Typing Indicator

A typing indicator is the "typing…" label a WhatsApp user sees under the business name while a reply is being prepared. On the WhatsApp Cloud API a business turns it on explicitly: it calls the messages endpoint with status set to read, the message_id of the customer's message and a typing_indicator object whose type is text. The same request marks that message as read, so the customer sees blue ticks and the typing label at the same moment.

The indicator is short-lived by design. It is dismissed when the business sends its next message to that user, or after 25 seconds, whichever comes first. There is no "stop typing" call and no way to make one request last longer; if preparing the answer takes more than 25 seconds, the chat looks idle again until the reply lands. The call returns {"success": true} and does not create a message, so there is no wamid and no status webhook for it.

It is worth separating from its neighbours. Mark as read is the status update that turns a customer's ticks blue; the typing indicator rides on that call but adds a promise that an answer is coming. A read receipt is information flowing to the business about messages it sent. The typing indicator is the reverse — a signal from the business to the customer, most useful when a chatbot has to call an LLM, a search index or an order system before it can answer.