timer : See how much time remains to message clients within the initial 24-hour window, directly in the lead card.
• Message statistics: Track metrics on message usage and debited amounts per day.
• Notification center alerts: Users can stay informed about their account status, including low balance, approved templates, and changes in messaging limits.

Once set up, you can start sending broadcasts and interactive messages. You can also utilize advanced automation tools like chatbots and WhatsApp templates to maximize the effectiveness of your marketing, support, and sales teams.

As we’ve just covered, by eliminating the BSP fees associated with hosting, WhatsApp Cloud API has made customer interactions smoother and more cost-effective.

Your WhatsApp Cloud API fees will depend on the type of access you need.

If you don’t have the technical resources to set up WhatsApp Cloud API, you can opt for a BSP. like Kommo. Businesses will only have to pay conversation-based fees that are charged directly to their Meta WhatsApp Business account without any intermediaries.

This is also the same if you choose to get WhatsApp API directly from Meta, you only need to pay WhatsApp conversation charges. (But in this case, you need to have a team of WhatsApp developers who can integrate it).

WhatsApp conversation charges will be based on the volume and type of conversations between you and your customers. There are two main types of WhatsApp conversations:

• User-initiated (also known as Service Conversations)
• Business-initiated

If you’ve been using WhatsApp Business API, now you’re wondering what is the difference.

Let’s compare the WhatsApp Cloud API with WhatsApp On-Premise API.

Source

The key difference between the WhatsApp Cloud API and On-Premises API is the hosting infrastructure – cloud-based versus self-managed. This choice directly impacts two things:

1. Simplicity of the integration for businesses
2. Speed of updates

As shown above, businesses can rely on Business Solutions Providers (BSPs) like Kommo or Twilio to obtain WhatsApp for Business API approval to access the On-Premise API. Partnering with a BSP provides a ready-made front-end interface for messaging. In such cases, Meta doesn’t provide direct access to Cloud API.

With the WhatsApp Cloud API, on the other hand, you can bypass the need for such BSPs and obtain instant API approval and access directly from Meta at no cost (except for messaging fees). This is useful if you already have an in-house team of developers, which means you can save on costs.

If you opt for the Cloud API, Meta will handle all backend hosting and maintenance. This allows your business to access the latest WhatsApp features and updates at no additional cost. You no longer need to wait for features to trickle through third parties or spend time implementing updates yourself.

Llimitation is that if you already use WhatsApp for Business API, you cannot simultaneously use the same phone number with WhatsApp Cloud API.

While you can transfer the number to the Cloud API, you must choose between one account type or the other.

As we’ve already discussed, there are two ways in which you can get access to WhatsApp Cloud API:

• Direct Meta Connection: Requires an endpoint server and app development for messaging capabilities. More do-it-yourself approach.
• BSP WhatsApp Integration: Hassle-free infrastructure hosting and messaging application tools provided by the third-party BSP. Plug-and-play solution.

The main difference is that direct integration requires a more technical setup. You must host your WhatsApp Business API endpoint server and develop an application to facilitate message sending and receipt

Integrating through a BSP takes a more streamlined route. BSPs host all necessary infrastructure and provide tools for building conversational messaging features into your application.

Let’s go through each process one after the other

As mentioned earlier, accessing your WhatsApp Cloud API directly through Meta offers a do-it-yourself approach, but we have broken it down to make the process easier for you.

Let’s get to it 👇

As with all APIs, you must first create a Developer’s app. To do that:

Sign up or Log in to your Facebook and create a Meta for Developers account by clicking Get Started if you don’t have one yet.

Fill in your Contact Info and About You page. Click the Complete Registration button.

Now, click Create an App.

Select Other from the options below and press Next.

Select Business as the type of app you want to create and click Next.

Add a name for your App to distinguish it from the other apps you have or might create in the feature. Specify a contact email for your app and a Facebook Business Account that will be associated with that. Hit Create App.

Scroll down to find WhatsApp in the list of products and click Set up.

If you’ve already chosen the Business Account for the app, it will be pre-set by default. All you need to do is click Continue.

Once you hit continue, you’ll see a Cloud API Quickstart page that will require you to complete the following steps:

Step 1: Select phone numbers

Step 2: Send messages with the API

Step 3: Configure webhooks to receive messages

Step 4: Learn about API and build your app

Step 5: Add a phone number

Step 6: Add payment method

Let’s go over each of them one by one.

We’ll begin with Selecting phonenumbers and Sending messages with API. To do that, click Start using the API.

