Setup guide

Meta Cloud API setup

Wire up your WhatsApp Business number to InstaChatbot in five minutes.

Create a Meta business app

Head to developers.facebook.com/apps and create a new app of typeBusiness. Add the WhatsApp product to it.

Note your phone number ID and generate a token

Under WhatsApp → API Setup, you'll see a phone number ID and a temporary access token. Generate a permanent system-user access token via Business Settings → System Users so the integration doesn't expire after 24 hours.

Create a shop in InstaChatbot

In your InstaChatbot dashboard, click + New shop. Paste in the phone number ID. You can store the permanent token per-shop (recommended for multi-tenant) or globally via WHATSAPP_API_TOKEN.

Copy the webhook URL + verify token

Open the new shop's Settings tab. Copy the Callback URLand Verify token.

Configure the webhook in Meta

In Meta → WhatsApp → Configuration, paste both values. Click Verify and save. Meta will issue a GET request and expect a 200 with the challenge echoed back — InstaChatbot handles that for you.

Subscribe to the messages field

Under Webhook fields, subscribe to messages. That's the event InstaChatbot listens for.

Test it

Send a WhatsApp message to your business number. Watch it land in the Messagestab and your auto-reply hit your phone seconds later.

Sample webhook payload

This is what Meta will send to your InstaChatbot webhook when a customer messages your number:

json

{
  "object": "whatsapp_business_account",
  "entry": [{
    "id": "WHATSAPP_BUSINESS_ACCOUNT_ID",
    "changes": [{
      "value": {
        "messaging_product": "whatsapp",
        "metadata": { "display_phone_number": "+919999999999",
                      "phone_number_id": "123456789012345" },
        "messages": [{
          "from": "919812345678",
          "id": "wamid.HBg…",
          "timestamp": "1715600000",
          "text": { "body": "menu please" },
          "type": "text"
        }]
      },
      "field": "messages"
    }]
  }]
}

Sending a reply

InstaChatbot posts back to Meta with this shape — but you'll never write this code yourself.

bash

curl -X POST \
  'https://graph.facebook.com/v18.0/{phone-number-id}/messages' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer EAAJk…' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "messaging_product": "whatsapp",
    "to": "919812345678",
    "type": "text",
    "text": { "body": "Here is our menu…" }
  }'