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.
  • In the Knowledge Sources for your bot pop-up that appears, choose the Portal and Category that you want the bot to learn from. This is an optional step as you can toggle off Learn from FAQs and proceed to create the bot. You can enable this later if required by going to Natural Language > Configure > Natural language settings > Enable Learn from your FAQs
  • 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. Check this article to learn more about the various input options supported in WhatsApp.
  • 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. Check this article to know about the limitations of using certain input types. 
Note: You will be able to select only those elements which are supported in Whatsapp.
  • Freshchat also supports 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.

    Note: WhatsApp


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.