How to create a whatsapp bot free
How to Create WhatsApp Chatbot in 5 Steps [For Free in 2023]
Since you’re here, it means that you have understood that you need to engage your customers over the channel they are most comfortable using. Kudos to you!
You know that your customers are rather active over WhatsApp. Now, you have three questions on your mind.
- How do you improve your customer experience on WhatsApp?
- Can you engage customers over WhatsApp manually, or do you need a chatbot?
- How do you create a chatbot on WhatsApp?
Well, we’ve got all the answers you are looking for.
We’re going to help you decide whether you need a WhatsApp chatbot for business, then show you exactly how to create it, and walk you through all the steps involved in deploying it on WhatsApp in just 5 minutes. Grab on to your seats. We’re getting started!
What is WhatsApp chatbot?A WhatsApp chatbot is an automated software that uses Artificial Intelligence or pre-programmed rules to engage with your customers on WhatsApp.
Engati's WhatsApp chatbots use AI and our proprietary NLP (Natural Language Processing) engine to intelligently interact with your customers. You can use them to answer customer questions about your products and services, share content, drive sales, and send notifications regarding orders, payments, shipping, etc.
WhatsApp business chatbots run over the WhatsApp Business API to intelligently engage with your customers, employees, students, and other types of users, without any need for human intervention.
Why create your own WhatsApp chatbot?
If you have a very small clientele, you might be able to survive by manually responding to each message. But as your business grows, that will become harder.
However, even if you have a limited customer base, there is still one major problem with manually answering every question - a lack of speed.
Your customers will have to wait for you to get around to answering their questions. This means that more often than not, they won’t get an answer when they want it.
That’s never a good idea.
If you’re into eCommerce or retail, that puts you in a more challenging position. 53% of online shoppers abandon their carts for lack of instant answers.
So, if you’re interested in having satisfied customers and protecting your carts from abandonment, you should create a WhatsApp chatbot for business.
How to create a WhatsApp chatbot?
Here are the steps to create a WhatsApp chatbot in 2023:
Step 1: Building a chatbot
When it comes to creating a chatbot, you’ve got two choices.
- Code it
- Use a powerful, no-code chatbot platform (hint, this is the better choice)
Building it with a no-code chatbot platform like Engati is the wiser choice. After all, why would you make the effort to painstakingly code a chatbot when you can build your WhatsApp chatbot visually?
We can help you get your bot up and running and start delighting your customers much faster than if you chose to code it yourself.
Step 2: Fulfil the requirements to deploy chatbots on WhatsApp
- First, you need to have access to WhatsApp Business API. WhatsApp grants access to these APIs themselves through their partners.
- To receive WhatsApp bot API access, you’ll also need a verified business on Facebook.
- You also need to register a phone number as your WhatsApp Business phone number
- WhatsApp will call this number up to confirm and activate it for your WhatsApp Business Account, so you need to make sure that the number can receive calls from the USA.
In the Engati portal, navigate to the Deploy tab and select WhatsApp. Now you’d want to choose your provider from the drop-down menu. To set up your WhatsApp bot in the fastest way possible, choose 360Dialog as your WhatsApp provider (doing this also allows you to create WhatsApp message templates that can be used for broadcast messages directly from the Engati portal).
Choosing your WhatsApp Business API service provider
Now, you’re going to have to update a couple of fields:
- Phone Number
- API key
Step 4: Configure WhatsApp
Add your WhatsApp Business number in the phone number field.
For generating your API key, reach out to our team and we'll help you get it in 2 mins.
If you're following these steps to create your chatbot right now, then we request you to quickly fill this form and we'll get back to you with the process of generating the API key.
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Access for free
Save the changes once you've added your mobile number & the API key.
Step 5: Test your WhatsApp chatbot
Now that you’ve entered all your details, you’re ready to test your WhatsApp chatbot.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’ve learned how to make your WhatsApp bot. Now, the question in your mind is, ‘Can I integrate my WhatsApp bot into my website?’
Once you complete all the steps, you'll be able to access the HTML code that you can add to your website and create your WhatsApp widget for free.
Along with this, you'll also get your WhatsApp QR code and Click-to-chat WhatsApp link for sharing it ahead.
