The Xenioo WhatsApp channel can make your chatbot active on any mobile phone number and allow you to reach millions of WhatsApp users.
WhatsApp integration is done through professional providers selected by our team among the most reliable and cost effective. You're free to choose the provider that best suits your needs depending on your budget, expected traffic, and mobile availability.
While all of the providers integrate with WhatsApp in an autonomous, cloud based way, your WhatsApp account still needs to be constantly connected. If the designated phone is unreachable, so will be your chatbot.
General Channel Settings
Service Provider
You can choose here the provider you want to use as a gateway for WhatsApp messaging. Different providers offer different advantages at different costs.
The table below is a brief recap of the currently offered provider integrations. LINK Mobility is a native provider of Xenioo and all of the features offered on WhatsApp are fully supported.
WhatsApp Business API Providers
WhatsApp Business providers will integrate with the official WhatsApp API and are all bound to Facebook approval of your business. In most cases, a brand new number (SIM) will be required for activating the WhatsApp Business API integration.
Provider | Mobile | Integration | Expected Traffic |
SIM supplied by the user. | None required. No actual mobile phone required. | Medium/Very High | |
SIM supplied by the user. | None required. No actual mobile phone required. | Medium/High | |
Number bought online from Kaleyra Cloud portal. | None required. No actual mobile phone required. | Medium/High | |
Number bought online from Sinch portal. | None required. No actual mobile phone required. | Medium/High | |
SIM supplied by the user. | None required. No actual mobile phone required. | Medium/High | |
SIM supplied by the user. | Non required. No actual mobile phone required. | Medium/High | |
SIM supplied by the user. | None required. No mobile phone required. | Medium/High | |
SIM supplied by user or number bought from Twilio | None required. No mobile phone required. | Medium/High |
Unofficial WhatsApp API Providers
Unofficial providers support WhatsApp by integrating with the default WhatsApp. No new number is required and the chatbot can be attached to basically any mobile number with WhatsApp. These providers usually require that you do not disconnect any WhatsApp web connection while the chatbot is active.
Provider | Mobile | Integration | Expected Traffic |
User-supplied. Attached to user's mobile number. | Through WhatsApp Desktop. Integrates with standard QR scan from a mobile phone. | Medium/Low | |
User-supplied. Attached to user's mobile number. | Through WhatsApp Desktop. Integrates with standard QR scan from a mobile phone. | Medium/Low | |
User-supplied. Attached to user's mobile number. | Through WhatsApp Desktop. Integrates with standard QR scan from a mobile phone. | Medium/low | |
User-supplied. Attached to user's mobile number. | Through WhatsApp Desktop. Requires Chrome Plugin. | Low |
The table below is a brief recap of the currently offered providers capabilities:
Provider | Receive Position | Receive Video |
Kaleyra Enterprise | Yes | Yes |
Kaleyra Cloud | No | Yes |
LinkMobility | Yes | Yes |
Sinch | Yes | Yes |
InfoBip | Yes | Yes |
Zoko | No | Yes |
MessengerPeople | Yes | Yes |
Twilio | No | No |
Chat-API | Yes | Yes |
Maytapi | Yes | Yes |
Wassenger | Yes | Yes |
Waboxapp | Yes | No |
Process First User Message
The first message sent by the user is considered by WhatsApp as the "opt-in" message. It's the message that the user sends you to activate your chatbot. This setting will enable or disable the processing of this first message. If enabled, your chatbot will receive the first user text as a standard user text input, otherwise as a simple variable.
Sender Phone Number
This is the phone number that will be used for the WhatsApp integration. Typically this is your own phone number for all the providers that require a physical mobile phone or the phone number provided by the gateway.
API Key
This value must be filled with the provider integration API Key. Each provider account will have its own API Key that you will need to copy here before publishing.
Account SID
This information is used only for Twilio integration and is the Account SID value you can see on your Twilio account dashboard. Copy and paste the value here.
Auth Token
As for Account SID, this information is used only for Twilio integration. The Auth Token is visible on your account dashboard or in the integration settings page of your Twilio account. Copy and paste the value here.
Hook Url
This value will be automatically filled by Xenioo and is the URL of the hook that the selected provider will call whenever a message is received by WhatsApp. Copy this value from Xenioo to the equivalent integration field you see on your provider integration dashboard.
Contact Filters
In these two boxes, you can specify the numbers that will activate the Xenioo chatbot. By default, all incoming messages will be treated as user contacts and will activate Xenioo. Using these boxes you can specify which numbers will be accepted as contacts and which will be rejected. You are free to use multiple wildcards to create complex filters to handle prefixes or area codes.
Further Reading
The following Xenioo resources can help you set up, configure and manage your WhatsApp chatbot flow and publication.
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