Does WhatsApp offer an open API?

whatsapp
Ralph picture Ralph · May 6, 2016 · Viewed 104.5k times · Source

I wonder if there is an open API to access WhatsApp through an internet protocol? The concrete question is:

  1. Is there a way to send a message to a list of WhatsApp users from an internet server?
  2. Is there any open concept for authentication?
  3. Or - is WhatsApp at the end a closed system without any open API through an internet protocol?

Answer

PhilS picture PhilS · May 6, 2016
  1. is the correct answer. WhatsApp is intentionally a closed system without an API for external access.

There were several projects available that reverse engineered the WhatsApp webservice interfaces. However, to my knowledge all of them are now discontinued/defunct due to legal action against them from WhatsApp.

For mobile phone applications there is a limited URL-Scheme-API available on IPhone and Android (Android-intent possible as well).

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