WhatsApp Business FAQ

Who can use WhatsApp Business API?

This product is targeted at medium and large companies as WhatsApp provides a different solution for smaller companies. In order to have a ‘Verified’ WhatsApp account, you need to be a known and well-established company.

What are the suitable use cases for WhatsApp Business?

With WhatsApp Business, you can leverage on rich content (image, sound, documents etc) and conversations (initiated by yourself or by your customers). Suitable use cases include customer service, rich content notifications, time-sensitive notifications. For other uses, SMS might be a better product fit for you.

I understand that I can only send out “template messages” with WhatsApp Business. What are template messages, and how does this work?

“Template messages” are the messages sent according to pre-determined message formats, as reviewed by WhatsApp. These message templates can contain custom fields. Each message sent from such a template is considered one “template message”.

Here’s an example of a message template:

“We’ve received your order {{1}} for {{2}}. Your order is expected to be delivered by {{3}}.”

Do note that if your customer initiates a conversation, then a 24 hour window is opened up, where replies do not need to be template messages, and will not be charged. After this 24 hour window, messages sent will need to be template messages.

Can I send marketing messages using WhatsApp Business API?

WhatsApp Business does not allow any transmission of marketing messages on its platform; it is mainly intended for customer service interactions. The first message sent to your customer needs to be a registered message template or a message sent by your customer to your WhatsApp account, hence any marketing content will not be approved.

Do I need opt-in?

Yes, you need an active opt-in from the customer in order to be allowed to contact him/her using WhatsApp Business. You can, for example, add a checkbox on your website for the customer to opt-in. Alternatively, your customer may also initiate a conversation with your company on WhatsApp.

Why work with 8x8?

By working with 8x8, you remove the complexity of deploying and maintaining an infrastructure (for example, using WhatsApp requires a dedicated server instance; 8x8 deploys and manages this for you), so you can start using WhatsApp easily! Additionally, to optimise the delivery of your messages, 8x8 ensures an SMS fallback in the event your users are not reachable on WhatsApp.

8x8 also supports additional channels (WeChat, RCS and SMS) and will add support soon for Facebook Messenger, Line and Viber. Using 8x8’s Chat Apps API you can interact with all these platforms from a single API which provides you unified analytics.

What is the price?

Prices are based on the destination country, per delivered template message. If your customer replies to your message, you have 24 hours to respond, at no cost. 8x8 also charges a small fee per monthly active user. For notification use cases, WhatsApp is considered a premium channel offering rich media notifications, thus prices are higher than SMS.

How to get started?

If your company and intended usage fit the requirements above, please reach out to our team at cpaas-sales@8x8.com.

v