Businesses must send instant notifications to customers for real-time updates or personalized services using WhatsApp. Salesforce provides functionality to send WhatsApp messages using Social Studio. If we don’t have a Social Studio license then we can utilise Twilio API to send WhatsApp messages. This post will provide complete details about sending WhatsApp messages from the Lightning Application by Integrating Salesforce and WhatsApp using Twilio API.

Steps for Twilio API integration in Salesforce:

1. Signup in Twilio 
2. Create Sandbox environment
3. Create Apex for consuming API
4. Create Lightning component

1. Signup in Twilio 

Sign up in Twilio to integrate it with the Salesforce application.

It will send one verification email to verify the email. Verify email to continue. This will open the below screen to verify the phone number.

Verify mobile/phone number to process further.  After verification and confirming the required information, this popup will show. Confirm this also as it is for developers to test Whatsapp messaging.

2. Create Sandbox environment

Developers can test WhatsApp messaging using the Sandbox environment.  Setting the Sandbox environment is 4 steps process and it will start after the above popup is confirmed.

The first step is to connect the sandbox environment with your Whatsapp number. So send the message ‘join <connection code>’ to +14155238886. Connection code will be generated automatically and it will be visible on pages like in below page with bold characters. For my test environment, it is difficult-now.

Once you send a proper message, it will link your WhatsApp number to the sandbox environment.

In the next step, send any message from the sandbox environment to your WhatsApp number. You can select any option to test like ‘Appointment Reminder’, ‘Order Notifications’ and ‘Verification Codes’.

The below screen shows, how the message will be delivered to your number.

After confirming that the message has been delivered to your WhatsApp number, you can proceed to the next step. The next step is to send a message from your WhatsApp number to verify two-way communication.

After successful communication, it will show the sandbox environment detail. For testing, we can only use 3 highlighted message formats.

Now our sandbox environment is set up. Let us proceed with using Twilio API in Apex.

3. Create Apex for consuming API

Integrate Twilio API to send WhatsApp messages using Apex. Apex needs your Twilio account SID and secret token. You can get this information here. If it is not available by default then click Show API Credentials on the right side of the page.

Add Twilio API Url in Remote Site Setting.

Sending messages will require three parameters.

• From: This is the sender’s WhatsApp number.  For the sandbox environment, this number will be  +14155238886.
• To: This is the receiver’s WhatsApp number.  Use the above WhatsApp number which you have configured in a sandbox environment.
• Body: This is the message which will be sent. For testing use the format which is mentioned on the sandbox page.

4. Create a Lightning component

Create a lightning component to send messages using the above apex class.

Provide the receiver’s WhatsApp number and message in a valid format. It will send a WhatsApp message to the provided number.

If you need to send WhatsApp message to other mobile number then it should be verified first. You can verify mobile no here.

Reference: https://www.twilio.com/docs/sms/whatsapp

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