As a business owner, managing customer communication can often feel overwhelming—especially when the same customer queries flood your inbox daily. That’s where WhatsApp automation steps in as the ultimate solution. By automating your messages on WhatsApp, you can instantly respond to FAQs, send timely order updates, and schedule reminders without lifting a finger. This not only keeps your customers informed and satisfied but also frees up valuable time for you to focus on growing your business.
With 85% of consumers favoring businesses that provide fast, relevant updates on WhatsApp, leveraging automation isn’t just an option; it’s a necessity. It boosts efficiency, enhances customer satisfaction, and directly impacts your sales. In this guide, we’ll break down all existing methods to automate WhatsApp messages along with their pros and cons.
1. WhatsApp Business API from Official Business Service Providers [Best Suited for Businesses]
Few Business Solution Providers (BSPs) are affiliated by Meta to offer the complete automation solution in the form of WhatsApp Business APIs. You get the option to schedule messages (which could even be personalized), bulk broadcasts, personalized rich media messages (like carousels) and team inbox. A few BSPs like Heltar also give you access to building and deploying no-code whatsapp chatbots for automated response and support custom integrations with third-party apps. They also offer dedicated customer support which means you never have to worry about getting stuck with tech at any point.
WhatsApp Business API allows you to automate several things which include: answering FAQs, assisting with purchases, sending order updates, reminding users about abandoned carts, streamlining order tracking.
Pros:
Multiple advanced features to boost your business significantly.
Easy troubleshooting and support as you can always contact the provider.
A few BSPs like Heltar allow you to build no-code whatsapp chatbots and set up custom third-party integrations.
You save a lot of developer hours as all of the frontend and backend has already been built by the providers.
Cons:
Since the user interface needs to be developed for each feature, few advanced features may roll out later than when they are available on WhatsApp Cloud API.
You can access the official WhatsApp Business API through any Meta-affiliated BSP, such as Heltar. Sign Up for a Free Trial or Book a Demo to explore its capabilities.
2. Using WhatsApp Cloud API
The WhatsApp Cloud API is a cloud-hosted version of the WhatsApp Business API, designed to help businesses and developers create customized customer experiences. The Cloud API eliminates the need and cost for managing your own servers and also provides instant access to functionalities like scheduling messages, bulk broadcast and other advanced features.
Pros:
Accessible almost instantly with less verification.
Free of cost (except for the billing per message).
Cons:
Lacks built-in database support or a user interface (front-end environment), requiring businesses to build these functionalities from scratch.
If you would like to build chatbots for automation they will have to be built from scratch requiring extensive coding.
Step-by-Step Guide to Set Up WhatsApp Cloud API
Register at Meta for Developers and create a new app.
Set your app type to “Business” and complete account verification.
Navigate to the Developer Dashboard and open the WhatsApp settings.
Obtain your API key and a sandbox phone number for initial testing.
Set up webhooks to receive real-time updates, such as message delivery statuses and incoming conversations.
Enter your server's callback URL to enable event notifications.
Use the sandbox to send and receive test messages.
Analyze logs to troubleshoot issues and refine configurations.
After successful testing, switch from sandbox mode to production.
Begin using the Cloud API for real-time interactions with your customers.
The WhatsApp Cloud API could be a great tool for businesses looking to leverage WhatsApp for customer engagement, but it requires a solid technical foundation for effective integration.
3. Using Unofficial WhatsApp Business API
Several unofficial WhatsApp Business APIs enable features like sending and receiving messages via HTTP requests, bulk broadcasting, media-rich messages (images, audio, video, files), notifications through webhooks, and chat usage data export. They are often cheaper and require less verification than official APIs. Examples include whatsapp-web.js, Maytapi, SMSGatewayHub, and ChatWA.
Pros:
Most unofficial APIs are either free for developers or charge less money than official WhatsApp APIs.
Cons:
As unofficial APIs violate WhatsApp's terms of service, using them puts your account under high risk of getting banned.
You might have to deal with security vulnerabilities, and unreliable performance.
4. Using Third-Party Modules
The pywhatkit module allows you to send WhatsApp messages at a specific time. To proceed with this method firstly ensure that you have Google Chrome installed on your laptop and are logged in to WhatsApp Web. Follow these steps:
Run the following command in your terminal:
pip install pywhatkitDownload the ChromeDriver for your Chrome version from chromedriver.chromium.org.
Extract the file and copy the path of the chromedriver.exe file. (e.g., C:/Users/…/chromedriver.exe).
Use pywhatkit.add_driver_path(path) to set the driver path.
Call pywhatkit.load_QRcode() to generate a QR code.
Scan the QR code using your WhatsApp app.
Here’s the implementation for sending a message to +91987xxxxxxx at 5:20 PM:
import pywhatkit
pywhatkit.sendwhatmsg("+91987xxxxxxx", "Hi! This is XYZ Solution. How can we help you?", 17, 20)
Note: Parameters are the recipient's phone number, message, hour (24-hour time notation), and minute.
There are other libraries too that you can explore for this purpose: youwsoup, WhatsAPIDriver, WhatsAPI.
Pros:
Simple and straightforward method of automating messages.
Does not cost you any money.
Cons:
As your device must remain switched on and you need to stay logged in to WhatsApp Web for this method to work, this method unsuitable for businesses.
You might have to scan the QR code for login again and again which means there is no real automation here.
There’s a very high chance that WhatsApp might ban or suspend your account for trying to automate messages using this method.
For other methods of scheduling messages on WhatsApp check out this blog on Step-by-step Guide to Scheduling Messages on WhatsApp and for more insights on WhatsApp Business API check out our other blogs at heltar.com/blogs.
