All About WhatsApp Business API 2022: How it Works, Verification & Application Process

WhatsApp Business API: Ease of conversational connection is the go-to if you want your brand to flourish amongst customers. Clients love a business that is quick, reliable as well as a good user interface. Nobody wants to wait for hours to get a single query solved. Hence, businesses need to have a smooth two-way communication platform that makes their clients comfortable who in turn will buy more and promote more.

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Hence, in large-scale businesses, it is not possible for a single person to look after everything. This is why WhatsApp Business APIs have come into play to ensure smooth two-way conversations at the customer support dashboard with the help of bots and message templates. This article will give you a complete guide on WhatsApp Business API in detail.

• What is WhatsApp Business API India?
• WhatsApp Business vs WhatsApp Business API
• WhatsApp Business API Client Structure
• How to Get WhatsApp Business API?
• Steps on How to Verify Facebook WhatsApp Business API?
• How to Apply for WhatsApp Business API?
• Best WhatsApp Business API Provider
• WhatsApp Business API Pricing
• FAQs on A Complete Guide on API of WhatsApp Business

What is WhatsApp Business API India?

WhatsApp Business API was introduced in 2018 by Meta or formerly Facebook to help the medium-scale businessmen in India who use WhatsApp Business as their mode of communication for operating their business online. WhatsApp Business API helps these people who communicate with multiple customers and sales at the same time.

Also Read: What is WhatsApp Business Account

The WhatsApp Business API aids these businessmen by ensuring automated communications with customers with the help of automated WhatsApp chatbots and interactive auto-generated messages. This helps the people create a personalized mode of communication with their customers that end up bringing more engagement and popularity amongst fellow people. WhatsApp Business can API needs to be accessed via WhatsApp Business Solution Providers, that is BSPs.

WhatsApp Business vs WhatsApp Business API

The regular WhatsApp Business is generally for small-scale businesses and does not operate well for large-scale works that include bulk supply and communication with a significantly large number of customers and leads. Whereas, the WhatsApp Business API mainly helps medium to large-scale businesses that work and communicate with a bulk of customers and leads at the same time.

Additionally, WhatsApp Business API helps in automatic messages and varied chat automation features by triggering WhatsApp Business API integration and supports multiple logins at a time along with a smooth support dashboard. WhatsApp Business API has no front-end interface and needs to be directly integrated into the software, unlike WhatsApp Business.

WhatsApp Business API Client Structure

A businessman or company must go for WhatsApp Business API to increase their client structure only if it is a large business and has more than 300 active customers to communicate with. WhatsApp Business API will help you with automated notifications for new clients, think status, purchase updates, new orders, etc.

WhatsApp Business API is a conversational commerce and automation platform for your clients that may require more than 2 people to handle the entire communication volume. If you want to use WhatsApp Business as a channel for new clients, customer support programs, personalized buying experience, etc., and if you don’t get enough response time to look into your clients, you need WhatsApp Business API to ensure a third-party tool that improves your entire team’s efficiency.

How to Get WhatsApp Business API?

To get verified the eligibility for WhatsApp Business API, You must have a working phone number that can receive both calls and messages. WhatsApp Business API can be done either by contacting with WhatsApp Meta team directly or by going through a partnership with WhatsApp Business service providers.

Before going about with the process of your WhatsApp Business API verification, you first need to have a Facebook business manager ID along with a verified number and a displayed business name. After verification, you need to use your Facebook Business ID to opt for WhatsApp Business API, let’s read about this in detail in the next section.

Do Check: Whatsapp Group Names for Business

Steps on How to Verify Facebook WhatsApp Business API?

As discussed earlier you need to have a verified Facebook Business ID first to get your WhatsApp Business API verified. If you are wondering how to, here are the steps:

1. Log into Facebook Business Manager and sign up by clicking on Business settings.

2. Go to the accounts section and tap on Opt for a WhatsApp Account.

3. Fill up all the details regarding your name, currency, time zone, payment method, P.O number, industry, website URL, use case, company headquarters, operating region, and finally your number and Facebook Business Manager ID for verification.

4. Confirm the rest of your business details and you will be sent a verification code on your registered business phone number.

5. Enter the verification code and your Facebook Business API is done.

How to Apply for WhatsApp Business API?

For WhatsApp business API, business address verification also plays a major part. The acceptable documents for verification are Utility or electricity bills, bank statements, incorporation certificates, VAT registration certificates, Business Tax, EIN confirmation numbers, Federal Tax Returns, Business bank statements, and credit reports. Invoices, purchases, or self-filled documents are not eligible for verification.

