How to Use WhatsApp Business Cloud API to Send Messages: An Easy Guide

“The best business experiences meet people where they are.” - Mark Zuckerberg, Conversations Keynote Speech, 2022

When Mark Zuckerberg uttered these words during Meta's inaugural Conversation event, he wasn't just making something up. Recently, Meta announced that all companies worldwide may now provide their clients customized experiences thanks to the WhatsApp Cloud API.

You will learn everything about WhatsApp Cloud API and how your company can use it here.

What is WhatsApp business cloud API?

There were certain drawbacks to the WhatsApp Business API, including the requirement that businesses use a Business Service Provider (BSP) to obtain the API. Additionally, the application process took a long time, and few businesses could afford the outrageous fees that BSPs were charging.

In response, WhatsApp introduced the WhatsApp cloud API, which replaces the BSP servers with cloud servers owned by Meta. Because of this, WhatsApp Business Cloud API is more affordable and convenient for small businesses to boost growth with the sales process.

A few justifications for doing this include:

Less usage of resources

WhatsApp didn't want to deal with extra staff members who handled API applications. WhatsApp believed that going through a partner would make the process simpler.

Capabilities of partners

The resources that some of Meta's partners provided allowed them to thoroughly investigate the companies that have access to the WhatsApp API benefits. As a result, WhatsApp finds the process to be less difficult.

With the launch of WhatsApp Cloud API, everything changed. Businesses may now request Facebook to immediately verify their WhatsApp Business API accounts for free. This means that small and medium-sized enterprises may easily customize their customers' WhatsApp experiences. To have access to the WhatsApp Business API, they are not required to pay BSPs (Business Service Providers) a set fee.

Differences between WhatsApp on premises API and WhatsApp cloud API

	WhatsApp on premises API	WhatsApp cloud API
Access	Only available after signing up with a business service provider.	Accessible for free through Facebook.
Hosting	You must host the API software on your own servers and in data centers if you are a BSP or a sole proprietor.	Meta is in charge of hosting.
Costing	BSPs are responsible for paying for the installation and upkeep of their servers. BSPs must additionally pay for each call and message that is sent.	Businesses simply need to pay for each message sent or conversation, and Meta covers the costs of hosting.
Protocol of API	REST API is used in WhatsApp On Premises.	Uses Graph API
Maintenance	Software upgrades must occasionally be carried out by business service providers as and when they become available.	Meta updates the cloud API's software, adds new functionality, and makes these updates easily accessible.
Location of server	The location of the server depends on the company.	In North America, servers are situated.
Uptime	Cannot be described because it is reliant on the infrastructure of the BSP.	Meta has a 99.9% uptime target.
Management of sticker pack API	Supports	Not supports
Single-tenant vs Multi-tenant	(One phone number per deployment) Single-tenant.	Multi-tenant. On CAPI, multiple phone numbers may be registered.

Features of WhatsApp business cloud API

The following are some of the main features of WhatsApp Cloud API:

Free software updates.
End-to-End encryption.
No extra hosting costs.
The ability to mass-schedule WhatsApp messages.
Sending and receiving together, 250 messages can be done in a second.
Support for urgent problems is offered around-the-clock to increase sales engagement.

How to send messages using WhatsApp business cloud API?

Meta will serve as a hosting service, similar to cloud service providers. Maintenance, compute, storage, networking, and all other infrastructure-related expenses will be covered by Meta.

Businesses will be able to send and receive up to 80 messages per second to a variety of client numbers using the Cloud API service. Multiple phone numbers may be registered with the service via the Cloud API.

If scaling is a concern, Cloud API automatically scales to handle your workload and refreshes its security automatically as well.

What has changed is how and how quickly your request to access the WhatsApp Business API is handled.

Now that you know how to set up the WhatsApp Cloud API, we'll walk you through the process so you can see firsthand how to use WhatsApp cloud API to send messages

How to get WhatsApp cloud API?

Step 1: Set your facebook developer account

Visit developers.facebook.com and log in with your Facebook credentials as the first step in setting up.

Then, you'll have the choice to "Create App." Just click it.

*Page of facebook developers page to create apps.*

Step 2: Select the type of app

Select "Business" as your app type in the following stage.

