WhatsApp API glossary
This glossary defines the words WhatsApp and its protocol use, for people building on the Wapito API: what each one is, where it shows up in a request or a webhook, and what Meta's official Cloud API calls the same thing when it has it at all. Every entry links the endpoints that use the term.
25 terms, A to Z
- ACK
- An ACK is an acknowledgement that a message has moved a step along its journey: accepted by the server, delivered to the recipient's device, or read by the recipient.
- BSP
- A BSP is a Business Solution Provider: a company Meta authorises to resell and support access to the official WhatsApp Business Platform.
- Business account
- A WhatsApp Business account is a number running the free WhatsApp Business app rather than the consumer app.
- Channel
- In Wapito a channel is one linked WhatsApp number together with everything attached to it: its session, its bearer token, its webhook endpoints, its settings and its usage counters.
- Cloud API
- The Cloud API is Meta's own hosted WhatsApp Business Platform API.
- Cold send
- A cold send is a first message to somebody who has never written to your number.
- Community
- A Community is a container that groups several WhatsApp groups together under one name, with an announcement group that reaches every member at once.
- Group admin
- A group admin is a participant allowed to change a WhatsApp group: its name and icon, its settings, its membership and its other admins.
- Invite code
- An invite code is the short string at the end of a chat.whatsapp.com link that lets anyone holding it join a group without being added by an admin.
- JID
- A JID is the address WhatsApp uses internally for anyone or anything you can message.
- LID
- A LID is a linked identity: a per-account identifier WhatsApp uses in place of a phone number so that people in groups and channels are not forced to reveal their number.
- Newsletter
- Newsletter is the protocol's name for what the app calls a Channel: a one-way broadcast that followers read but cannot reply to.
- Pairing code
- A pairing code is an eight-character code you request for a phone number and then type into WhatsApp on that phone to link a new device.
- Poll
- A poll is a message carrying a question and a list of options that recipients tap to vote on.
- Presence
- Presence is the live status shown at the top of a chat: online, offline, typing or recording, together with the last-seen timestamp.
- PTT
- PTT stands for push-to-talk: the voice note you record by holding the microphone button in WhatsApp.
- PTV
- PTV means push-to-video: the short round video note recorded by tapping the microphone button twice in WhatsApp.
- QR linking
- QR linking is the original way to attach a companion device: the engine renders a QR code, the phone's owner scans it from the linked-devices screen, and the device is added.
- Reaction
- A reaction is a single emoji attached to an existing WhatsApp message rather than sent as a new one.
- Sandbox
- Sandbox is the free plan every Wapito channel starts on.
- Session
- A session is the live connection between a WhatsApp engine and WhatsApp's servers on behalf of one linked number, plus the credentials and state that make it resumable.
- Status story
- A Status story is a post that appears in the disappearing updates strip above the WhatsApp chat list and vanishes after twenty-four hours.
- Timelock
- A timelock is a temporary hold WhatsApp places on a number's ability to start new conversations.
- Warm-up
- Warm-up is the practice of raising a newly linked number's sending volume gradually over its first days instead of starting at full speed.
- Webhook
- A webhook is an HTTP callback: instead of your code asking the API whether anything happened, the API posts the event to a URL you registered.
Related
Reference
Try it on your own number
Create a channel, link a WhatsApp number by QR or pairing code, and call the API in a couple of minutes. The Sandbox plan is free and needs no card.