Examples of powerful WhatsApp chatbots
1
Larsen & Toubro
Larsen & Toubro (L&T) needed a solution to engage their workforce of 3,30,000 employees across sites, answer all their questions, and receive progress updates from them.
They deployed an intelligent chatbot operating in English and Hindi over WhatsApp and Telegram.
It facilitates communication between employees working at their various construction sites and off-site project managers. By sending questions to the workers and collecting their responses, the bot has reduced the time spent on daily reporting.
It has even simplified the process of tracking progress across multiple projects for project managers.
2
Poppy's
Poppy’s is another major retailer and eCommerce store that opted to use a WhatsApp bot with Engati Live Chat.
This power-packed combination of automation and the human touch helps with lead generation as well as customer support, ensuring that customers get all their questions answered instantly, irrespective of complexity!
Their bot can pull information about all their products and share it with customers in both English and Spanish.
Since catalogs are constantly changing, training the bot manually would not make sense. Poppy’s did not want to upload FAQs about every single product manually.
That’s why they opted to use DocuSense. Our DocuSense technology uses cognitive search to parse documents and answer customer questions based on the information in them.
The result? Customers get answers to all their questions, while Poppy’s team does not need to spend time manually training their bot!
3
Mall of the Emirates
Mall of the Emirates uses Engati to provide customer service and run its loyalty program. They use an intelligent chatbot for WhatsApp, along with Live Chat, to give their patrons a fantastic experience..jpg)
Their bot uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to pull details from receipts uploaded by guests. So, all they need to do is send their receipts to the bot, and their loyalty points are automatically allocated without human intervention.
4
Top brands using Engati's WhatsApp chatbot
- Kolkata Municipal Corporation
- iMile
- Dubai Properties (Website) and WhatsApp
- Dubai Asset Management, (WhatsApp)
- GMR Aerocity Website & WhatsApp
- Danube Properties - WhatsApp
FAQs
1
What are the prerequisites for creating a chatbot on WhatsApp?
To deploy a chatbot on WhatsApp Messenger, all you need is:
1. Verified business on Facebook
2. Registered WhatsApp business phone number
3. Official WhatsApp Business API (which Engati helps you get)
2
What are WhatsApp message templates?
The message templates make it possible for you to announce your promotional campaigns to your customers over WhatsApp, allowing you to drive more conversions, earn more revenue, and gain more value from your WhatsApp chatbot.
3
How do I send broadcasts over a WhatsApp chatbot?
You can use broadcasts to send plain text messages, messages with options, and even take users through paths. We even allow you to schedule your broadcasts and target them to specific segments of your users. To broadcast messages on WhatsApp outside the 24-hour window, you will need to use a template message.
The good news is that you don’t need to go to the 360Dialog portal and create new broadcasts from there every time you want to send a template message.
All you’d have to do is set the templates up directly in the conversation flow while building your WhatsApp API chatbot by making use of the Template Message node.
4
How do I get access to WhatsApp APIs?
WhatsApp distributes its business APIs through its partners. When you create a WhatsApp bot on our platform, Engati will help you get access to the API.
5
What is the cost of WhatsApp chatbot?
WhatsApp Marketing is thriving and you must leverage the power of reaching out to your customers via WhatsApp.
So, while it is not free to deploy a chatbot, through our partnerships with WhatsApp API providers, we can help you do that at a competitive price.
6
How do you segment broadcast lists on your WhatsApp chatbot?
You can segment your existing user lists on the basis of user attributes, but there is an even easier way for you to do that. It is possible for you to set up your WhatsApp chatbot to automatically subscribe your chatbot users to broadcast campaigns on the basis of the actions that they take while interacting with the template messages from your chatbot.
In addition to that, you can also choose to upload a list of users with a certain attribute and send your broadcast message campaigns to them.
This allows you to target your users with broadcast messages that actually appeal to their interests, rather than annoying them with irrelevant announcements.
7
How do WhatsApp chatbots help with omnichannel support?
WhatsApp chatbots play an important role in an effective omnichannel support strategy because over 2 billion people around the world use WhatsApp.
These users open the app an average of 23 to 25 times a day.
It ideally plays into your broader omnichannel support strategy because the bot you deploy on WhatsApp can also be deployed on Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Telegram, and 10 other messaging channels. All your conversations across these channels can be managed in a OneView inbox, allowing your agents to always have context about past conversations on all channels. This means that your customers can continue conversations where they left off when they switch channels, making the experience truly omnichannel. The whole intent is to replicate human conversations.
