WhatsApp Short Link
WhatsApp Short link is a new feature in WhatsApp Business App which allows users to initiate a "Click 2 Chat" with a business number without the need of saving the number first into the phone contact.
Businesses can share the short link with customers through Email, SMS or place in Website / Blog . Can also use with Facebook Ad so when a user clicks on the add it opens their WhatsApp with pre-fill text defined by you and they can send an enquiry just with a click.
If you are using Smart Replies then you can generate a direct URL right from Smart Replies. Click Here for more details
Go to WhatsApp Business App -> Settings -> Business Settings -> Short Link
The URL you copied will look like this https://wa.me/<number> where the <number> is a full phone number in international format. Omit any zeroes, brackets, plus or dashes when adding the phone number in international format.
Use: https://wa.me/15551234567
Don't use: https://wa.me/+001-(555)1234567
To create your own link with a pre-filled message that will automatically appear in the text field of a chat, use https://wa.me/whatsappphonenumber/?text=urlencodedtext where whatsappphonenumber is a full phone number in international format and URL-encoded text is the URL-encoded pre-filled message.
You can URL-Encode any sentence using this simple Online Tool https://www.urlencoder.io/
URL Encoded Text of "I'm inquiring about the apartment listing" will be as below ;
I'm%20inquiring%20about%20the%20apartment%20listing
So the final URL will look like this https://wa.me/15551234567?text=I'm%20interested%20in%20your%20car%20for%20sale
Now if you wish to convert the above personalised link to shorten URL using Bitly and include the shorten URL in the Facebook / SMS/ Social Media Ads to track click conversations
Now, when a user seen the Ad and Clicks on the link it will automatically open the WhatsApp in their Desktop / Mobile with the pre-filled text which we put while creating the URL , here "I'm inquiring about the apartment listing"
Whatsapp having a very basic official API / Intent for developers to integrate with their Website or Mobile Application in order to avoid typing the message or selecting the contact manually for whatsapp users.
Whenever you want to start a conversation with a whatsapp user simply trigger the below API from your application;
https://api.whatsapp.com/send?phone=447441953045&text=Hi+Picky
In the “phone” pass the mobile number of the whatsapp user without 0 or + , including country code
In the “text” pass the message you wish to send
You can read more from the whatsapp official site https://faq.whatsapp.com/en/android/26000030/
