What is WhatsApp Business API and How is it different from WhatsApp Business Account?

With 2.7 billion active users a month, WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps in the world. If you’re looking for a platform to engage with your customers and enhance their customer experience, WhatsApp Business Platform could transform your customer communications.

WhatsApp offers a powerful tool for businesses known as WhatsApp Business APIs. WhatsApp Business APIs are advanced interfaces that allow businesses to integrate WhatsApp messaging capabilities into their existing systems and applications. These APIs provide a range of powerful features and functionalities, enabling businesses to streamline communication workflows, automate processes, and deliver personalized experiences to their customers.

In this blog, we will discuss more about WhatsApp Business APIs, their Benefits & Use Case, and how they differ from a typical WhatsApp Business Account.

1. What is WhatsApp Business Platform?

The WhatsApp Business Platform is well-suited for medium to large businesses aiming for top-notch customer communication, and it’s also beneficial for SMBs seeking to expand. By subscribing to the service, you can integrate the WhatsApp Business API into your existing system, CRMs, and chatbots. The WhatsApp Business Platform surpasses the capabilities of the WhatsApp Business App, providing additional functionalities such as the ability to send automated messages and create customer chatbots for interactive engagement.

To access this service, it’s essential to collaborate with a reliable third-party partner like Shopkey. The effectiveness of this partnership is attested by 200+ brands worldwide that have placed their trust in WhatsApp powered by ShopKey to revolutionize their customer interactions.

2. What can the WhatsApp Business App do?

If you want to use WhatsApp for your business, you have two options: the WhatsApp Business App and WhatsApp Business Platform, which used to be called WhatsApp Business API. Both of these are great for improving customer support, engaging with your audience, and meeting your customers’ needs.

The WhatsApp Business App, like the regular WhatsApp you use for personal chats, is free to download on Android and iPhone. It’s made for small business owners, helping them automate, organize, and respond to messages easily. You can use it to share photos and messages, just like you do with friends and family, to build a personal connection with your customers.

Besides chatting with customers, the WhatsApp Business App lets you create a business profile. This way, you can share important details about your company, like your address, email, and website. It’s a simple and effective way to connect with customers on a more professional level.

3. WhatsApp Business App vs. WhatsApp Business Platform

Are you looking to try out the free WhatsApp Business App, or are you prepared to delve into the advantages of the WhatsApp Business Platform? As mentioned earlier, the primary distinction lies in the target audience. The Business App is geared toward entrepreneurs and small businesses initiating their customer communications journey or seeking to connect with a smaller customer base. On the other hand, the WhatsApp Business Platform is crafted for larger businesses or SMBs aiming to scale, allowing integration with various systems from CRMs to AI.

We’ve compiled a helpful table to assist you in comparing the key features of WhatsApp Business and WhatsApp Business API:

4. How much is the WhatsApp Business Platform?

When you sign up with ShopKey, you’ll get a 14-day Free Trial that grants you access to all our product features, allowing you to experience them before making a purchase. After utilizing your free units, typically set at 100 messages per channel, you can then decide if committing to the WhatsApp Business API aligns with your plans.

Once you’re ready to transform your customer communications, WhatsApp charges you per 24-hour conversation and the rate you’ll be charged will depend on the type of conversation you’re having.

There are two types of conversation classified by WhatsApp

1. Business Initiated Conversation
2. User-Initiated Conversation

Three of the conversation categories in business-initiated Conversations are: Marketing, Utility, and Authentication, which then require customer opt-in

The other conversation category is Service conversations, which are user-initiated conversations that help a customer resolve a problem such as helping a customer with a complaint or answering questions.

In the WhatsApp Business API, a Conversation refers to a message thread between a business and a user. These conversations can last up to 24 hours and must be initiated either by the business or the user. Click here to learn more about WhatsApp’s new Conversation based pricing

As mentioned, the charges for the WhatsApp Business Platform vary based on the types of conversations you engage in. For Marketing, Utility, and Authentication conversations, the 24-hour session begins when the template is sent. This means you’ll incur charges each time a template message is delivered, except when sent within an ongoing conversation of the same category. For Service conversations, charges start when there are no other open conversation windows, and you respond to a customer with a free-form message within the 24-hour customer service window.

Your first 1000 user-initiated conversations per registered WhatsApp Business Account are free each month.

Further Reading

That was a crisp comparison between WhatsApp Business and WhatsApp Business API for you. If found this reading interesting, check out the following articles:

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