We are building a e-retail bot on WhatsApp platform. I would like to understand if there is a possibility to integrate the Whatsapp Business Api with the product catalog option they provide in the WhatsApp for Business App.
WhatsApp Business API - https://www.whatsapp.com/business/api/?lang=en
WhatsApp for Business - https://www.whatsapp.com/business
The flow that I am looking for is
- We will list all the products available on the WhatsApp for Business App
- Build a conversation bot which uses WhatsApp Business API
- Using API from WhatsApp Business API, open a product catalog or send a message with a call to button which will open product description or cart.
Is this something that is possible?
Short answer, not right now.
Catalog is not available for WhatsApp Business API.
However, it's been announced on the last F8 that they are working on that.
Small Update Dec. 2021:
Catalogs are now available but only for WhatsApp Business API phone numbers. This means that regular WhatsApp Business Catalogs cannot be integrated.
A new FB Catalog must be created and connected to the WABA line via FBM.
A new kind of message is available for the /messages endpoint and the CoreApp version needs to be upgraded to the latest.