Next, provide all the necessary business details regarding:

• Company Name
• Category
• URL
• Region
• Country of Company Headquarters
• Industry
• Intended use case
• Time to market
• Volume predictions

After filling up all these, the team will send your profile to the WhatsApp Business Page for approval. Once Facebook takes over all the data, it takes around 2-3 weeks to complete the entire registration process.

Best WhatsApp Business API Providers

Talking about the best WhatsApp Business API Providers, the following are amongst the top 2. Let’s see what these are along with their best features:

1. Wati-

Wati is actually suitable for all types of business sizes and has numerous plans to choose from. It also provides you a free trial to check which suits your plan and then make payment. Wati requires no code to deploy it and has its own set of self-built chatbots.

Wati has both monthly and annual plans starting from 40$ per month for 5 agents at a time. It provides well-organized customer support and elevates a self-organizing team structure. The only con you will face here is that Wati doesn’t support CRM platforms and replies based on keywords, hence cannot continue conversations.

2. BotSpace-

BotSpace is one of the most powerful WhatsApp Business Service Providers that use hybrid chatbots to automate, engage, simplify, and organize sales and customer support. It has pre-defined conversation templates to provide quick end-to-end chat solutions with a bulk of clients together.

It is extensive and super affordable at only 29$ per month along with 500 monthly active contacts. BotSpace has a sophisticated user interface and supports all types of integration including CRM platforms and eCommerce platforms like Shopify. The only con that we get along with it is that it supports only WhatsApp and doesn’t provide an Omni platform experience.

Other good WhatsApp Business API Providers include Callbell and Twilio. To apply for a pre-approved WBSP, you must provide the team with your Business name, a verified Facebook API Business Manager ID, and a phone number that doesn’t have any pre-installed WhatsApp regular or business.

WhatsApp Business API Pricing

WhatsApp Business API generates its pricing on the basis of conversations, something is known as WhatsApp’s Conversation Based Pricing or WCBP. Conversations-based payments are of two main categories:

• User-initiated- When a new client messages a Business for the very first time, then the business can reply to them within a span of 24 hours. This is a user-initiated conversation and the Business can send charge-free messages during this 24 hours span of time.
• Business initiated- When a Business gets in touch with users and sends messages then these are considered as Business initiated conversations. These conversations are chargeable and require a particular template to operate. The expense is based on a 24-hour format. Each 24-hour conversation irrespective of delivered or replied messages has a fixed expense template.

For frequent Business broadcasts you will be charged every 24 hours on the basis of business initiated costing and for every reply, you give on customer support, you will be charged on the basis of user-initiated costing every 24 hours. Meta ( Facebook) has made sure to keep two-way conversations relevant to ensure customer trust and brand growth.

FAQs on A Complete Guide on API of WhatsApp Business

1. Is WhatsApp Business API free?

No, WhatsApp Business API is chargeable on the basis of conversation time. Whether it is user-initiated or business initiated, you will have to pay as total messages delivered per 24 hours.

2. What is API in WhatsApp Business?

WhatsApp Business API is basically a partner-based automated connection platform that uses chatbots and autogenerated messages to communicate with a large scale of customers. They also cater to business marketing, sales, customer support end, etc. which otherwise becomes very tedious for a single person.

3. How can I get WhatsApp API for business?

You need to have a fully functional phone number first and a verified Facebook Business Manager ID. Next, you need to fill in all the business details like business Company name, region, category, URL, company of headquarters, industry, Volume prediction, etc. Next, complete your Business address verification through documents except for invoices and self-written ones. Submit this to the Facebook Meta team and wait for 2 to 3 weeks for approval.

4. Does WhatsApp Business have API?

WhatsApp business doesn’t have an API by default. For a larger-scale business, you need to get your WhatsApp business account verified and an API along with that. This can be done from any of the WhatsApp Business Service Providers.

Conclusion

WhatsApp Business API is so popular because it is the one-stop tool that handles marketing, multimedia sharing, social media websites, sales, support communications, etc. all together. Being a partner-based program the load doesn’t fall on an individual and is amazing for medium to large-scale businesses.

So that’s a complete guide on WhatsApp Business API tutorial you need to know. For more informative articles regarding whatsapp just follow the main page ie., Whatsapp Features Calls Status DP Tips Tricks at NewsOzzy.Com.