Add and verify a number connected to an existing WhatsApp account to send a test message with a test number generated by WhatsApp to ensure a successful API connection.

Click Send Message to send your first test message with a WhatsApp API for business.

Now, if you’ve decided to set up your WhatsApp Cloud API by yourself, it’s time for you to unpack your programming skills or call your developer team. Step 3 and 4 you will need to Configure webhooks to receive messages and Build your app to send them.

To configure a webhook, you can create a custom webhook URL or use services like Glitch or Heroku to help you set up the endpoint.

Once you are done, you can subscribe to the WhatsApp API events that you are interested in and try sending a WhatsApp message to your test account. You should receive a notification with the content of your message.

However, if you are opting for a BSP, you can refer to their guidelines for Webhook configuration, including your Callback URL and Token verification. And you won't have to create the app because you will be using WhatsApp BSPs front-end interface to send and receive WhatsApp messages.

Create a WhatsApp Business Profile and Add your phone number to your Cloud API account.

Once your number is verified, send another test message using your own WhatsApp API number.

Add a Payment Method to send business-initiated messages to your customers and pay for user-initiated messages once the number surpasses 1,000 conversations.

Now that you have this powerful tool, you must get the most out of it!

You can only initiate and scale up conversations using pre-approved message templates from marketing, utility, and authentication categories.

You’ll have to create a template from one of these categories and submit it to WhatsApp for approval.

You can do it under Account Tools in your WhatsApp Manager or directly from a BSP you use.

And now you are ready to embark on your WhatsApp Cloud API adventure.

Bon voyage - may the API force be with you!

If you want to learn more about how to set up WhatsApp Cloud API, here are a few tutorials for you.

Meta’s setup guide to WhatsApp Cloud API 👇:

Pabbly’s setup guide to WhatsApp Cloud API👇:

Programming Makes Sense’s setup guide to WhatsApp Cloud API 👇:

For most brands, leveraging a BSP for Meta Cloud API access offers an easier implementation versus building the technical components from scratch alone. However, no matter which route you take, some of the key elements of setting it up will remain the same.

To integrate Kommo with your WhatsApp Cloud API, you first have to open a Kommo account.

Next, go to Settings > Integrations to gain access to Kommo’s marketplace. Here, you see the WhatsApp Cloud API widget. Then click install.

After the integration installation press “Continue with FB” button and log in to your Facebook account. You will see “Connect your account to Kommo” screen, click the “Get started” button to start connection.

Next, you’d follow these steps to connect your WhatsApp Number

Fill in your business information: Choose existing Meta business account or create a new one and click the “Next” button.

Create or select your WhatsApp Business account: Choose existing WhatsApp Business account or create a new one and click the “Next” button.

Create a WhatsApp Business profile: Fill in all necessary fields and click the “Next” button.

Add a phone number for WhatsApp: Fill in a phone number, choose the verification method and click the “Next” button.

Verify your phone number: Fill in a verification code and click the “Next” button, and then the “Finish” button.

When you have done all these, the number will appear in the selector. Click the “Connect this account” button in order to connect the number to the integration.

And voila, the number will appear in the table

If you're already using the WhatsApp On-Premise API, there are two things you can do:

1. Keep using WhatsApp On-Premises API
2. Migrate your account to the WhatsApp Cloud API

Migrating to the WhatsApp Cloud API will likely require a few changes for your business. The transition can be seamless, whether directly with Meta or through your existing BSP if they support the Cloud API hosting model.

All you need to do is:

1. Integrate Cloud API
2. Backup content of your On-Premises account
3. Disable Two-step verification is applicable
4. Make a POST call to the PHONE_NUMBER_ID/register endpoint
5. Re-upload media files and make sure nothing is missing
6. Start messaging

Alternatively, you can ask your BSP to help you switch to WhatsApp Cloud API.

When it comes to your customers, the only noticeable difference they may encounter after changing the hosting type is a new system message in your WhatsApp chat. Apart from this minor update, their experience and interaction with your Business on API WhatsApp will remain unchanged.

If you are using Kommo’s WhatsApp Business API integration, and you are considering whether to migrate to WhatsApp Cloud API or not, here some factors to consider;

The WhatsApp Cloud API offers numerous advantages over the On-Premise API, making it an attractive choice for businesses seeking seamless integration, cost savings, automatic updates, and increased messaging capacity.

Businesses can leverage the Cloud API to improve communication and customer engagement with easy setup, instant approval, and less fees.

Add Kommo to the equation, and you'll get an ultimate weapon to maximize the potential of the WhatsApp Cloud API and achieve exceptional customer interactions.

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