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I mean to put together an URL that leads me to a composing message in a WhatsApp web tab in Chrome.

The official click-to-chat method is with https://wa.me/ .

That produces the following pop up (number removed)

enter image description here

with the URL https://api.whatsapp.com/send?phone=targetnumber&text=&source=&data=&app_absent=

Clicking on Open URL:whatsapp only closes the popup. Clicking on CONTINUE TO CHAT brings the popup again.

I mean to use Web Whatsapp, not the desktop application.

I tried two alternatives that might work

whatsapp://send?phone=<number>
https://api.whatsapp.com/send?phone=<number>

Both produce the same result as above.

How can I solve this?

sancho.s ReinstateMonicaCellio
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1 Answers1

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if you are testing from browser you just replace api.whatsapp.com with web.whatsapp.com and it'll redirect you to the final send/compose window (which actually shows if you click cancel twice saying the app is not installed on the api.whatsapp.com link) whatsapp page adds a link

enter image description here

Bashar Al-Abdulhadi
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    This works. It is strange that the official documentation tells `wa.me` works with WhatsApp web, and it does not mention requiring the desktop app. – sancho.s ReinstateMonicaCellio Jul 22 '20 at 11:55
  • yeah that was before the wa.me url shortener days and kept working for me – Bashar Al-Abdulhadi Jul 22 '20 at 12:04
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    Actually, changing "api" to "web" in the direct URL for starting a chat, open up directly in WhatsApp Web, without even asking to download the desktop app or where to open this link. Which is even better... Great answer, thumbs up! – TheCuBeMan Apr 01 '21 at 09:12