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WhatsApp Testing

Desirée M Updated by Desirée M

So you’re building your bot and wondering how it’ll actually look and feel in WhatsApp? We’ve got you covered! Whether you're still setting things up or already have an official number, there are ways to test your bot in action before going live.

You can test your WhatsApp bot before your brand and number are approved by Meta using the WhatsApp Testing feature. This option is currently only available to users who haven’t yet integrated an official number.

If you’ve already connected your own number, the testing flow works a bit differently. 👉 Jump to this section to learn how to test your bot with an integrated number.

WhatsApp Testing

The WhatsApp Testing feature allows you to experience what the official API integration feels like from the final user perspective.

The WhatsApp Testing channels work in one direction only, which means only the phone number you connect to it will be able to send and receive messages from the Testing channel.

How to add your number to the WhatsApp Testing channel

To add your number and test your bot please go to your bot builder

  • Click on Test this bot:

  • Click on Add number if you don't already have your number added:
  • Now choose the country code on the drop-down menu and write the phone number:
  • When you're done, click on Add Number & Test:
  • Now you should have received a WhatsApp message to your phone number where you will click on ''Ok, let's test'' to trigger the bot

And now you can test the flow of your bot!

IMPORTANT: You can only have 1 WhatsApp Testing channel per phone number.

If you already have a WhatsApp Testing channel connected to your number on a different account, you won't be able to create a second one, and you'll see a message saying "this number already exists"!

If you want to use the same number again, please delete the existing channel.

Contact our team in case you're not able to access and delete the previous WhatsApp Testing channel.

How to change the bot I want to test
  1. Go to the builder in the new bot you want to test
  2. Follow the steps described above
  3. You will receive a message to test this bot in your WhatsApp phone number again!
The WhatsApp Testing channel

You will find the WhatsApp Testing channel inside the WhatsApp channel itself.

  • Just click on the WhatsApp icon on the left sidebar
  • Click on the channel called Demo WhatsApp campaign with phone number +34 602 25 62 48

You'll find these 3 steps to follow: Message, Audiences, Review & Send.

Message

On the WhatsApp Business API solution, you are able to send proactive messages to your clients.

The Message Templates section in the testing environment has 2 pre-approved message templates you're able to test.

You will not be able to request templates while testing the bot, but once you have upgraded to one of our WhatsApp subscriptions, you will have that option.

To find out more about Message Templates and how they work, click here.

Audiences

In the Audiences section you will find a list with all the numbers you have added to test your bots. The maximum allowed is 10, so you won't be able to add more than that.

How to add contacts to your WhatsApp Testing channel
  1. Click on "Add phone number"
  2. Add each phone number with the + symbol and country code
How to delete numbers from your WhatsApp Testing channel
  1. Inside the Audience section, click on the "x" sign beside the number you want to remove:
Review & Send

In this section, you'll be able to review the message template, along with the list of contacts, before sending out the Testing Campaign:

For more information on how to send Campaigns, please click here.

Metrics

You'll be able to find the data from your testing channel in your Metrics>Channel section:

Learn more about managing your bot's data here.
Next steps after Testing

If once you've finished testing, if you'd like to try the full integration, please check step-by-step instructions in this article.

Important: For security reasons, the chats generated with the Testing Channels cannot be displayed in the Inbox section and an error will pop up if you try to open a Testing Channel chat in that section.

Testing with an Integrated WhatsApp number

If you’ve already integrated and approved your official WhatsApp number, the “Test this bot” button will no longer appear in your builder. Once your number is live, testing should be done directly through WhatsApp by sending a message to your own number, and this will trigger the bot just like any real user interaction.

To test specific changes in your flow, you can set up a Global Keyword. For example, create a keyword like “test” (or any word your users wouldn’t normally type) and connect it to a Jump To block that leads to the section you want to check. This allows you to type “test” in your WhatsApp chat and instantly skip to the part to be tested.

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