This is a good idea, thank you!!
WhatsApp for Business is currently in testing as of January 2025!
International SMS messaging - Feature Requests - Forums - OwnerRez
It's great to hear that WhatsApp integration is in testing! Is there an estimate on when this might get rolled out for hosts to use? Will this be a free integration?
Thanks!
No ETA that we can provide at this time. The integration requires a WhatsApp for Business account, which has a cost associated with it, so the pricing model is TBD.
We'll be able to share more once we get the technical aspects working as they should.
This integration will do a long ways towards unifying our inbox. Any updates, now that it is almost April?
Would love an ETA for when this is likely going to be released?
Excited for this! In Latin America, everyone uses WhatsApp for communication.
No ETA that we can provide at this time (still in testing). The integration requires a WhatsApp for Business account, which has a cost associated with it, so the pricing model is TBD.
We'll be able to share more once we get the technical aspects working as they should.
@Shawn, is OR connecting directly to the META API or using a Business Service Provider? The rough cost per Utility message is half a cent or less (depending on Volume) if with META directly. Will the pricing be based on message volume or will we have to pay a monthly feature fee as well?
We are having to pivot a bit and are delayed on that effort. I've marked this one back as Planned as we are not actively developing/testing on it. We'll provide an update here again as soon as we can.
Thanks for everyone's input/questions (Manel, et al.) and patience.
-Shawn
Hi Shawn. I’m sure I speak for most of your customers outside of North America when I say that this is very disappointing news! Could you share more about why this has been deprioritised? Has your engineering efforts gone into ‘Rezzy’ instead? Are we unlikely to see this feature in 2025?
We are having to pivot a bit and are delayed on that effort. I've marked this one back as Planned as we are not actively developing/testing on it. We'll provide an update here again as soon as we can.
Thanks for everyone's input/questions (Manel, et al.) and patience.
-Shawn
WhatsApp is a critical tool we need. We have properties in 6 countries (Mexico, France, Italy, Australia, Canada & the US), and "everywhere" uses WhatsApp, except the US. Hopefully this becomes a priority soon!
We realize how critical this feature will be and want to get it released. It's not de-prioritized, per se; it's just not in development (i.e., being actively touched by a developer and/or tester), so it's misleading to leave it as such. Due to some previous updates, it already seemed like it was close to release, but we had to pull it back into Product design. We are working to get it back "In Development" sooner rather than later.
I'll just say it. Meta is a terrible company to integrate with from a partner/API standpoint. The level of pretzel-twisting that has to go on to make WhatsApp work is unbelievable.
We got to the bottom of the R&D and found that either:
a) We have to use the Meta-only APIs which don't work for a huge subset of customers, or
b) Use a software provider like Twilio which requires us re-regstering phone number brands from scratch
and:
c) It is ridiculously difficult to actually provision numbers to test and get working on the sandbox side
WhatsApp for Business is totally different from regular WhatsApp. A number registered for one does not work with the other. The templates/limits available for one won't work for the other. And again, Meta has zero control panels or sandboxes that correctly show what is going on at any given time.
It is extremely important to us to get WA working, but we had no choice but to back-burner it for a while while clearing some other things out.
🎤⬇
Totally agree, the WhatsApp Business API is a nightmare.
Something you may wish to investigate as an alternative solution is Wbiztool, which is an unofficial API bridge over WhatsApp Web - you can send and receive WhatsApp messages via their API, and all we would need to do is connect our existing WhatsApp account by scanning the WhatsApp Web QR code. You could partner with them, or offer it as an integration where we put in our wbiztool API key. It's extremely affordable and has none of the meta Business API restrictions and headaches.
Marking this one back 'In Development' as we've cleared a couple of hurdles on this effort toward WhatsApp for Business in the OwnerRez unified inbox!
Great news!
That's great to read!
I already have WhatsApp for business. Will I be able to link my existing account? I also have it connected to Conduit but I want to schedule messages for my international guests...
This is a really SAD delay and should be huge priority. It is not only for any property outside of the UNited States, it is for any GUEST from outside of the United States renting a USA property. The whole world is on whatsapp and it really would help to get OwnerRez on it as well.
Hey Test,
Quick update - we have been actively working on WhatsApp throughout the entire fall.
Back in late summer, Meta released a new "Coexistence" integration that allows current WhatsApp Business App users to integrate with software partners (like OwnerRez), which we want to support because we felt like that is how you would prefer to use it - in your WA app and in OR side by side. So anything said in WA shows up in the OR inbox and vice versa. We popped the champagne and felt happy.
However, we then began working on it and conducting tests. It doesn't work well. In fact, it doesn't work at all unless you have a "sufficiently active" WA account, which is an entirely arbitrary, opaque requirement that they do not define or explain. In testing, many of our WA accounts won't connect because "the account doesn't have enough activity," including real phone numbers that have been on WA for a while. Meta will not explain or help us with this at all.
We do actually have a live, working beta out right now, which a few limited users are helping us test with, but again, you have to have a "sufficiently active" WA account, and we're still doing a lot of testing. Also, our inbox support for WA is still very primitive, so we haven't opened up the beta group beyond a couple of people.
On the engineering side, we went back to the drawing board about a month ago and are building full support for all 3 versions of WA including the original one we started last summer, where a brand new account can register a new number, though that type of connection will not allow you to use the WA Business app from your phone. If you connect that way, you will only be able to send/receive WA messages from the OR inbox. We plan to support all 3 of their connection types, and we are working on that now.
That's the current delay. Hope this helps explain things.
