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WhatsApp Testing (NEW)

Xandro Lopez Updated by Xandro Lopez

It is possible to test your WhatsApp bot in the WhatsApp testing Channel, before having your brand and number approved.

WhatsApp Testing Channel

The WhatsApp Testing Channel 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.

Adding a WhatsApp Testing channel to your account

To add a WhatsApp Testing channel to your account:

  • Click on Channels and then on WhatsApp Testing.
  • Click on Try it for free or, if you had already created one, click on Add new testing number:

  • Give the channel a name you'll use to identify this Channel in other sections of your account.

  • Select your country from the dropdown, then add the phone number without the country code under the "tester's number" field.

When you click on Confirm, by default, an autogenerated bot called playground bot will be assigned to the channel and you'll receive a template message on the phone number you added welcoming you to the testing channel.

This is the number you'll send messages to if you want to test your bot on WhatsApp.

To test the "playground bot" just answer the message.

How to change the bot I want to test
  1. Go to Channels (the antenna looking icon on the left dashboard)
  2. Click on WhatsApp Testing
  3. Select the integration with your number on it
  4. Open the drop down below the "LINKED BOT" title
  5. Select the bot you'd like to link to the channel

After you link a Hybrid bot (Whatsapp/Messenger) to a specific channel, you can't reuse it for another channel.

If you want to use the same bot for your WhatsApp and Facebook, make sure you duplicate it or use this workaround to reuse bots in a different channel.

Test your WhatsApp bot on your phone

After you have built the bot and have linked it to your WhatsApp testing channel, you'll be able to test it on your own phone, to get a glimpse of what an official WhatsApp integration feels like, from both the end user perspective as well as the Landbot side.

There are a few different ways to initiate the conversation to test your bot.

The first and easiest way is going on your WhatsApp phone app and finding the conversation with the phone number where you got the message confirming the creation of your testing channel and sending a message in that conversation.

Alternatively, you can:

  1. Head back to the WhatsApp testing section
  2. Open the integration with your phone number on it
  3. Scanning the QR code or Click the WhatsApp web button
  1. By scanning the QR code it will redirect you to WhatsApp with the predefined number (+34 602 25 62 48) that you will need to send a message to in order to test your bot:
  2. By clicking on the WhatsApp web button it will redirect you to WhatsApp web with the predefined number that you will need to send a message to in order to test 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 that "this number already exists"!

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

Contact our team in case it's not possible for you to access and delete the previous WhatsApp Testing channel.

Testing the Livechat Widget

The Livechat widget testing section allows you to create and add a Click to WhatsApp widget to your website easily in order to test how the widget would look from the end client side.

When created in the testing environment, the bot will only respond to the number added to the testing channel. Avoid setting the widget on your live website landing page. It is meant for testing only.

If you'd like to add the widget to a testing landing page / website, make the changes you'd like to the design, scroll down and click save.

Then copy and paste the embed code into the back end of the testing landing page.

Get Opt ins section

The get opt ins section, portrays how it would look in the official integration. However, you will not be able to generate opt ins in the testing environment.

To find out more about the Get Opt-Ins section of the official WhatsApp integration please click here.

Message Templates

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 3 pre-approved message templates which you can use.

You will not be able to request any templates.

Subscribers

The subscribers section shows all the users who have opted in to receive notifications from your company. In the testing environment, it will only be possible to have yourself as a subscriber.

If you click Opt-out, you'll need to delete the testing channel and create it again if you want to test the campaigns section.
Campaigns

In this section you'll be able to send the pre-approved message templates to yourself to see the look and feel of them from an end user perspective.

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

How to delete the testing channel

To delete a testing channel:

  1. Go to Channels (the antenna looking icon on the left dashboard)
  2. Click on WhatsApp Testing
  3. Select the integration with your number on it
  4. Click delete channel in the right menu

Next steps after Testing

If once you've completed your testing and you'd like to try the full integration, please check how to do so in this article.

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Сonnecting WhatsApp Business API with 360Dialog

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