In detail
Webhooks are how the WhatsApp Business API delivers real-time events — inbound messages, delivery and read receipts, template status changes and account updates — to your systems. Instead of polling, you give WhatsApp a URL and it sends an HTTP POST to that URL whenever something happens.
At a platform level the flow is consistent. First you expose a public HTTPS endpoint on your server that can receive POST requests. You register that callback URL together with a verify token in your app's webhook configuration. Meta then sends a one-time verification request (a GET with a challenge and your token); your endpoint must echo the challenge back to confirm ownership. Once verified, you subscribe your WhatsApp Business Account to the specific event fields you care about — commonly the messages field, which carries both inbound messages and message-status updates.
After subscription, WhatsApp POSTs a JSON payload to your endpoint for each event. Your server should acknowledge quickly with a 2xx response and process the payload asynchronously, because slow or failing responses cause retries and can lead WhatsApp to back off delivery. It's good practice to verify the payload signature, make handling idempotent (events can be redelivered), and queue work rather than doing it inline.
The exact field names, payload shapes and subscription steps come from Meta's official WhatsApp Cloud API documentation, and the precise setup screen depends on whether you're configuring directly in Meta or through a provider. If you use a platform like InfiQ, much of this is handled for you — you typically configure a destination and select events rather than managing the raw Meta subscription — but the underlying model is the same: verify the endpoint, subscribe to fields, receive JSON POSTs.
Key points
- Webhooks push events (messages, statuses, template updates) to your server in real time.
- Expose an HTTPS endpoint and register it with a verify token.
- Echo Meta's verification challenge to confirm endpoint ownership.
- Subscribe your WABA to event fields such as messages and message status.
- Acknowledge with 2xx fast, process async, verify signatures, stay idempotent.
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