Getting Started with WhatsApp Business Cloud API | Send your First Message

Send your first message from Facebook/Meta WhatsApp Business Cloud API. We will create a Facebook Developer App and integrate WhatsApp Business Cloud API to send messages.

Prerequisites

Create a Meta App

Go to developer.facebook.com. Click on My Apps.

Click on Create App.

Select the type as Business App and click Next.

Provide some basic information such as Display Name, App contact email, and Business Account. Business Account is optional but it is necessary. If you don’t have one, you can create it. Once all the below details are given, click on Create app.

Before creating the app, you will be asked to enter your Facebook account password. Enter it and submit. Once your app is created, you will be navigated to this similar dashboard.

Scroll down and click on Set up inside the WhatsApp product.

That is it. You will be provided with a test WhatsApp number and you will be allowed to add 5 recipients. Whenever you add a recipient, it has to verify with an OTP sent on WhatsApp.

On the Setup page, you will be given a temporary access token that is valid for 23 hours. Once you have selected the recipient or ‘to’ number, you can start sending messages.

Below, you also have the POST curl command. You can test this API from postman, terminal, and directly from the below page by clicking Send Message.