WhatsApp and artificial intelligence
WhatsApp Business Platform
The 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.
Also known asWhatsApp API · WhatsApp Cloud API · WhatsApp Business API · official WhatsApp API
What it is exactly
Meta separates two things that are often confused. The WhatsApp Business app is the familiar app with a business profile: one phone and one person answering. The WhatsApp Business Platform is the route for software: the Cloud API sends and receives messages from code, and the Business Management API manages accounts, phone numbers and templates. Using it requires a business portfolio on Meta and a WhatsApp account linked to an app.
The platform comes with its rules. The main one is the 24-hour window: outside it you can only write with an approved message template. And when the software belongs to a third party, that third party comes in as a Tech Provider or as a Solution Partner. A residence does not have to write any code; what it is worth knowing is whether whoever runs its number works on the official platform. What this allows in practice can be seen in announcements.
Worth knowing
What people take for granted: that any tool that "connects to WhatsApp" uses the platform. Some imitate WhatsApp Web from a phone or a browser; that is not the WhatsApp Business Platform, and it falls outside the routes Meta offers to an organisation.
Sources
Related terms
- 24-hour windowThe 24-hour window, or customer service window, is the period that opens every time someone messages a WhatsApp Business Platform number: for 24 hours from their last message you can reply freely; once it closes, you can only write to them with an approved template.
- Message templateA WhatsApp message template is a message with a fixed format and variable placeholders (a name, a time) that is registered and reviewed by Meta before use. It is the only thing that can be sent outside the 24-hour window, and each one belongs to a category: utility, marketing or authentication.
- 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.