WhatsApp and artificial intelligence
BSP (Business Solution Provider)
BSP (Business Solution Provider) is the acronym the industry still uses for a company that gives other businesses access to the WhatsApp Business Platform and provides the service to them. Meta's current documentation no longer uses it: it talks about Solution Partners and Tech Providers.
Also known asBusiness Solution Provider · solution provider · official WhatsApp provider · Solution Partner
Where the name comes from
For years, access to the WhatsApp API almost always went through an intermediary, and the industry called it a BSP. WhatsApp's business policy now speaks of a "solution provider", previously known as a business service provider, and Meta's developer documentation no longer uses the acronym. Anyone looking for a BSP is looking, in today's vocabulary, for one of these two roles:
- Solution Partner: a Meta business partner that provides the full platform service (messaging, integration, billing and support). It has a credit line, can extend it to its clients and invoice them itself.
- Tech Provider: offers similar services, on its own or together with a Solution Partner, but without a credit line: the client adds its own payment method, Meta charges the client for API usage and the provider invoices its own work separately.
Worth knowing
What people take for granted: that the API cannot be used without a BSP. Meta provides for connecting directly to the Cloud API for anyone building an app that other businesses will not use. For a residence, what matters is not the provider's label but whose name the number is in, who pays Meta and who processes the residents' messages. The two routes, compared: WhatsApp Business or the API.
Sources
Related terms
- WhatsApp Business PlatformThe WhatsApp Business Platform is Meta's platform for organisations to handle WhatsApp at scale from their own software, through the Cloud API, instead of by hand from the WhatsApp Business app on a phone. It comes with its own system of approved templates and sending rules.
- Tech ProviderA Tech Provider, in Meta's terminology, is a software provider that builds the WhatsApp Business Platform into its product and onboards its clients so they can use WhatsApp through it. It has to verify its business with Meta and pass Meta's review of its app.