Send WhatsApp messages in bulk
Automate your WhatsApp marketing
Collaborate on a shared inbox
Multiple chat apps on one website widget
Drive sales to your Shopify Store
Drive sales to your EasyStore site
Broadcast messages in bulk
Automate your WhatsApp marketing
Connect your chat apps in a shared inbox
Multiple chat apps on one website widget
Drive sales to your Shopify store
Drive sales to your EasyStore site
Content Marketer
You probably are an existing WhatsApp user for your personal communication needs, and you might have heard of WhatsApp Business that is made for businesses to communicate with their leads and customers.
But have you also heard of WhatsApp Business API?
Who are they built for? What are their similarities and differences? Which one should you use?
Read on to find out how these two offerings from WhatsApp differ. 👇
We all know what WhatsApp is — an instant messaging platform for personal communication with fellow users over the internet through mobile devices or computers.
On the other hand, WhatsApp Business is built for smaller businesses for business communications and sales. It is largely similar to regular WhatsApp, but has additional features to support business communication needs.
Both apps use your phone to access its existing contacts and to create new ones.
You can consider using a phone that supports dual SIM cards to separate phone numbers and contacts, all while using the same device.
WhatsApp Group is a 2-way communication feature where up to 256 members share a common chat to send public messages. Both regular WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business accounts can create groups, become admins, and participate in WhatsApp Group chats.
WhatsApp Broadcast is a 1-way communication feature where you can simultaneously send messages to a compiled list of up to 256 recipients, but messages appear in separate, private chats. Do note, however, that WhatsApp Business accounts can only broadcast template messages, and require WhatsApp’s approval before you can send it out.
You are not restricted to your mobile device for using both apps. WhatsApp Web allows users to access WhatsApp messaging straight from their web browsers so that you can use your computer to communicate to both friends and clients.
Voice and video calls can be made to another user on WhatsApp using your mobile device in both apps. Do note that the browser-based WhatsApp Web does not support voice and video calls.
Apart from accessing both apps through WhatsApp Web, you can also download the desktop application to use WhatsApp as an app on your computer, which also supports voice and video calls.
For WhatsApp Business, you can set up your business profile to include your brand logo, business name, and category that best represents your business.
You can then add in the description of your business, your working hours, location, business website URL, and your business catalog.
When users open up a chat with your WhatsApp Business account, they will receive a notification that informs them that they are chatting with a dedicated business account.
While WhatsApp will only link 1 account to 1 device, you can have 2 devices connected to 1 WhatsApp Business account.
Under the in-app tab ‘Business Tools’, you will find 3 types of semi-automated messaging settings for you to set up.
Greeting message: You can set up this generic message to auto-respond to new incoming chats or to conversations that have no activity after 14 days.
Away message: This second automatic reply message can be set according to a schedule, such as your working hours. It is helpful to inform your leads or customers outside of working hours that you have received their message and will respond to them as soon as possible
Quick reply templates: You can customize several message templates that can be inserted into your chat box by using the assigned keyword after ‘/’.
For example, you can set up the quick reply keyword ‘/thanks’ with the message template ‘Thank you for shopping with us! We hope to see you again soon!’, and use it at the end of every successful sale over a WhatsApp chat.
Quick replies are useful for such commonly used phrases, and for answering frequently asked questions.
The WhatsApp Business catalog allows you to set up your business product or service for easy viewing and sharing within WhatsApp.
Found under ’Business Tools’, you can insert a product picture and name of product in your catalog.
You can also choose to add in its price, a short description of the item, and links to redirect users to your website for more detailed viewing.
Each catalog item will have a dedicated Catalog Link, which can be shared in your chats with prospects, leads and customers for viewing within WhatsApp.
Do note that this WhatsApp Business catalog is only for sharing and viewing. WhatsApp Business currently does not support in-app purchasing and transactions.
Similar to email labels, you can set up chat labels in WhatsApp Business to tag different chats for easy identification. For example, you can set up labels according to which stage of the sales cycle the contact is, or according to which industry the customer is from.
This URL that opens a WhatsApp conversation with you can be deployed in your websites, emails, or social media sites. It is unique and dedicated only to your specific WhatsApp Business account created.
You can view the same message receipts in a regular WhatsApp chat, but as an overview for your entire WhatsApp Business account. This is helpful to measure the effectiveness of your WhatsApp Business account, by looking at the number of messages sent, received, and read.
Application Programming Interface (API) is the term used to describe a software intermediary that allows two applications to interact with one another.
As such, WhatsApp Business API allows users to send and receive WhatsApp messages while using other software.
Unlike WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business, WhatsApp Business API is built for medium and large businesses. It does not have a predefined front-end user interface, so there’s no fixed app or appearance. Instead, it is specially catered to be integrated with other existing software in your business.
Remember how you’ll need to wait for approval from WhatsApp before you can send template messages?
With NovoChat’s Broadcast feature, you can immediately craft and send broadcast messages to new and existing contacts!
Insert placeholders to make your broadcast messages even more personalized, and set up send schedules for even more timely broadcasting of WhatsApp messages! 😋
As a browser-based solution, NovoChat has a centralized inbox for all your chats across all supported messaging platforms. This means that all users from the same business can access the same NovoChat account, and handle all messaging communications from a common location!
In the NovoChat inbox, you can open a pop-up to type in your message when initiating a new conversation.
Otherwise, converse with your customers with a regular chat interface!
NovoChat also has a website widget that you can embed into your web pages. Let your website visitors easily chat with you through their preferred messaging platform!
Other features in NovoChat include contacts tagging to label each chat, auto-replies, and auto-assignment to route each incoming conversation with the respective business representative.
Use NovoChat to not just integrate for WhatsApp, but with other popular messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger, LINE, and Telegram!
That’s all for our comparison between the 3 kinds of WhatsApp software! 🎉
With its immense number of users, WhatsApp is definitely a platform for businesses to leverage to reach their leads and customers.
If you’d like to have a hassle-free use of WhatsApp API and integrate a software with your existing WhatsApp Business account, get started with NovoChat for free and try it for yourself! ✨
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