Programmable Messaging for WhatsApp and Go Quickstart

Before you can send a WhatsApp message from your web language, you'll need to sign up for a Twilio account or sign into your existing account and activate the Twilio Sandbox for WhatsApp. The sandbox allows you to prototype with WhatsApp immediately using a shared phone number, without waiting for a dedicated number to be approved by WhatsApp.

To get started, navigate to the Twilio Sandbox for WhatsApp. Look for your unique sandbox keyword listed as "join <your sandbox keyword>" as shown in the image below.

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Send this join message to the pre-provisioned Twilio WhatsApp phone number (+1-415-523-8886). For example, if your code is cheese-bags, you would send the message "join cheese-bags". You'll then receive a confirmation message from Twilio that your sandbox can now be used to send and receive messages!

To disconnect from the sandbox, you can reply to the message from WhatsApp with sandbox stop, or switch to a different sandbox by messaging join <other sandbox keyword>.

To invite someone else to your sandbox, create a link with the following format containing the opt-in message and send it to them: whatsapp://send?phone=<Your Sandbox Number>&text=<your URL-encoded sandbox keyword>

You can also create a QR code with the link format above that users can scan on their phone to opt in to your sandbox.

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Before you can send any messages, you'll need to gather your Twilio account credentials. You can find these in the Twilio Console.

• Account SID - A unique identifier for your account that is used to authenticate REST API requests
• Auth Token - Essentially the password for your account, used with the Account SID to authenticate REST API requests

You can reveal your Auth Token by clicking Show:

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You'll notice that this code's main function creates a new Twilio client using the twilio.NewRestClient method, but no credentials are passed to it directly. The Twilio Go helper checks to see if your credentials are available as environment variables, and automatically consumes them for you.

Copy the values from the previous step, and set them as environment variables in your terminal with the following commands (replacing the placeholders with your own values):

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export TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID=<your-account-sid>
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export TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN=<your-auth-token>

Before you can follow the rest of this tutorial, you'll need to have Go and the Twilio Go module installed.

You can check if you already have Go installed on your machine by opening up a terminal and running the following command:

go version

You should see something like:

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$ go version
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go version go1.19 darwin/amd64

If you don't have Go installed, head over to go.dev and download the appropriate installer for your system. Once you've installed Go, return to your terminal, and run the command above once again. If you don't see the installed Go version, you may need to relaunch your terminal.

Create a new Go project from your terminal using:

go mod init twilio-example

Once your project has been initialized, navigate into the newly created twilio-example directory and install the Twilio Go helper library module.

go get github.com/twilio/twilio-go

This will install the twilio-go module so that your Go code in the current directory can make use of it.

To send a message, use the following code and replace the input to params.SetTo with the phone number for your personal WhatsApp account in the E.164 format. (If you haven't already, install WhatsApp on your device and register for an account.)

For params.SetFrom, be sure to include the whatsapp: channel identifier before the Sandbox number in E.164 format: whatsapp:+14155238886.

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// Download the helper library from https://www.twilio.com/docs/go/install
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package main
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import (
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	"fmt"
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	"github.com/twilio/twilio-go"
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	api "github.com/twilio/twilio-go/rest/api/v2010"
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	"os"
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)
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func main() {
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	// Find your Account SID and Auth Token at twilio.com/console
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	// and set the environment variables. See http://twil.io/secure
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	// Make sure TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID and TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN exists in your environment
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	client := twilio.NewRestClient()
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	params := &api.CreateMessageParams{}
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	params.SetFrom("whatsapp:+14155238886")
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	params.SetTo("whatsapp:+15005550006")
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	params.SetBody("Hello there!")
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	resp, err := client.Api.CreateMessage(params)
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	if err != nil {
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		fmt.Println(err.Error())
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		os.Exit(1)
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	} else {
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		if resp.Body != nil {
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			fmt.Println(*resp.Body)
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		} else {
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			fmt.Println(resp.Body)
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		}
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	}
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}

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{
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  "account_sid": "ACaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa",
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  "api_version": "2010-04-01",
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  "body": "Hello there!",
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  "date_created": "Thu, 24 Aug 2023 05:01:45 +0000",
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  "date_sent": "Thu, 24 Aug 2023 05:01:45 +0000",
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  "date_updated": "Thu, 24 Aug 2023 05:01:45 +0000",
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  "direction": "outbound-api",
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  "error_code": null,
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  "error_message": null,
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  "from": "whatsapp:+14155238886",
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  "num_media": "0",
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  "num_segments": "1",
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  "price": null,
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  "price_unit": null,
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  "messaging_service_sid": "MGaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa",
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  "sid": "SMaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa",
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  "status": "queued",
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  "subresource_uris": {
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    "media": "/2010-04-01/Accounts/ACaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa/Messages/SMaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa/Media.json"
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  },
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  "tags": {
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    "campaign_name": "Spring Sale 2022",
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    "message_type": "cart_abandoned"
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  },
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  "to": "whatsapp:+15005550006",
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  "uri": "/2010-04-01/Accounts/ACaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa/Messages/SMaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.json"
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}

When someone replies to one of your messages, you will receive a webhook request from Twilio.

You can configure webhooks by connecting your Sandbox to an app you've already built for handling incoming messages, or build a new one for WhatsApp messages.

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This webhook request also supports TwiML (the Twilio Markup Language) just like a regular Twilio SMS request.

To handle this request, you need to set up a web application and expose it to the internet. The Go Programmable Messaging Quickstart shows you how to respond to a message and generate TwiML in Go with Gin.

And—that's all there is to it; receiving and responding is exactly the same as you would do in any SMS app with our Messaging API. Cool, right?

Because the Twilio WhatsApp API is essentially the same as the Twilio Programmable Messaging API, all of the documentation for that API applies to your apps sending and receiving messages with WhatsApp. To dive deeper with a WhatsApp integration, see the WhatsApp documentation overview as well as the API Reference.

Here are some areas you might like to explore next.

• Send appointment reminders
• Create SMS conversations
• The Programmable Messaging API overview

We can't wait to see what kind of WhatsApp integration you build!