8
What is WhatsApp Business API?
The WhatsApp Business API is used by medium & large businesses to scale up their customer engagements on WhatsApp with interactive buttons, broadcasts, templates, and other special features that are not available with WhatsApp Business App.
It is used the most by large businesses that have a lot of customers and a business suite that integrates with their other systems, software, and data.
Create your own WhatsApp chatbot for 5$ a day
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Create WhatsApp Bot: No-Code Guide [2022]
With the expanding features and capabilities of WhatsApp Business API Platforms, more and more businesses opt for WhatsApp bot solutions to communicate with their customer base. The popularity of these chatbots is not unwarranted, as case study after case study shows incredible results in engagement, resolution time, customer satisfaction, and even revenue growth.
If you, too, are looking to learn more about how to create a WhatsApp bot for your business, you have come to the right place. This article outlines how to build a chatbot solution for WhatsApp step-by-step without coding and test it instantly using Landbot’s drag-and-drop platform. Landbot's chatbot builder offers a quick-to-launch, no-code solution for WhatsApp automation. Moreover, the builder features have never been more intuitive both for the bot makers and the end-users.
However, before you get to the nitty and gritty of building a chatbot, it’s important to understand that, for WhatsApp to help your business excel, the automated conversation flow needs to be a part of a greater well-thought-out WhatsApp Led Growth (WLG) strategy. To learn more about WLG, see the resources below.
Now, without further ado, let’s see what it takes to create a WhatsApp bot without coding.
What is a WhatsApp Bot?
A WhatsApp bot provides your leads and/or customers with a real-time automated conversational experience directly on the messaging app. Chatbots on WhatsApp can be rule-based (composed of decision-tree-type interactions offering a more structured experience) or NLP-based (using natural language processing for more or a more human conversational effect). However, to be able to deploy a bot on WhatsApp, you must apply and be approved for WhatsApp Business API integration.
The key advantages of a WhatsApp chatbot include the following:
- Being able to communicate with the audience instantly, without delay, because people check WhatsApp more frequently than email.
- Enabling asynchronous communication, in other words, you are able to reply instantly, the customer can stop and restart the conversation at their own convenience, and the thread will never be lost.
- Getting in touch with customers without forcing them out of their comfort zone (via an app they use daily).
- Delivering a personalized experience with every interaction thanks to accurate user history and data collection.
WhatsApp bot can be used for a variety of use cases across customer journeys from marketing and sales to customer support and success.
Who Can Build WhatsApp Bots?
WhatsApp Business API was first released in 2018. Since then, Meta has been working towards turning into a full-scale business platform on par with WeChat's success case in China. Businesses worldwide are starting to take advantage of the possibilities that come with WhatsApp’s deep market penetration (2B monthly active users) and ever more business-friendly features.
Still, even though WhatsApp did open its doors to businesses, the API integration is not up for grabs just for anyone.
WhatsApp Business API requires businesses to pass through an application process that prioritizes medium, large and enterprise-size businesses in selected industries. Before you can grace your audiences with an official WhatsApp chatbot, you need to:
- Review WhatsApp Commerce Policy to ensure your industry and/or use case doesn’t breach any of the imposed regulations;
- Apply for WhatsApp Business API and set up a WhatsApp phone number
Without completing these steps launching your chatbot won’t be possible whether you are doing it solo or using a chatbot solution like Landbot.
HOWEVER!
There’s a way you can build and test a WhatsApp bot BEFORE that process is complete!
Just continue reading if you are interested in how it works.
How to Create a WhatsApp Bot without Coding & Test As You Go
To be able to follow this tutorial, you need to create a free account with Landbot.
Landbot is a verified WhatsApp API solution provider. It's also one of the best chatbot makers for the job since it hardly requires any coding. The initial signup is completely free, no credit card is required, and a short free trial will enable you to get access to all the features and learn how to build a WhatsApp bot.
In a hurry? You can also get a good idea of what steps you need to take to create and test your bot in the video below. Though, for a more detailed guide, follow this tutorial to the end.
NOTE: This tutorial explains how to create a rule-based WhatsApp chatbot using a decision-tree-like structure powered by integrations. If you are interested in creating an NLP-based AI assistant, check out our guide to building Dialogflow WhatsApp chatbot.
