WhatsApp API update: Direct Send and Request Contact Info

In October, WhatsApp API added two new functions. Direct Send sends a message without a template. Request Contact Info asks for a phone number when you receive a BSUID, not a phone number.

Direct Send

To write to a customer first, you need to create a template and wait until WhatsApp approves it. 1MSG already does this for you: for each channel, we create a template automatically and send your message as that template, so more messages are delivered and there are fewer errors. WhatsApp now has a similar function, and it is called Direct Send.

Direct Send lets you write to a customer first with normal text, without your own template and without waiting for approval. When you send the message, you set the category of the message itself to utility, not the category of a template: WhatsApp uses it to find a template or create one. How WhatsApp does this is explained in the Direct Send documentation. If you do not set utility, the message stays a normal service message, and Direct Send does not start.

Direct Send is not available for every business yet. Right now, Meta gives it to business portfolios with a messaging limit of 100,000 or with no limit, and a banner in WhatsApp Manager shows if you have access. If you do not have access, you can ask for it in the same place. If the banner shows that you already have access, you do not need to do anything else: a message with category utility works right away.

To send this message in 1MSG, see the Send a Message method.

Request Contact Info

This year, Meta added BSUID: a user can set a username and hide their phone number from a business. The chat then has a BSUID instead of a phone number, so you cannot see which customer this is if you know your customers by phone number. The new method Request Contact Info solves this problem.

The method sends the customer a request for their phone number: a separate message while the conversation is open, and a utility or marketing template if the conversation is already closed. When the customer agrees, the phone number comes in the webhook and is saved with their BSUID.

For more details, see the Request the user's phone number method.