Manage WhatsApp User Access

Gupshup now supports blocking and unblocking WhatsApp users, as well as retrieving your blocklist, via a set of APIs. These capabilities help businesses protect their agents, ensure a safer chat environment, and enforce policy control over abusive or unwanted interactions.

✋ Block WhatsApp Users
Use this API to block one or more WhatsApp users from contacting your business account.

What happens when a user is blocked?

• The user cannot send messages to your business.
• Your business cannot reply to the blocked user.
• The user will no longer see your online presence or availability.
• Blocking is silent — the end user is not notified explicitly.

Key Highlights:

• Only users who messaged your business in the last 24 hours can be blocked.
• You can block users using their phone number along with country codes.
• Responses include per-user results (success/failure), so you can handle partial errors gracefully.
• Useful for bots, support agents, and compliance teams managing abuse.

🔗 View Block User API Reference →

✅ Unblock WhatsApp Users
This API allows you to unblock previously blocked users, restoring the ability for two-way communication.

Use Cases:

• Reinstating users after resolving support issues.
• Reversing accidental or automated blocking logic.
• Managing dynamic user access through automated rules.
• The API works similarly to the block API — submit a list of user phone numbers along with the country codes

🔗 View Unblock Users API Reference →

📋 Fetch Blocked Users List
Use this endpoint to retrieve a paginated list of all currently blocked WhatsApp users for a specific business phone number.

Features:

• Supports limit, after, and before query parameters for pagination.
• Useful for audits, reporting, abuse analytics, or building admin dashboards.
• Includes both phone numbers and WA_IDs of blocked users.

🔗 View Blocked Users List API Reference →

⚠️ Limitations & Error Handling

• Users can only be blocked if they messaged you in the past 24 hours.
• 64K limit Maximum number of blocked users is 64,000.
• Some users in the request may succeed while others fail — check added_users and failed_users in the response.
• When fetching or updating blocklists, you may encounter version mismatch errors if the list changes during the operation.

📌 Pro Tip
Automate user blocking for policy violations, spam detection, or abuse reporting in real-time.