1. Set Up WhatsApp Bot Canvas
To set up your canvas. Navigate from the home screen to dashboard by clicking on the bot icon in the navigation bar on the left:
Once there, simply click on the “Build a Chatbot” button in the upper right corner and select WhatsApp as the channel and go straight to the building.
You will first be redirected to a template library where you can decide whether to use a pre-existing template or start from scratch.
If you wish to play around and test the experience immediately, you can go ahead and activate one of the templates. Otherwise you can start completely from scratch by selecting the button “Start from scratch” in the upper right corner.
Whichever option you choose, you will be prompted to setup your WhatsApp testing channel in order to test your bot as you go.
2. Set up WhatsApp Testing Channel
To create your personal WhatsApp Business Testing channel, all you need to do is click on the WhatsApp in the navigation bar on the left.
We already have a few functioning numbers but when you first open the feature, the list will be empty.
Click “Add New Testing Number”:
Choose a name for the testing channel, insert the desired test number and click “Confirm”. All in all, you can add up to 10 test channels.
Next you will be prompted to link the number with a particular bot. As a default it will be linked to the “Playground” chatbot but you are free to change that immediately.
A window will pop-up allowing you to connect the number with any multi-channel bot you created on the Landbot platform:
Make your selection and click “Link Selected Bot”.
For example, I linked my number to an eCommerce feedback template bot and texted “Hi” to activate it. Soon, the bot replied:
3. Create Your First Block
Okey, let's go back to building!
For the purposes of this tutorial we start from scratch.
When you first access the chatbot canvas you will notice two blocks are already allocated:
- User input
- Reply Buttons
The User Input block is extremely useful tool that helps capture and use your user's first interaction with your bot and—if you wish— already use that input to start personalizing.
By default, the user's first input to the chatbot will be saved in the string Variable @user_input. However, you can chage the name and format of this variable to fit your purposes.
This user input can be unprompted (the user reaching out to you with their own agenda) or inspired by a template message notification that encouraged the user action.
How it helps you personalize?
Well, for example, you can follow up this block with the Keyword Jump block. It will look like this:
Using this block is best if the user input is in response to a template message that offers a “menu” of responses be it buttons or text options.
You can also use the Conditional Logic block which allows you to check if the input contains specific words that help you understand the request.
Or, if you are up for it, you can take things to the next level and use a Natural Language Processing integration like Dialogflow to interpret that first message and respond to it.
If you are not ready to personalize yet, you can use the user input (which can be a simple "Hi") to launch a single flow.
4. Ask a Question (Open Text & Number)
Landbot builder allows you to ask questions and trigger interactions in different formats
Question: Open Text
The first question type I will share with you is a simple open-ended question.
Drag an arrow from the green point of your message block and select “Text Question” from the menu:
The “Text Question” block has two fields the configure:
- The question
- The variable under which you want to save the user’s answer
Since at this point the answer doesn't really contain important information and is more of a customer engagement prompt, I left the variable on the default "@text" setting.
Question: Number
Next, I wanted to know the age of the user, as I don’t want to collect data of those under age.
When you want to collect a numerical answer, the best question block to choose is “Number” - naturally.
Since I will be asking for users' age, I will create a new specific variable to capture this data.
To do that, just type the desired name of the variable and click “CREATE”.
Note: If necessary, you can further customize the “Number Question” block by activating the “Advanced Options” field. It allows you to set min and max values as well as prefixes or numeric formats
5. Set Up Conditional Logic
Let’s say I want to differentiate between people who are 18 and over and the rest. To do that, all I need is to set up a condition that will split the conversation flow into two branches.
Draw an arrow from the last block (age) and select “Conditions” from the blocks menu.
In this case, I want to condition the @age of the respondent so I select it as the variable to condition. Next, you can choose what kind of condition to apply:
- Equal to
- Not equal to
- Contains
- Greater than
- Less than
- Is set
I selected, “Greater than” and set the last field to “17” so my condition looks like this:
IF @age is GREATER THAN 17 - meaning the condition is “TRUE” (green output), I will allow the respondent to continue.
If it is “FALSE” (pink output) they will take a different path:
For the negative output, I chose a simple message block to inform the user he or she can’t participate in the survey and used the “Close Chat” function to mark the conversation as closed/locked in the system.
