What's New with the WhatsApp Business Platform with Twilio
Time to read: 3 minutes
December 12, 2022
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In 2022, WhatsApp use cases have continued to expand, driving greater ROI from WhatsApp conversations. With new Twilio features that help reduce time to market, improve developer experience, and drive customer engagement, you can support and scale these new use cases.
Start with one-way use cases, including notifications and marketing, using Twilio’s Programmable Messaging API, and then scale to two-way conversational use cases including conversational commerce and customer care using the Conversations API and Twilio Flex, and enable consumers to start these conversations from emerging entry points like ads that click to WhatsApp.
No matter your use case, Twilio features like WhatsApp Self Sign-up in the Twilio Console and Fallback to SMS help reduce time to market and improve your developer experience, so you can shorten the time it takes to start reaching your customers. And once you’re interacting with them, create an engaging experience to keep the conversation going, using Sticky Sender and new media file types to help drive user engagement.
What’s New
Self Sign-Up is now generally available
WhatsApp Self Sign-up, or Embedded Sign-up, has now moved to general availability, so customers registering their own company or brand no longer need to request access to WhatsApp. These customers can follow this self-service process within the Twilio Console to sign up for the WhatsApp Business Platform and provision a production number. This onboarding process takes as little as 5 minutes, rather than waiting several days for approval.
WhatsApp Fallback to SMS launches in private beta
With WhatsApp Fallback to SMS, Twilio will attempt to deliver messages over SMS when a WhatsApp template message fails. This will ensure important notification and OTP messages are delivered and reach the end consumer. WhatsApp Fallback to SMS is in private beta.
Sticky Sender is now in private beta
Sticky Sender, a part of Twilio Messaging Services, is now in private beta for WhatsApp. This feature enables you to keep the same “From” phone number when sending messages to a particular recipient, so that the recipient sees the messages as coming from a single recognizable sender. Maintaining a consistent sender number helps encourage trust with users.
Updates to Template Errors
WhatsApp requires businesses to send pre-approved message templates to start conversations with users. Template Errors will now be surfaced in the account’s Error Logs to help you monitor the status of your templates and stay informed if a template is rejected, paused, or disabled. When templates are rejected (63040), Twilio will surface the rejection in the account’s Error Logs. If WhatsApp temporarily pauses (63041) or permanently disables (63042) any of your templates that were previously approved due to quality concerns, then these will also surface in the account’s Error Logs. Use the new Twilio Alarms to monitor for these new error codes and have a notification sent to you by webhook or email.
Support for new media file types
Support for sending Microsoft Office files over WhatsApp is now available. Send and receive these file types, including Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files, in your WhatsApp conversations with your customers. Additionally, Twilio now supports WhatsApp Stickers. Use these colorful emojis in your WhatsApp conversations to make your messaging visually engaging.
Driving ROI with WhatsApp and Twilio
By leveraging Twilio features like these to scale with WhatsApp, businesses are seeing increased ROI and improved engagement rates. Magalu has increased their conversion rates and grown sales volumes by using WhatsApp, compared to the traditional channels they were using before. Magalu attracts new sellers to their marketplace with Facebook and Instagram ads that Click to WhatsApp. Those new sellers can then onboard to Magalu’s platform by following the onboarding process in a WhatsApp conversation, and Magalu agents use Twilio Flex to manage conversations with these sellers on WhatsApp and answer any onboarding questions they may have. The onboarding conversion rate for new sellers has increased to 46% from 21% when using traditional channels. Additionally, by re-engaging buyers over WhatsApp with relevant product updates and promotions, Magalu has grown their sales volumes by 19.8%.
Get started with the WhatsApp Business Platform and Twilio today.
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