WhatsApp offers new cloud-based API for businesses

Social media continues to play an important role for businesses today. Be it for advertising, promotions, or even communicating with customers, social media apps are now the top priority for most organizations. In fact, a business that does not have a social media presence has noticed a drop in its sales.

Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok are among the most popular social media apps when it comes to advertising. Some organizations even use social media apps to sell their products and conduct live demos and other interactive content.

According to Meta, one billion people message a business each week on WhatsApp Messenger and Instagram Direct. These messages normally have users asking for support or interacting with stories.

With that said, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta has announced that WhatsApp will be introducing free cloud-based API services to enable more businesses to use the app to boost their sales.

“Today we’re launching WhatsApp Cloud API for any business of any size around the world. This will allow businesses and developers to build on top of WhatsApp to customize their experiences and respond to customers quickly and easily. The best business experiences meet people where they are and that’s WhatsApp, so I’m excited to open this to businesses everywhere,” stated Zuckerberg in a Facebook post.

Mark Zuckerberg just announced that we’re opening WhatsApp to all businesses with the new cloud-based API. This will allow businesses and developers to customize their WhatsApp experiences and respond to customers quickly and easily.https://t.co/sVe21wFSSo pic.twitter.com/5F1LQz07Jo

— Meta Newsroom (@MetaNewsroom) May 19, 2022

With this new API, businesses and developers will have free and secure cloud hosting services for easier access and build directly on top of WhatsApp to customize their experience and increase their response time for their customers.

“Over the years we’ve seen how small businesses that use WhatsApp will grow and we want to support them with additional tools. We expect some will want to use the Cloud-based API though many will continue to use the WhatsApp Business app.

We are also working on advanced features for these businesses to help them run their operations beyond just a few people and further amplify their brand online – like the ability to manage chats across up to 10 devices so they can better handle an influx of chats,” according to a statement by WhatsApp.

The chat app will also provide new customizable WhatsApp click-to-chat links to help businesses attract customers across their online presence. It plans to offer these as additional, optional features for a fee in the WhatsApp Business app as part of a new premium service.

Apart from that, Meta also announced a new way for businesses to keep the conversation going with Recurring Notifications. Recurring Notifications make it easier for businesses to re-engage people right in the messaging thread and deliver tailored messaging at the best time for their customers, be it special promotions, new products, or tips and tricks.

Meta purchased WhatsApp for US$19 billion in 2014. Since then, the chat app has been a revolutionary tool for businesses. WhatsApp also faced numerous challenges including concerns about user data being used for targeted advertising and such when it decided to make changes to its terms and of service.