6. Button Responses (Reply Button & List)
In the past, WhatsApp interface didn’t allow the use of buttons. When designing a rule-based bot brands had to rely on the Keyword Jump feature or use UX tricks such as numbered choices (see example below):
However, things have changed. WhatsApp made some updates to the UI and so, buttons are no longer off limits. IIn fact, there are two different ways you can go about it, using Reply Buttons block or Buttons List block.
Reply Buttons
n Landbot, you can enjoy buttons by using the “Reply buttons” feature:
So, to get some button-action in my bot and assess participants in more detail, l asked about their experience with tech:
To save the user answer under a specific variable, scroll down the buttons editor and create variable that best captures the data you are asking for (you should do this for every question block that collects relevant data):
I immediately went to test the experience and this is how it looked on WhatsApp.
This is how the selection looks like:
And, when the user selects one of the options, they’ll se this:
Buttons List
Another buttons option available for WhatsApp is Buttons List. It enables you to create a list of selectable items to be displayed as buttons.
The Buttons List is the better choice when you want to include many options, not just a couple as it only displays the "Main Menu" button inside the chat. The options only appear as a pop-up after the user clicks on the menu and so the chat doesn't end up looking awkward.
To create a Buttons List block is as easy as adding the Reply Buttons:
7. Add Media
Although WhatsApp only has the basic button feature and none of the fancier UI available for the web or Facebook Messenger bot, you can still have fun with content formats and use videos and images to help your cause.
After learning about the @tech_profile of the participants, I wanted to bring the survey without splitting the flow, so I dragged the arrow from the "Default" button.
This means that no matter what the user answers all options lead to the same next step.
I chose the Message Block as it's ideal because of its flexibility. When you click on the “MEDIA” option, you can switch from text and, instead, easily upload a file, share a YouTube video, image or a rich URL link.
Of the options available, I chose YouTube and just copy-pasted the link of the video I want my bot to share.
Then I added a simple prompt asking the participants to watch the video before proceeding to answer the rest of the questions.
Next, I followed the video with three open-ended questions using the Text Question blocks, making sure each answer has its own variable.
8. Export Collected Data: Google Sheets
Before being able to integrate a Google spreadsheet into your WhatsApp bot, you need to create, well, the spreadsheet on your Google Drive.
I created a simple sheet to collect all the data by WhatsApp bot asked about in the conversational survey.
When you have this ready, go back to the builder, draw the usual arrow and select “Google Sheets” integration from the list.
Click “Add Account”.A new tab will load asking you to give Landbot access to your Drive.Once done, the account will appear inside the integration.
Click on the “Select the Spreadsheet” and choose the one you want to integrate from the list:
After that, the builder will ask you to also indicate a specific sheet within the selected spreadsheet which can come in handy if you have multiple ones within a single spreadsheet.
When that is all done, it’s time to configure the action I want to carry out:
There are three different actions available. I can insert new data, update data or retrieve data. For the survey use case, I selected “Insert a new row” since every new submission will be new data.
Last but not least comes the fun part of pairing column names with the variables under which you stored user answers:
Just keep pressing the PLUS icon until you have assigned all the variables to their designated columns.
9. Send Your Team an Email Notification
If you want to be informed about the success of your survey (or maybe a sale or an incoming support ticket), Landbot’s lets you quickly set up an email notification.
Draw an arrow and select the “Send an Email” option from the block menu.
First, decide if this email notification will go to a team member or the user. I wanted to receive a notification about the survey submission so I chose the “Your Team” option.
Next, configure the email address, email subject, and message in the email.
And that's it.
10. Offer Human Hand-off Option
Transfer to a human agent is more typical for FAQ bots rather than surveys but I really wanted to show you how easy it is to set up with Landbot:
So, after I sawed all the data in Google Sheets and sent myself a notification, I thanked the user and offered him the following options using Buttons block once again:
Option one offers access to learning resources, option two a chance to talk to an agent, and option three lets the user put an end to the conversation.
To set up the chatbot-to-human handoff, draw an arrow from the second “Talk to an Agent” option, and select “Human Takeover” from the menu.
If you have more agents, you can assign the responsibility for a specific chatbot to a specific agent. If you don’t assign the takeover to anyone, the bot will select the agent with the least number of conversations automatically. And that is it to be honest.
