How to publish a bot on WhatsApp

Create your Facebook Business Manager account

• Sign up for Facebook Business Manager.
• Complete business verification.

• Once business verification has been completed, the Facebook team will review your account. Once it's been approved, you can create a WhatsApp business account.

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You can't create a WhatsApp business account until you complete the business verification. If you're creating an account on behalf of a business, they need to complete business verification before you can send a message from their WhatsApp business account.

Create a WhatsApp business account

• Log in to Business Manager and click Business settings in the top right.
• Below Accounts, click WhatsApp accounts and click Add.
• On the Create WhatsApp account screen, enter a name for your business below Account name.
• In the Messaging for box, there are two options:
• Select Your account to create a business account for yourself.
• Select Client's account to create an account on behalf of a business. Enter its Business Manager ID, which you can find in its Business Manager settings.
• Below Time zone, select the time zone where your business is located.
• Under Local currency, select the local currency of your business.
• The currency you enter and the currency you plan to pay your invoice in must match.
• Below Payment method, select a method of payment for your ads. If you don't have a current line of credit for payment, you can set one up.
• Below PO number, enter the purchase order (PO) number that will appear on your invoices.
• Below People, search for people you want to add to the account or choose them from the list.
• Select the role you'd like to assign to each person.
• Admin access allows people to make any changes to the account.
• Standard access allows people to manage phone numbers, edit message templates and see metrics.

Add a phone number to your WhatsApp business account

• Go to Facebook Business Manager.
• Select the WhatsApp business account you want to set up a phone number for.
• Navigate to the top bar and click Phone numbers.
• Click Add phone number.
• Enter your phone number and display name. Your customers will see the display name when your messages appear in their WhatsApp app.
• Click Next.
• Click Done.
  Your phone number will have a Name pending review label below Certificate. Once it's been approved, you'll see a View button.

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For guidelines on selecting a phone number for your business, refer here.

Set up your environment (Docker)

The application is based on Docker. You can follow either of the two Facebook proposed approaches => On-premise or Amazon Web Services (AWS) to setup your environment.

Make a note of your unique Docker URL, username and password as this is to be submitted to us for mapping your WhatsApp business phone number with the Gupshup bot.

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Note

If you need help setting up a docker or want us to setup a bot for your WhatsApp Business, kindly reach us at [email protected]

Submit credentials

• Log in to the Gupshup website.
• Go to Dashboard tab > My Bots section.
• Select the button under the Publish column against the bot you wish to publish.
• A list of channels will appear. Click on the Publish button against WhatsApp for Business.
• Scroll down and click Submit Credentials.
• Enter the required information copied from Docker earlier.
• Click the Submit button.

Message Types Allowed

• Text
• Image
• Video
• Sticker
• Audio
• Document
• Contacts
• Location

List Messages

• Messages including a menu of up to 10 options
• Offers a simpler and more consistent way for users to make a selection when interacting with a business

Reply Buttons

• Messages including up to 3 options —each option is a button
• Offers a quicker way for users to make a selection from a menu when interacting with a business

Single Product Messages

• Messages with a single product item from the business’ inventory
• The product is displayed in a Product Detail Page (PDP) format

Product Detail Page (PDP) format

• Whenever a user clicks on a specific item, Product Detail Page (PDP) format shows the product's latest info and displays the product.
• Currently, PDPs only support product images.

Multi-Product Messages

• Messages containing a selection of up to 30 items from a business’ inventory

Shopping Cart Experience using Product Messages

• After viewing products, a customer can add them to their shopping cart and send that cart to a business.
• A shopping cart is unique to a person/business chat thread in a specific device. Only one cart is created per chat thread between customer and business and carts do not persist across multiple devices. Once a cart is sent, the customer can open another cart with the business and start the process again.
• A shopping cart has no expiration date. The cart persists in the chat thread until it is sent to the business. Once sent, the cart is cleared.
• Customers can add up to 99 units of each single catalog item to a shopping cart, but there is no limit on the number of distinct items that can be added to a cart.
• Once a cart has been sent, no edits can be made. Customers can send a new cart if they need new items, or would like to change their order.
• Businesses cannot send carts to customers.