WhatsApp Business is a service that enables your organization to communicate directly with your customers in WhatsApp through your Customer Service Platform (CSP), which in this case will be ASAPP.

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Quick Start Guide

  1. Create a Business Manager (BM) Account with Meta
  2. Create WhatsApp Business Accounts (WABA) in AI-Console
  3. Modify Flows and Test
  4. Create and Implement Entry Points
  5. Determine Launch and Throttling Strategy

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Create a Business Manager (BM) Account

Before integrating with ASAPP’s WhatsApp adapter, you must create a Business Manager (BM) account with Meta - visit this page for account creation.

Following account creation, Meta will also request you follow a business verification process before proceeding.

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Create WhatsApp Business Accounts (WABAs)

Once a Business Manager account is created and verified, proceed to set up WhatsApp Business Accounts (WABAs) using Meta’s embedded signup flow in AI-Console’s Messaging Channels section.

Five total WABAs need to be created: three for lower environments, one for the demo (testing) environment and one for production. Your ASAPP account team can assist with creation of WABAs for lower environments if needed - please reach out with your teams to coordinate account creation.

In this signup flow, you will set up an account name, time zone and payment method for the WABA and assign full control permissions to the ASAPP (System User).

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Register Phone Numbers

As part of the signup flow, each WABA must have at least one phone number assigned to it (multiple phone #s per WABA are supported). Before adding a number, you must also create a profile display name, which must match the name of the Business Manager (BM) account.

For implementation speed, ASAPP recommends using ASAPP-provisioned phone numbers for the three lower environment WABAs. Your ASAPP account team can guide you through this process. All provisioned phone numbers registered to WABAs need to meet requirements specified by Meta.

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Modify Flows and Test

The WhatsApp customer experience is distinct from ASAPP SDKs in several ways - some elements of the Virtual Agent are displayed differently while others are not supported. Your ASAPP account team will work with you to implement intent routing and flows to account for nodes with unsupported elements and to validate expected behaviors during testing before launch.

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Buttons and Forms

All buttons with external links are displayed using message text with a link for each button. See below for an example of two buttons (Hello, I open a link and Hello, I open a view) that each render as a message with a link:

Similarly, forms sent by agents and feedback forms at the end of chat also send messages with links to a separate page to complete the survey. Once the survey is completed, users are redirected back to WhatsApp.

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Quick Reply Limitations

Quick replies in WhatsApp also have different limitations from other ASAPP SDKs:

  • Each node may only include up to three quick reply options; a node with more than three replies will be truncated and only the first three replies will be shown.
  • Each quick reply may only include up to 20 characters; a quick reply with more than 20 characters will be truncated and only show the first 17 characters, followed by an ellipsis
  • Sending a node that includes both a button in the message and quick replies is not recommended, as the links will be sent to the customer out of order

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Authentication

The WhatsApp Cloud API currently does not support authentication. As such, login nodes should not be used in flows that can be reached by users on WhatsApp.

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Attachments Cards

Nodes that include attachments, such as cards and carousels, are not supported in this channel.

In addition to differences in the Virtual Agent experience, the live chat experience with an agent also excludes some features that are typically supported:

  • Images: Agents will not be able to view images sent by customers. The same is true of voice messages and emojis, which are also part of the WhatsApp interface.
  • Typing preview and indicators: Agents will not see typing previews or indicators while the customer is typing. The customer will not see a typing indicator while the agent is typing.
  • Co-browsing: This capability is not currently supported in WhatsApp

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Create and Implement Entry Points

Entry points are where your customers start conversations with your business. You have the option to embed a WhatsApp entry point into your websites in multiple ways: a clickable logo, text link, on-screen QR code, etc.

You can also direct to WhatsApp from social media pages or using Meta’s Ads platform to provide an entry point. Ads are fully configurable within the Meta suite of products and will result in no costs incurred for conversations that originate via interactions with them.

ASAPP does not currently support Chat Instead functionality for WhatsApp.

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Determine Launch and Throttling Strategy

Depending on the entry points configured, your ASAPP account team will share launch best practices and throttling strategies.

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