To account for a situation when no agent is online, I continued the flow with a simple message:
Since the conversation is happening on WhatsApp, the user doesn’t have to wait impatiently on the desktop, so a little waiting time is really not so inconvenient!
11. Set Up Slack Notifications
I have a little bonus up my sleeve!
If you don’t have agents sitting on the Landbot chatbot platform all day long you might want to notify your agents when someone wants to talk to them.
Luckily, Landbot can send notifications via the world's most popular business communication app - Slack.
You can use it for anything… notifying your sales team about every new lead, a new purchase, new subscription, or notifying agents about new live support tickets.
In our example, after the user indicates the need for live agent support, you can easily send a notification to the respective Slack channel:
- Break the green arrow connecting your “Contact Support” and “Human Takeover”
- Search for “Slack Notification” block
- (If not set up already) connect your Slack account to Landbot
- In the “Choose an Option…” field select an existing Slack channel or a specific person from whom you want to receive the notification
- In the field below, enter the message you want to appear in Slack
- Click save
- Connect the Slack block with “Human Takeover”
Once again, that is it!
Pretty simple right?
Right now, all I have to do is define a flow for the other two responses of the button choice question, but you already know the different features I could use, so I won’t waste space on it in the tutorial!
Let’s go straight to the best part - the testing!
12.
Test Your Chatbot!I am only testing my chatbot after I have built the whole flow.
But, to be honest, you can do it at any point throughout the creation process, as long as you save your progress by clicking the SAVE button in the upper right corner of the builder interface.
The testing feature is especially handy because it gives you an opportunity to review the final customer experience, check up on integrations, and catch possible errors before launching the bot to your customer base.
My integrations were successful as my spreadsheet updated with submitted answers:
And I received an email notifying me about the submission:
13. Keep Exploring!
Though the features you saw in this article are powerful tools in creating WhatsApp bots, they still only scrape the surface of what you can achieve with Landbot.
So, roll up your sleeves and keep exploring… For instance, thanks to the Dialogflow integration you can use Landbot to build smart NLP bots without coding.
To Sum Things Up...
WhatsApp chatbots allow you to deal with incoming messages in real-time.
Thanks to smart solutions, learning how to create a WhatsApp bot doesn’t have to be rocket science nor does it have to involve artificial intelligence to be useful business-wise (check out some WhatsApp bot examples to see for yourself!).
The visual editor and builder even allow you to master formerly coder-only skills such as integrating webhooks!
If you are tired of relying on WhatsApp web for business, check out our WhatsApp Solution features or sign up and start shaping the future of chatbots with your own assistant today.
It's time to leave the programmable SMS in the past and revolutionize business-customer communication.
Create a WhatsApp chatbot for free!
Automate communication with customers from the first touch to close the deal
Use WhatsApp mailings for various business tasks:
Increase conversions
Subscribers open triggered messages better than mass mailings and are willing to engage in dialogue.
Smoothly lead to a deal
Turn potential customers into customers using message chains with useful content.
Get customer feedback
Ask customers to leave feedback after the purchase and evaluate the work of the company. This way you can improve the service.
customer support
Create a support chat to advise and assist customers 24/7.
Everything you need to create and send WhatsApp newsletters
Use tools that will help you communicate effectively in the messenger
Collect subscriber base
Place a subscription widget on the site and collect your WhatsApp messenger audience. In the service, you can also send an email or SMS to an existing database with an offer to subscribe to WhatsApp mailing list.
Visual designer for creating chatbots
Create triggers, set up auto-responses and define bot logic. To build an effective sales funnel, think about the sequence in which messages will be sent to subscribers.
Dialogues with subscribers
Invite colleagues to your SendPulse account to work with conversations as a team and support multiple chats simultaneously from different devices.
Analytics
Information on the number of delivered, sent and read messages is available in the statistics section. Analyze which messages are read and which are not. Based on this, correct the text of messages and change the time of sending.
API
SendPulse provides a public API with which you can integrate the WhatsApp channel into your infrastructure, CRM or analytics system.
More API Documentation
Connect artificial intelligence to your chatbot
Through direct integration with OpenAI's ChatGPT language model, your bot can interact with subscribers in a live chat language.