Step 3: Enter your basic information

You must enter some basic information about your company in the following step. Having said that, we still advise getting a Facebook Business Manager account confirmed on the side. With the advent of WhatsApp Cloud API, you no longer need a verified Facebook Business Manager account to get started.

You can choose "No Business Manager account selected" for the time being and click "Create App."

Step 4: Choose WhatsApp from the dashboard

You should now be signed into your Meta dashboard successfully. From here, select "Set up" under the WhatsApp section.

Step 5: Accept the conditions

You must agree to the Terms and Conditions before using the WhatsApp Cloud API, which are listed on the following screen. Once you click the "Continue" button, you can proceed.

*Accept the terms and conditions by clicking on continue.*

Step 6: Send a text to your WhatsApp-enabled number

Now we reach the last screen. Both a unique ID for your phone number and an ID for your WhatsApp Business account are provided here. Your personal Test number serves as the "From" number. You should enter the number you want to send your first WhatsApp text to as the "To" number.

Step 7: Enter the verification code

Facebook Business will send you a verification code for your phone. Fill out the boxes with this number to complete the verification.

Step 8: Send the first text over WhatsApp cloud API

Businesses can use Sales Simplify, a WhatsApp marketing solution, to interface with WhatsApp's many API for a variety of marketing techniques forming relationship selling.

Utilize the cloud-based features of WhatsApp to automate, schedule, and send personalized 1:1 and group WhatsApp messages for marketing, sales, and support, all from a single, user-friendly dashboard.

Pros of WhatsApp cloud API

Swift approval process

For access to the WhatsApp Business API in the past, enterprises had to rely on Business Solution Providers and wait for team approval. Businesses all across the world will have direct access to the WhatsApp Business API thanks to the WhatsApp Cloud API, which effectively cuts out the middleman.

Fast updates

You have direct access to the WhatsApp Business API, as was already discussed. As a result, you get immediate access to all updates made to the Business API, including security upgrades.

Minimized costs

Businesses can access the WhatsApp Business API for a set fee via Business Solution Providers. The setup fees for the WhatsApp Cloud API are now completely free, according to Meta. As a result, companies of all sizes can now use the WhatsApp Business API without having to pay anything.

Cons of WhatsApp cloud API

Although WhatsApp Cloud API has far more advantages than disadvantages, there are a few minor issues that the Meta developers are working hard to resolve. One of them is that you can only use a phone number with the WhatsApp cloud API or the on-premise WhatsApp Business API at the same time.

Pricing of WhatsApp business cloud API

Users are charged based on the number of interactions they have with a business, even though the WhatsApp Cloud API is free to use. In WhatsApp, conversations fall into one of two kinds. As follows:

User-initiated

A user-initiated discussion is one in which a user contacts a company and receives a response from the company within 24 hours which is the base of customer-centric selling.

Business-initiated

The interaction is referred to as a business-initiated chat once a business messages a user 24 hours following a user-initiated message.

WhatsApp offers the first 1000 interactions each month for free, regardless of whether they are user- or business-initiated. Users who want to use WhatsApp after this point must link a credit card to their account.

The free message cap of 1000 messages applies regardless of how many numbers are linked to a WhatsApp Business Account, and this free cap is updated monthly.

Additionally, WhatsApp won't charge companies when customers contact them through their Click-To-Action (CTA) buttons.

Refer to Pricing - WhatsApp Business Platform page for further information about pricing.

Send messages in an easy way

Simply put, the timing could not have been better if you are a small business owner who is now thinking about adopting the WhatsApp Business API.

Businesses in the past had difficulty gaining access to WhatsApp Cloud API; now, you may do it in a couple of minutes.

Additionally, there is no need for you to contact a business solution provider that will charge you extra money to get you access to the API. Nevertheless, we still advise completing the Facebook Verification because failing to do so will prevent you from taking advantage of the WhatsApp Cloud API's fascinating possibilities.

Let’s try Sales Simplify for free to boost the productivity of your business and by using a single, intuitive dashboard, leverage WhatsApp's cloud-based tools to automate, schedule, and send customized 1:1 and group messages for marketing, sales, and support.