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Hello WhatsApp API

Quickstart

This walks through the three requests almost every integration starts with. You need:

  • an API key and your API base URL, both on the Integrations page of the dashboard (see Authentication)
  • the phone_number_id of the WhatsApp number to send from, shown on the Accounts page
  • the name and language of an approved template on that number’s WABA

Set them as shell variables so the examples run as-is:

Terminal window
export HELLO_API_URL="<API base URL from the dashboard>"
export HELLO_API_KEY="hello_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
export PHONE_NUMBER_ID="<phone number ID from the Accounts page>"

1. Check your key

Section titled “1. Check your key”
Terminal window
curl "$HELLO_API_URL/v1/ping" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $HELLO_API_KEY"
{ "status": "ok", "test_mode": false }

A 401 here means the key is wrong. See authentication errors.

2. Send a template message

Section titled “2. Send a template message”

Only a template message can start a conversation with someone who hasn’t messaged you in the last 24 hours, so the first message is almost always a template. to needs a leading + and country code:

Terminal window
curl -X POST "$HELLO_API_URL/v1/$PHONE_NUMBER_ID/messages" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $HELLO_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "to": "+919999999999",
    "type": "template",
    "template": {
      "name": "hello_world",
      "language": { "code": "en_US" }
    }
  }'

The message is accepted onto the send queue and you get its id straight back:

{
  "messaging_product": "whatsapp",
  "contacts": [{ "input": "+919999999999", "wa_id": "919999999999" }],
  "messages": [{ "id": "b7e1d2c3-4f5a-4b6c-8d9e-0a1b2c3d4e5f", "message_status": "queued" }]
}

3. Check its status

Section titled “3. Check its status”
Terminal window
curl "$HELLO_API_URL/v1/messages/b7e1d2c3-4f5a-4b6c-8d9e-0a1b2c3d4e5f" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $HELLO_API_KEY"
{
  "id": "b7e1d2c3-4f5a-4b6c-8d9e-0a1b2c3d4e5f",
  "account_id": "3f9c2a1e-7b4d-4c8e-9a15-2d6f8e0b1c47",
  "message_id": "wamid.HBgMOTE5ODc2NTQzMjEwFQIAERgSN0Q1QjE3RjA4QzU2QjBBQUE4AA==",
  "conversation_id": "919999999999",
  "direction": "outbound",
  "message_type": "template",
  "recipient_phone": "919999999999",
  "sender_phone": "15551234567",
  "template_name": "hello_world",
  "content": { "template_name": "hello_world", "language": "en_US", "to": "919999999999" },
  "status": "delivered",
  "sent_at": "2026-09-26T10:15:02Z",
  "delivered_at": "2026-09-26T10:15:04Z",
  "created_at": "2026-09-26T10:15:01Z"
}

status moves from queued to sent, delivered and read, or to failed with error_code and error_message set. See the message object.

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”