WhatsApp: Get Started

Updated

You can set up WhatsApp using your Facebook Business Account or through Twilio if you use Twilio to send SMS messages. We’ll help you figure out which option is right for you and get you set up.

How it works

WhatsApp is similar to SMS in that you can send messages to your audience using their phone numbers. But you’ll need WhatsApp-approved phone numbers to send messages; these are separate from the phone numbers you use to send SMS messages.

After you’ve enabled WhatsApp support, you’ll set up templates for your messages. Unlike SMS and other channels, you won’t write message content directly in Customer.io; WhatsApp messages are based on templates that you create in WhatsApp (or through Twilio), and then populate in Customer.io.

So, before you can send WhatsApp messages, you’ll need to:

  1. Set up WhatsApp support in Customer.io through either your Facebook Business Account or your Twilio account.
  2. Create templates and have them approved by WhatsApp.
  3. Select a template when you go to send a WhatsApp message.

Should I set up WhatsApp through Twilio?

Whether or not you set up WhatsApp through Twilio, you’ll need a Facebook Business Account to send WhatsApp messages. If you don’t have one, that’s where you’ll start.

Beyond that, if you already have your own Twilio account that you use to send SMS messages through Customer.io, it might be easier to set up WhatsApp support using your Twilio account. Twilio can help you get WhatsApp-approved phone numbers, and they’ll help you create and get WhatsApp-approved templates approved by WhatsApp (Meta).

However, while Twilio can act as a concierge for your WhatsApp setup, using a third party makes it difficult to understand what parts of the process are handled by Twilio and what parts are handled by Customer.io.

If you don’t have a Twilio account—or you want to make sure that your WhatsApp setup isn’t dependent on a third party—you can connect Customer.io directly to your Facebook Business Account to send WhatsApp messages. Removing Twilio from the equation can make it easier to understand and troubleshoot WhatsApp support.

Set up WhatsApp support

Before you can send WhatsApp messages, you must have a WhatsApp-approved phone number that you’ll use to send messages. If you haven’t gotten a WhatsApp-approved phone number, you might want to do that before you set up WhatsApp support in Customer.io.

If you’re going to send WhatsApp messages through Twilio, see Set up WhatsApp support using Twilio below.

  1. Go to > Workspace Settings > WhatsApp.
  2. Click Connect WhatsApp Business.
  3. Enter your Facebook Business Account credentials and follow the prompts. As a part of this process, you’ll enter your business information and the sender number you want to use to send messages.
    The WhatsApp setup page with a valid phone number showing after successful setup
    The WhatsApp setup page with a valid phone number showing after successful setup

When you’re done, you’ll be set up to send messages from Customer.io. Though you’ll need to create WhatsApp-approved templates in your Facebook Business Account before you can send messages.

Set up WhatsApp support using Twilio

Twilio WhatsApp support is tied to our SMS functionality. If you want to send WhatsApp messages using your Twilio account, you’ll need to set up SMS in Customer.io first and then ask Customer.io to enable WhatsApp support for your account and workspace.

 Why does Customer.io have to enable WhatsApp support for me?

Twilio’s WhatsApp approval process may take a few weeks to complete. We manage WhatsApp support on a customer-by-customer basis to make sure that your account and workspaces are fully prepared to send WhatsApp messages before we enable the feature.

To send SMS and MMS messages in Customer.io, you’ll need to have a Twilio account and the Sender phone number. This might be a regular phone number, short code, or an alphanumeric ID.

Twilio can lease these numbers to you. Or, if you have a paid Twilio account with Alphanumeric Sending enabled, you can send messages from an Alphanumeric ID instead of a Twilio phone number.

  1. Set up a Twilio account if you don’t already have one. We recommend using a trial account to get started.

  2. Set up a Twilio-specific Sender if you don’t already have one. You can’t use your own phone number to send SMS; you need to purchase a number from Twilio. If you already set up your sender number, select it when you compose messages.

  3. In your Customer.io workspace, go to > Workspace Settings > SMS and add your Twilio Account SID and Auth Token. You’ll find these values in your Twilio dashboard.

    Find your credentials in the Twilio dashboard
    Find your credentials in the Twilio dashboard

  1. Complete the WhatsApp approval process. You must have an approved WhatsApp Business Account to send WhatsApp messages. Twilio facilitates the approval process and provides instructions to help you enable WhatsApp messaging.
  2. In Twilio, create the content templates you want to use to send messages.
  3. Contact win@customer.io to enable WhatsApp in your Customer.io account. After we enable WhatsApp support in your account, you’ll see an option in the SMS editor to send a message to your WhatsApp audience.
    WhatsApp editor
    WhatsApp editor

You might want to track and shorten links that you add to WhatsApp messages. In general, if you track links, you should also use our link shortening feature; when you track a link, it becomes a much longer URL that can take up considerable space in your message if you don’t shorten it.

You can enable link tracking by either:

  • Enabling link tracking at the campaign or message level.
  • If you want to track individual links, you can use the {% cio_link url:"https://example.url" %} tag to track links in your messages.
An image showing link tracking settings in a whatsapp message
An image showing link tracking settings in a whatsapp message

Link shortening settings depend on how you set up WhatsApp support—directly through your Facebook Business Account (WhatsApp in your workspace settings) or through Twilio (SMS in your workspace settings).

You’ll find link shortening settings in Workspace settings > WhatsApp.

When you enable link shortening, we’ll automatically shorten links to a URL like https://a.cx.io/abcde12345 (or https://e.cx.io/abcde12345 if you’re in our EU data center).

An image showing link shortening settings for WhatsApp
An image showing link shortening settings for WhatsApp

Shortened links are between 26 and 36 characters:

  • 8 for the https:// prefix.
  • 7 for the domain (a.cx.io or e.cx.io).
  • 11-16 characters for the path (the slash and random characters /lnk.abc123). We start with a 10 character path and increase the length until we find a path that isn’t in use.
  • Shortened links expire after 90 days.

If you send WhatsApp messages through Twilio, your WhatsApp messages share link shortening settings with SMS messages. You’ll find link shortening settings in Workspace settings > SMS.

Here you can set up link shortening including a custom short link domain. See link shortening for more about your short link setup.

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