Quickstart
From a connected number to your first message, with code.
Sending messages
Placeholders, headers, buttons, statuses and webhooks.
How it works
1
Connect your number
In the console, open the application, then Notifications → Overview, and press Connect WhatsApp. Meta opens a window where you pick or create the business and the number. Tawked registers the number and opens its inbox in Tawked Chat. The owner or an admin connects it. You keep full access in WhatsApp Manager and pay Meta directly for its messages.
2
Get a template approved
On Notifications → Templates, write one, start from Meta’s library, or create it in WhatsApp Manager. Meta reviews it, usually within minutes. Only an approved template can be sent. See Templates.
3
Use the application's live key
A
tk_live_ key of the application the number is connected to, from its API keys page: one with full access, or a custom key with Notifications set to send. A key without that access answers 403 insufficient_scope.4
List, then send
GET /v1/whatsapp/templates shows every template with the placeholders it expects. POST /v1/whatsapp/messages sends one and answers 202 with an id. Read the status with GET /v1/whatsapp/messages/{id}, or receive message.* webhooks.reference.
An application in review connects a number and sends exactly like an approved one: review holds Verify codes only. A rejected or suspended application cannot send.
What a send can carry
- Body placeholders, named (
{{name}}) or positional ({{1}}), never mixed. - A text header placeholder, in
header.text. - An image header: the image’s public link in
header.image.link. See Image headers. - A document header: a PDF’s link in
header.document.link, with the name the customer sees inheader.document.filename. See Document headers and Send a PDF attachment. - The dynamic suffix of URL buttons.
- An authentication template’s code, which fills its text and its button. See Authentication templates.
422 unsupported_template. message says which.
Without code
The free Tawked plugin for WooCommerce sends order updates with no code, the Tawked app for Salla does the same for a Salla store, and the app for Zid is on its way. The Integrations tab lists every platform Tawked connects to.Replies land in Tawked Chat
A customer who answers a notification writes to your number. The reply lands in the number’s inbox in Tawked Chat, where your team answers it, and the messages your code sent appear in the same conversations. Tawked Chat’s conversations have no API.Billing
The fee, if any, is for the send, at the price on tawked.com/en/pricing, and comes from your Tawked balance. Delivery and read cost nothing more, and a failed send refunds the fee once. Meta bills you for its messages separately, on your own WhatsApp Business Account: since 1 October 2026 that includes the replies sent inside the 24-hour window, after each number’s first 1,000 free replies a month, which the console counts on the number’s card (see Free replies). The channel itself, what Meta requires, its messaging limits and Meta’s charges, is on the WhatsApp Business API page.For one-time codes by SMS, checked for you, use Tawked Verify. For codes from your own WhatsApp number, send an authentication template.