Learn more
Official WhatsApp Business API - for companies with a large customer base looking to scale their business
Companies communicate with customers on Whatsapp in several ways: through the WhatsApp simple client, the WhatsApp Business app, or the WhatsApp Business API integration. Before connecting, weigh the pros and cons, having studied the main differences.
WhatsApp Simple Client or WhatsApp Business
Communication with customers through the application on mobile or PC
-
Binding to one device
The application runs on one device with one user. In a simple client, you can use WhatsApp from a PC, and the WhatsApp Business application is installed on an Android, iOS phone.
-
Team work with correspondence is impossible
It is impossible to distribute responsibility between managers for correspondence in the messenger, because access to correspondence is only on one device.
-
No mass mailings, only auto-replies
You are unlikely to be able to send bulk emails because WhatsApp blocks bulk promotional emails. The same message can only be sent to 256 recipients at the same time. It is possible to set up auto-replies to frequently asked questions from customers.
-
No integrations
Unable to integrate WhatsApp with your CRM and other projects.
WhatsApp Business API integration via SendPulse
Communication via SendPulse chats or integration with your system
-
Not tied to one device
SendPulse receives and sends WhatsApp messages. Access to the SendPulse panel is possible from different devices for all members of your team.
-
Whatsapp Chat Teamwork
Invite new users to your SendPulse account so that several managers can respond to clients at the same time.
-
Bulk and trigger mailings
Use approved templates for newsletters and service mailings that allow you to be the first to start a conversation.
There are no restrictions on sending the same messages at the same time. -
Setting up integrations directly
Using SendPulse's open API, integrate WhatsApp capabilities with the company's internal infrastructure: CRM, chat services, and other projects.
Connect to WhatsApp Business API via SendPulse to build a subscriber base and send chatbot messages
Connect WhatsApp
SendPulse is the official provider of WhatsApp Business API
Connecting to WhatsApp Business API via SendPulse
Officially, WhatsApp only allows access to its API through partners. SendPulse provides an API for sending to WhatsApp through the official channel. Connect WhatsApp Business API via SendPulse and enjoy a seamless service. We provide the following terms:
Connectivity support
To connect to the WhatsApp Business API, you must be verified by WhatsApp.
To do this, you need to register a company page on Facebook, add it to Facebook Business Manager and collect all the necessary documents - we provide advice and assistance at every stage of connection.
Official connection method
WhatsApp blocks users who connect through "gray schemes". Connection through the official channel excludes unreasonable blocking. The main thing is to get consent from users to send messages and strictly follow WhatsApp's requirements for content and message design.
Free number connection
Connection is completely free, you pay only for the number of sent messages.
Multichannel messaging
Use WhatsApp in conjunction with other messengers. In SendPulse, you can comprehensively set up messenger marketing: connect bots and send messages to Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook, and also make Viber mailings.
Manage chatbots from your smartphone
Install the application to quickly respond to messages from WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram and Facebook, work with subscriber data and analyze statistics.
Great rates for WhatsApp messages
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24-hour sessions that the user starts
Such sessions begin with an incoming message from the user. The first message from the business in response will be paid. The price depends on the country you ship it to. -
24-hour sessions that business starts
Dialogues that you start yourself. To send a message first, you need to use an approved template. The price of a templated message depends on the country you send it to.
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Free session package
Every month the first 1000 sessions will be free for you and you will be able to send even template messages without paying.
Learn more about WhatsApp message charges.
Go to tariffs
FAQ
How to connect to WhatsApp Business API for free and create a bot
With SendPulse, you can connect to WhatsApp Business API for free for 7 days.
If you don't have an account, register on the SendPulse platform and connect to a paid plan. Then create Facebook and WhatsApp business accounts and connect your number to the WhatsApp Business API. Read more about how to connect to WhatsApp Business API for free in just a few minutes.
How to switch to SendPulse from other WhatsApp providers
If you used a number with WhatsApp Business API, you can port your number and change provider (BSP) to create chatbots in the constructor. Follow the instructions to successfully migrate your number.
How many recipients can I send a message in 24 hours
WhatsApp policy has limits on the number of recipients of messages in a 24 hour period, which depend on the level of the sender.
The first level allows sending messages to 500 unique users.
Read more about how WhatsApp message limits work.
