WhatsApp webhooks, and what to do with them
Webhooks are how WhatsApp tells your systems something happened. If your CRM or order system has no native integration, this is the route, and it is usually a day's work rather than a project.
Published
What you receive
Inbound messages, and status updates for messages you sent: sent, delivered, read, failed. Failures carry a reason code, which is what makes them worth consuming.
- Inbound message received
- Message delivered / read
- Message failed, with a reason
- Template status changed (approved or rejected)
What to build with them
The common cases are writing conversations into a CRM that has no connector, triggering an internal workflow when a specific reply arrives, and alerting when delivery failures spike.
That last one is underrated. A rising failure rate is an early warning about your quality rating, and a webhook is how you find out before your messaging tier drops.
Acknowledge webhooks quickly and process asynchronously. Doing real work inside the request causes retries and duplicate handling.
Practicalities
Verify the payload signature so you are not accepting anything that reaches the endpoint. Expect occasional duplicates and make handlers idempotent.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need webhooks if my CRM is already supported?
No. Native integrations handle it. Webhooks are for bespoke systems and for triggering workflows nobody built a connector for.
How quickly must I respond?
Fast. Acknowledge immediately and queue the work; slow responses cause retries and duplicated processing.
Keep reading
See it answer, in your own words
Tap the mic on our homepage and talk to the same AI your customers would. No form, no scheduling, no sales call first.