What is the WhatsApp Cloud API?

In more depth

Choosing between the Cloud API and an unofficial API is a trade, and it is worth being honest about both sides. The Cloud API gives you a number Meta hosts, no session to keep alive, no risk of being banned for using an unsupported client, and a support relationship. In exchange, business-initiated messages outside the twenty-four hour customer service window must be pre-approved templates, Meta charges for messages, the number cannot be used in the WhatsApp app afterwards, advanced access generally requires business verification, and large parts of the product simply are not there: the reference documents no endpoints for groups, communities, Channels or status. If your use case is transactional notifications to customers who expect them, the official API is the better answer and you should use it. If your use case lives in groups, Channels or status, or needs a human to keep using the same number on their phone, no amount of template approval will get you there and an unofficial API is the only option - with the ban risk that comes with it.

In the Wapito API

On the wire it is the field cloud_api_status:

{
  "cloud_api_status": "forbidden",
  "official_workaround": "none - groups are absent from the Cloud API reference"
}

On the official Cloud API

Meta documents the platform, its pricing and its customer service window publicly; every claim Wapito makes about it on these pages carries a source link and the date it was checked.

Wapito is an independent product. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by or certified by WhatsApp or Meta Platforms, Inc. WhatsApp is a trademark of Meta Platforms, Inc.

Related terms

• BSP
• Business account
• Cold send

Related