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How to create a WhatsApp app on Facebook Developers?

To use the WordPress plugin, you may need to create a Facebook application and configure it so that the plugin automatically sends the right reply to the message sent.

Go to the Facebook Developers website here :

You may need to log in to your account. Once logged in, you may need to create a new application :

Once you've clicked on the "Create an application" option, a modal window appears and you can choose the option below.

Simply select the Business option to be able to use the WhatsApp options:

Once "Business" is selected, fill in the fields with the name of your application, the application contact email, and the business account you wish to associate with your WhatsApp application:

Once filled, click on the option with the name create app, once done your page will reload.

You will need to click the setup options for 'Webhooks' and ‘WhatsApp’ displayed on the page, once done you will see the options showed below like this :

In order to go forward, you may need to configure the webhooks for the WhatsApp messaging.

Click on Webhooks in the left-hand sidebar, then click on the user selection options, we'll need to choose Whatsapp Business Account as this is the one that will allow us to set up the automatic sending of messages from our website as an autoresponder.

Once done, a modal will show into this you will see two options that is really important for us :

  • Callback URL: A URL where Facebook will send the message sent by a customer to your app. To find it, you just need to head to your WordPress site with the plugin activated and copy the webhook url find on the plugin settings page :

  • Verify token: A private token, Facebook will use to verify if your connection to the app is trustworthy or not. You can define it under the plugin page too once you have put it on the Facebook app page.

Once filled, you will have to verify, if the verification is successful, the token will be saved automatically to your account. At the page refresh, the following options will be displayed on your page :

Here is the webhooks options explanation :

Field NameDescription

account_alerts

Notifies you of decisions related to Official Business Account status or a denial of messaging limit increases. Note that these are independent of developer notifications.

account_review_update

A notification is sent to you when a WhatsApp Business Account has been reviewed.

account_update

A notification is sent to you when a change to your WhatsApp Business Account has occurred. This change can include phone number update, a policy violation, a WhatsApp Business Account has been banned and more.

business_capability_update

Notifies you of changes to a business's capabilities. This can include changes to the maximum number of business phone numbers your WhatsApp Business Account can have, or a change to the messaging limit for all of your WhatsApp Business Account's business phone numbers.

message_template_quality_update

A notification is sent to you when a message template's quality rating changes.

message_template_status_update

A notification is sent to you when the message template has been approved or rejected, or if it has been disabled.

messages

A notification is sent to you when your business has received a message from a customer, when you send a message to a customer, when a message is delivered to a customer, and when your message is read by a customer.

phone_number_name_update

A notification is sent to you when the name associated with a phone number has been approved or rejected.

phone_number_quality_update

A notification is sent to you when the quality-related status for a phone number has an update.

security

A notification is sent to you when:

  • you request to disable two-step verification code

  • the two-step verification code is disabled

  • the two-step verification code is updated

template_category_update

A notification is sent to you when a template's category changes, indicating the template's previous and new category.

Then subscribe to the webhooks, you want to receive notifications from.

At the end, go to the WhatsApp Configuration menu, configure the webhook the same way we configure the other webhook option. Add your phone number to your app too, this phone number will be used to do any communication.

Once everything done, you will see under WhatsApp > API Setup the following details that are very important for the configuration we'll do into the plugin :

  • Phone number ID : Personal Unique phone number you can use in order to send WhatsApp messages through Cloud API, Business Manager API and more,

  • WhatsApp Business Account ID : The WhatsApp account ID lets Facebook know which account your number is linked to

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