How to create an automatic thread for whatsapp chatbot
Use the constructor to create a message thread for your WhatsApp bot. Develop the structure of the bot, specify keywords and set up auto-responses. Read more about how to set up a message thread for WhatsApp bot.
How to create a whatsapp newsletter
Select the connected bot and recipients, fill in the content of the message and define the send time. After sending, you can check how many messages were delivered and how many subscribers interacted with the mailing list. Read the step-by-step guide on how to create a WhatsApp newsletter.
What is a template mailing and how to create your own templates for WhatsApp mailings
Distribution of messages with the same content to all subscribers is possible according to the approved template.
Such a template can only be used for transactional and triggered mailings without promotional content.
You can create your own templates in the "Chatbots" section, in the "Templates" tab. Each template is moderated by WhatsApp. After the template receives the status "Confirmed", you can start sending mailings based on the template.
SendPulse is the official provider of WhatsApp Business API
Apply for connection and communicate with customers on WhatsApp
Connect WhatsApp
Whatsapp chat bots for business, creation, configuration, chat bot designers for Whatsapp
Many companies use WhatsApp as their main channel of communication with customers. Chatbots help to keep in touch with them 24/7 — programs that, according to a pre-configured algorithm, answer standard user questions. Chatbots can work at the request of the client or appear automatically according to a given scenario. For example, if a customer has filled out a feedback form or has been looking at a product for 15 minutes, but does not complete the purchase.
What else are chatbots useful for and how to create a chatbot in WhatsApp, they told in the article.
How whatsapp chatbot helps business
to be in touch at any time. Chatbots are available 24/7, so customers will always get answers to their questions, no matter what time they write.
Update user data. For example, make an appointment, place an order or change the delivery time.
An example of a chatbot that records users for a conference. Source: textback service blog
Reduce the workload of specialists. Chatbots can answer standard questions and quickly help customers while managers are busy with more complex issues.
Send newsletters. Through WhatsApp it is convenient to send promotional codes, coupons, notifications about promotions and discounts.
Sale mailing example. Source: intellectdialog 9 service blog0250
Send greeting messages.
Companies can customize the welcome message that users receive on their first contact. In this message, you can give links to popular products or talk about promotions.
How to create a chatbot on WhatsApp
On WhatsApp Business
WhatsApp Business is an application that can only be installed on one smartphone. It allows you to communicate with customers from the application itself or from the web version. WhatsApp Business cannot send bulk messages. Integration with the CRM system will also fail, because WhatsApp Business has a closed API.
But you can set up a limited number of automatic replies, fill in the company profile, specify the website address, contacts and any information by which users will distinguish the company from spammers. And in the statistics you can see% of delivered and read messages.
WhatsApp Business Profile is a chatbot-like solution often used by small and medium businesses.
With WhatsApp Business API
Since the WhatsApp API is closed, you won't be able to set up full-fledged chatbots.
Therefore, companies that want to use chatbots need to create business accounts on Facebook and WhatsApp, and then connect the number to the WhatsApp Business API.
In May 2022, WhatsApp announced a new cloud API that will make WhatsApp available to all companies and developers.
There are two options to access the WhatsApp Business API:
- Send a request via the application form. WhatsApp often refuses such requests.
- Contact vendors or WhatsApp representatives. In this case, the chance of gaining access is higher.
Official WhatsApp Business Solution Providers are companies that act as WhatsApp API Switchers. And representatives are platforms that work in partnership with business solution providers WhatsApp and help you get access to the API faster.
The WhatsApp Business API is often used by large companies.
Through constructors
Using third party services is the easiest way to create a WhatsApp chatbot.
Such services include, for example, Chat2Desk, Botmother, TextBack, Chat Helpdesk, Twilio, IntellectDialog, etc.
The basic settings are already ready in them, so all that remains is to configure the scenarios for which the chatbot will work.
When choosing a service, it is important to make sure that it helps you access the WhatsApp Business API. The cost of such services is available to any business.
Another plus of the designers is the possibility of integration. With it, order data from chatbots can be automatically transferred to CRM or Google Sheets. This allows managers not to transfer data manually and not worry that some data will be lost.
Some services have ready-made integration modules, while others require the help of a developer or connector to set up integration. For example, Albatto.
Albato is a no-code service that will help you make friends with the platforms and services you need. Setup does not require programming knowledge and will take 5-10 minutes.
