The discussion revolves around automating the sharing of Discourse posts to WhatsApp groups, similar to existing integrations with platforms like Telegram. gassim initiated the thread, noting that while the Chat Integrations plugin supports about 16 external platforms, WhatsApp is not among them. MAR asked if anyone had solved this, prompting gassim to reaffirm the absence of WhatsApp support and speculate that WhatsApp’s stricter requirements may be the cause. merefield offered a likely explanation: Meta charges for unsolicited WhatsApp messages via the Business Platform, making automated, non-reply messages costly. Free messaging is only allowed in response to user-initiated conversations. merefield also offered to assist businesses interested in building a WhatsApp bot, directing them to the Marketplace category. The thread highlights a feature gap and a potential financial barrier to implementing WhatsApp integration, with no easy, maintainable solution currently available.
Hi
If you’ve used the Chat Integrations plugin then you will understand what I mean by integrating with Whatsapp. I’m thinking the same functionality that’s now working for the Telegram integration. A post is created on Discourse, it gets posted into Telegram, so I want the same to work for Whatsapp groups. Any suggestions?
Thanks!
Has anyone solved this?
Hi @MAR
In the Chat Integrations plugin there are about 16 external platforms you could automatically post into; however, it seems that Whatsapp is not available in the plugin. Maybe Whatsapp has more requirements?
I have not found an alternative - easy and maintainable solution yet. Thanks for brining this topic back to life.
It’s possible that it’s because Meta charge for each unsolicited message:
It is not free to send a message unless it’s in reply to a user.
So if you want to send a spontaneous update from Discourse to your user group on Whatsapp, you will have to pay.
If you are a business wanting help to create a Whatsapp bot feel free to contact me directly or post in Marketplace.