WhatsApp channels

Choose a WhatsApp provider for your site, turn WhatsApp on, and see what a WhatsApp post can contain.

WhatsApp posts go out from a phone number that a user links to MagicPost. Depending on the provider, the number posts to its groups, to WhatsApp Channels or to its Status. You choose one provider for the whole site, and your users link their own numbers to it.

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Which provider should I choose

	WAHA	Whapi.Cloud	Official Cloud API
Name under Kind of app	WAHA (self-hosted)	Whapi.Cloud (hosted)	Official WhatsApp Cloud API (Meta)
Official WhatsApp API	No	No	Yes
What you set up	A WAHA server that you run with Docker	A Whapi.Cloud account, for a test token	A Meta app
What each user brings	A phone to scan a QR code with	Their own Whapi.Cloud channel and its token	A WhatsApp Business number, a system user token and two IDs
Can post to	Groups, WhatsApp Channels, Status	Groups, WhatsApp Channels, Status	Groups created from MagicPost
Who pays	You, for the server	Each user, to Whapi.Cloud	Meta bills messages on the WhatsApp Business Account

WAHA and Whapi.Cloud are not official WhatsApp APIs. WhatsApp’s terms do not allow automated or bulk messaging, and a number used this way can be restricted or banned. Post to people who expect to hear from you, and keep the volume modest.

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Turn WhatsApp on

1. Open the WhatsApp card

   Go to Admin → Publishing → Platforms and click Add credentials on the WhatsApp card.

2. Choose the kind of app

   Under Kind of app, pick your provider and fill in the fields described on its page.

3. Save and run the checks

   Click Save, then click Run checks on the card and fix anything that fails.

4. Enable it

   Tick Available to users in the panel, or use the switch on the card. The card then shows Live.

Only one provider is active at a time. Changing Kind of app later means everyone reconnects their WhatsApp channels.

WAHA

Run your own WAHA server and link numbers with a QR code.

Whapi.Cloud

Each user brings a hosted Whapi.Cloud channel.

Official Cloud API

Use Meta’s WhatsApp Business Platform and post to groups.

Posts to WhatsApp are sent by the queue, so the scheduler has to be running. See Cron and queue.

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Post types and limits

WhatsApp has one post type, Message.

	Message	Message to a Status
Text	Up to 4,096 characters	Up to 700 characters
Caption under a picture or video	Up to 1,024 characters	Up to 700 characters
Images	Up to 10 (jpg, jpeg, png), 5 MB each	Same
Video	1 (mp4, 3gp), up to 16 MB	1, up to 16 MB and 60 seconds
Pictures and video together	No	No
First comment	No	No

WhatsApp plays MP4 video encoded as H.264 with AAC audio. It takes one picture or video per message, so a post with three images goes out as three messages, with the caption on the first.

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Pacing

A number that sends messages back to back is what WhatsApp restricts, so MagicPost waits a random time between the messages of each number. The defaults are 5 to 15 seconds. To change them, open Admin → Publishing → Platforms, click Edit credentials on the WhatsApp card and set Shortest gap (1 to 300 seconds) and Longest gap (at least the shortest, up to 600 seconds).

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Reconnecting a number

WhatsApp can sign a number out. With WAHA and Whapi.Cloud this happens after about 14 days offline (the server for WAHA, the phone for Whapi.Cloud). With the official API it happens when Meta stops accepting the token. The number’s channels then show Needs reconnect.

1. Open the channel menu

   Go to Publishing → Channels and open the actions menu of an affected channel.

2. Reconnect

   Click Reconnect and link the number again. With WAHA and Whapi.Cloud it must be the same number. All channels of the number come back together.

To remove a number, use Disconnect on one channel, or Disconnect this number to remove all of its channels. Published posts and their analytics are kept.