Salesforce WhatsApp Integration via Twilio

In one of the previous post on inteygrate we made an attempt to integrate Salesforce with WhatsApp using an unofficial library Yowsup. We were successfully able to make the connection using a middleware code in Python and send messages from Salesforce to WhatsApp. But lately after many upgrades of WhatsApp the library isn't being supported well and has got many issues during registration, also leading to the numbers being blocked by WhatsApp.

So can we no longer integrate Salesforce with WhatsApp? Yes we can; because now Facebook has officially released APIs for WhatsApp. But, hold on! You cannot start using it right away 😥. Its because they are not completely public yet and Facebook is conditionally providing access to businesses after scrutinising the application to be submitted by businesses before getting access to the APIs.

So, What is Twilio?

Fortunately, we have Twilio - a middleware, a cloud communications platform as a service that allows software developers to programmatically make and receive phone calls, send and receive text messages, and perform other communication functions using its web service APIs. There are other middleware's as well like Zapier, Smooch etc. and these tools expect you to already have your Business WhatsApp number approved for API access. Whereas Twilio API for WhatsApp provides Sandbox numbers that we can use to try out our integration for sending and receiving messages to WhatsApp users.

Watch the below video to understand how Twilio helps businesses to manage Customer engagement across Channels in one single place.

Now let us quickly see a Demo of the integration using Twilio and we will then take a look at the steps for the same.

Demo

Case creation when customer reports an issue

Reply to customer when a comment is added

Subsequent replies from Customer Saved as Comments on the Case

Next, let us see the configurations required in Twilio and the setup for Twilio API integration with WhatsApp.