Send a Quick Reply Button

In this code snippet you learn how to send a quick reply style button on WhatsApp. This uses Vonage's custom object facility. You can reference the WhatsApp developer docs for the specifics of the message format.

When the message recipient clicks on the quick reply button, Vonage will POST relevant data to your inbound message webhook URL.

Example

Find the description for all variables used in each code snippet below:

KeyDescription
VONAGE_APPLICATION_ID

The Vonage Application ID.

VONAGE_APPLICATION_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH

Private key path.

BASE_URL

For production use the base URL is https://api.nexmo.com/. For sandbox testing the base URL is https://messages-sandbox.nexmo.com/.

MESSAGES_API_URL

There are two versions of the API, each with their own endpoints. For production the previous Messages API endpoint was https://api.nexmo.com/v0.1/messages, the new one is https://api.nexmo.com/v1/messages. For sandbox testing the Messages API endpoint is https://messages-sandbox.nexmo.com/v0.1/messages or https://messages-sandbox.nexmo.com/v1/messages, depending on which version you have set in the sandbox dashboard.

WHATSAPP_NUMBER

The WhatsApp number that has been allocated to you by Vonage. For sandbox testing the number is 14157386102.

VONAGE_WHATSAPP_NUMBER

Refer to WHATSAPP_NUMBER above.

VONAGE_NUMBER

Refer to WHATSAPP_NUMBER above.

TO_NUMBER

Replace with the number you are sending to. E.g. 447700900001

WHATSAPP_TEMPLATE_NAMESPACE

The namespace ID found in your WhatsApp Business Account. Only templates created in your own namespace will work. Using an template with a namespace outside of your own results in an error code 1022 being returned.

WHATSAPP_TEMPLATE_NAME

The name of the template created in your WhatsApp Business Account.

NOTE: Don't use a leading + or 00 when entering a phone number, start with the country code, for example, 447700900000.

Prerequisites

If you do not have an application you can create one. Make sure you also configure your webhooks.

Write the code

Add the following to send-button-quick-reply.sh:

curl -X POST "${MESSAGES_API_URL}" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer "$JWT\
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'Accept: application/json' \
  -d $'{
    "to": "'${MESSAGES_TO_NUMBER}'",
    "from": "'${WHATSAPP_SENDER_ID}'",
    "channel": "whatsapp",
    "message_type": "custom",
    "custom": {
      "type": "template",
      "template": {
        "name": "'${WHATSAPP_TEMPLATE_NAME}'",
        "language": {
          "policy": "deterministic",
          "code": "en"
        },
        "components": [
          {
            "type": "header",
            "parameters": [
              {
                "type": "image",
                "image": {
                  "link": "'${MESSAGES_IMAGE_URL}'"
                }
              }
            ]
          },
          {
            "type": "body",
            "parameters": [
              {
                "type": "text",
                "parameter_name": "customer_name",
                "text": "Joe Bloggs"
              },
              {
                "type": "text",
                "parameter_name": "dentist_name",
                "text": "Mr Smith"
              },
              {
                "type": "text",
                "parameter_name": "appointment_date",
                "text": "2025-02-26"
              },
              {
                "type": "text",
                "parameter_name": "appointment_location",
                "text": "ACME Dental Practice"
              }
            ]
          },
          {
            "type": "button",
            "sub_type": "quick_reply",
            "index": 0,
            "parameters": [
              {
                "type": "payload",
                "payload": "Yes-Button-Payload"
              }
            ]
          },
          {
            "type": "button",
            "sub_type": "quick_reply",
            "index": 1,
            "parameters": [
              {
                "type": "payload",
                "payload": "No-Button-Payload"
              }
            ]
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  }'

View full source

Run your code

Save this file to your machine and run it:

bash send-button-quick-reply.sh

Try it out

When you run the code a WhatsApp reminder message is sent to the destination number. The message has two quick reply buttons which you can use to select whether you are going to the event or not. When a button is pressed data similar to the following is posted to your inbound webhook URL:

{
    "message_uuid": "28ee5a1c-c4cc-48ec-922c-01520d4d396b",
    "to": {
        "number": "447700000000",
        "type": "whatsapp"
    },
    "from": {
        "number": "447700000001",
        "type": "whatsapp"
    },
    "timestamp": "2019-12-03T12:45:57.929Z",
    "direction": "inbound",
    "message": {
        "content": {
            "type": "button",
            "button": {
                "payload": "Yes-Button-Payload",
                "text": "Yes"
            }
        }
    }
}

In this example the recipient clicked the yes button.

Further information