WhatsApp

Choose a WhatsApp channel

Sozuri connects a WhatsApp number in one of two ways: by scanning a QR code, or through Meta's official WhatsApp Business Platform. One API sends on either, and a project can have both.

Side by side

Official WhatsApp (Meta)QR-code WhatsApp
Connecting a number Connect with Meta from the dashboard: sign in with Facebook, choose your business and verify the number by SMS or call. Scan a QR code in the dashboard with WhatsApp on your phone, the way you link WhatsApp Web.
The WhatsApp app on your phone The number lives on Meta's platform and can no longer be used in the WhatsApp app. Keeps working as before, in WhatsApp or the WhatsApp Business app: Sozuri is one of its linked devices.
Name your customers see Your display name, approved by Meta. The profile name set on the phone.
Starting a conversation Only with a message template Meta has approved. Any message.
Free-form messages Within 24 hours of the customer's last message to that number. Any time.
What you can send Text, images, video, audio and voice notes, documents, stickers, locations, contact cards, reactions, interactive messages (buttons, lists, link buttons, location requests and Flows) and templates. Text, images, video, audio and voice notes, documents, stickers, locations, contact cards and reactions.
Quoted replies Yes. Yes.
Group chats No. If you turn them on: only messages that @mention your number reach you, and you can reply in the group.
Customers who use a WhatsApp username instead of a phone number Yes. No.
Sending limit 600 messages a minute per project, within the messaging limits Meta sets for your number. 60 messages a minute per project. It is not for bulk sending: WhatsApp bans numbers that send in bulk from a linked device.
Charges Meta's per-message fees, billed by Meta to your WhatsApp Business Account, plus Sozuri's per-message fee. Sozuri's per-message fee. No Meta fees.
API POST /api/v1/whatsapp/messages, or POST /api/v1/whatsapp/meta/send POST /api/v1/whatsapp/messages, or POST /api/v1/whatsapp/send

Which one to use

The QR-code channel suits conversations:

  • support, replies and one-to-one updates, at a modest volume;
  • a number you want to keep using on your phone;
  • starting today, with no Meta account to set up.

It is WhatsApp on a linked device, so it is subject to WhatsApp's rules for personal and Business-app numbers. Sending the same message to many people who did not write to you first is how numbers get banned, which is why each project's sending is capped.

The official channel suits businesses that message at scale:

  • notifications you start yourself (reminders, receipts, codes), using templates Meta has approved;
  • buttons, lists and Flows;
  • a display name Meta has approved;
  • customers who reach you with a WhatsApp username rather than a phone number.

It costs Meta's per-message fees on top of Sozuri's.

Using both

  • Send with POST /api/v1/whatsapp/messages and Sozuri picks the channel for every message: the one you name, the only one that can reach that address, the official one for a template, the one the customer last wrote to, then your project's default. The rules are in Which number a message leaves from.
  • GET /api/v1/whatsapp/channels lists your channels, whether each is connected and what each can send. See List your channels.
  • Incoming messages from both channels are POSTed to your webhook in the same shape, signed the same way. channel says which one a message came in on (qr or meta), so one parser reads both. Each channel has its own webhook URL setting, so they can point at the same address or at different ones.
  • One number is on one channel. A number connected on the official channel can't also be linked with a QR code. Sozuri ignores the QR copy of its messages, so nothing is answered twice.

Connecting

Both are in the dashboard under Project → WhatsApp.

  • QR code: request the channel, then scan the code with WhatsApp on your phone (Settings → Linked devices). Full guide: Send & receive (QR code).
  • Official: press Connect with Meta and follow Meta's window. Full guide: Official WhatsApp.

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