This article is co-authored with Amisha Bisht
Exciting news is on the horizon for Glific users! We’re thrilled to announce the upcoming beta launch of WhatsApp Groups integration in April, a feature that takes our communication platform to new heights. In response to the evolving needs of our users, we’ve listened, we’ve innovated, and now we’re proud to introduce this highly anticipated addition to the Glific family. With WhatsApp Groups seamlessly integrated into the Glific platform.
Here is how we planned and implemented the feature from an engineering perspective
Now, here’s the thing: WhatsApp Business doesn’t support WhatsApp groups. So, we already have something called collections. Collections are basically groups of contacts within Glific. A lot of NGOs have been asking for this, and recently, one NGO shared some insights at a tech talk to Tech4Dev.. They basically said that managing groups like this is doable, as long as you’re sensible about the size of groups, how many groups you have, and how many messages you send from your account.
So we started by planning the roadmap for how we were going to embark. Lobo came up with a high-level plan with the finance, the dev requirements, the frontend proposal, the schema, and how many hours we should spend and budget all.
The basic idea is :
- A community coordinator creates a WA Group on their phone from the contact number that is linked to Maytapi and adds all their participants. Ideally, each group is between 10 – 100 people for now.
- Organizations will also have the ability to send or receive messages to one or more of the WhatsApp groups using the chatbot.
API for group messaging
We are using Maytapi for group messaging and to fetch details about the groups. This is because WhatsApp doesn’t provide an official way to access information about WhatsApp groups through an API. Matapi works by using web scraping to gather the necessary group details.
Each contact linked with Maytapi is assigned a unique product ID and token. Through these identifiers, we fetch WhatsApp group information. Upon receiving the message, Maytapi triggers a webhook response. This response contains the WhatsApp group data and is sent directly to Glific.
Here is the group message work flow
We added Maytapi as a third party provider in Glific
Whatsapp groups features
Just like in any WhatsApp group, users can send and receive messages in Glific. However, unlike regular WhatsApp, staff or admins can send messages to groups directly from the Glific platform. They can also view group members and search through messages easily.
Where Glific Stands Out Compared to Regular WhatsApp
In Glific, users can do the usual stuff they do in WhatsApp groups, like sending and receiving messages. But here’s where it gets interesting, admins or staff can send messages to multiple groups simultaneously. They can create collections, which are like groups of groups, making it easy to broadcast messages across all selected groups at once. Additionally, they can automate the process by setting triggers to send messages or initiate flows for specific WhatsApp groups or collections. This feature simplifies communication and management, especially for larger groups or organizations.
With the integration of WhatsApp groups into the Glific platform, we have bridged the gap between WhatsApp’s limitations and the diverse needs of our users.We are thrilled for the upcoming release of WhatsApp Groups integration on Glific, and we are excited to see how it will transform your communications.
Upcoming feature
- Start a flow for WhatsApp group
- Set trigger for WhatsApp collections
Stay tuned for our upcoming release, which will include even more features to enhance your communication experience, revolutionizing the way you engage with our users. Get ready to experience something new and different.