You can deploy your bots on WhatsApp and offer excellent customer service wherever your customers are. 

  • Before you begin, ensure you have integrated your Freshchat account with WhatsApp. Learn more about integrating WhatsApp with Freshchat here.
  • Once you integrate Freshchat with your WhatsApp number, Freshchat creates a new Topic to handle all conversations from WhatsApp.
  • Name this Topic (you can edit this later) by navigating to Admin Settings > Channels > WhatsApp > click the Edit button (of the number which you wish to edit) > Conversations > Topic to change the name.



  • You can further edit the properties of the WhatsApp Topic by navigating to Admin Settings > Topics > the Topic you configured earlier for the WhatsApp integration.
  • This will let you set up the Topic with more control to offer better customer service. On this page, you can trigger a bot with a 'Hello' or assign incoming conversations to a group.


How to build bots for WhatsApp

  • Navigate to chatbots > Create a new bot > select WhatsApp as your channel.


  • You can present the customers with a list of options (buttons, carousels, dropdowns, articles), each with a unique number — which customers can use to respond.
  • WhatsApp only accepts text and strings as inputs. Therefore, please configure your bot with the Text field as the input type and Text as the field type.


Note: You will be able to select only those elements which are supported in Whatsapp.


  • Freshchat also support WhatsApp's formatting options, such as asterisks before and after a word to make the font appear bold. For example, WhatsApp will render *Hello* world as Hello world on Whatsapp. You can also use emojis in your message with the rich text editor. Learn more about formatting on WhatsApp.
  • You can also set up the slash command quick action for a bot you're setting up. Predefined buttons and widget menus can't be configured for WhatsApp bots.



  • Once you've finished setting up the bot, Publish the bot and navigate to Deploy at the top right corner to deploy your bot.


Mapping a chatbot to a Topic

  • Set up your bots with the bot builder, making sure to build specific bot flows for each Topic.
  • To start using the conversations widget, finish setting up your bot flows, and navigate to Deploy > Deploy options > Messaging Channels > Save.
  • Navigate to Admin > Topics. 
  • You will find a predefined topic that you must have already created. On this page, toggle the Trigger a bot and pick the bot you built with the specific flows designed for this Topic.



You can refer to this article to learn about channel/widget-specific input capabilities.


What will the customer experience be like?


  • When the customer reaches out through WhatsApp, they will be greeted with the initial Hello message and a series of services available using the bot, each with a unique number.
  • The customer will respond with the number associated with the option they need help with.
  • You can configure the bot flow with conditions to route the user to the respective flow based on the customers' input. You can also configure a flow to prompt the customer if they give an invalid input.