The user has WhatsApp
Only open WhatsApp
whatsapp://
Start a chat
whatsapp://send
Start chat to phone number. The number must be in international format without any symbols or spaces.
whatsapp://send?phone=1234
Start chat and prefill the text field
whatsapp://send?phone=1234&text=Hello%20world
Leave out the phone number to display the contacts list.
Unsure if the user has WhatsApp
The links above may not work when the user is using the desktop app. To resolve this WA allows the use of their redirector, which is basically a bit of javascript doing some checks and then request the url above to launch the app.
Only open WhatsApp
https://wa.me/
Start chat to phone number. The number must be in international format without any symbols or spaces.
https://wa.me/1234
Start chat and prefill text field
https://wa.me/1234/?text=Hello%20world
Leave out the phone number to display the contacts list.
Web-based app
Only open the webapp
https://web.whatsapp.com
Start a chat
https://web.whatsapp.com/send
Start chat to phone number. The number must be in international format without any symbols or spaces.
https://web.whatsapp.com/send?phone=1234
Start a chat and prefill the text field
https://web.whatsapp.com/send?phone=1234&text=Hello%20world
Leave out the phone number to display the contacts list.
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Changelog
2019-12-02 – Added url to only launch the app. Rewrite text.
There is a new url ‘wa.me’ for the redirector. Right now it is still using the old one at ‘api.whatsapp.com’, but they don’t say if it is going to be replaced. Maybe ‘wa.me’ is going to be a universal link that it tightly connected with the app. When you have the app installed it will open immediately without the web redirect. And when you don’t have it the website opens. Time will tell.
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