Configure a WhatsApp channel through Twilio

Omnichannel for Customer Service offers a suite of capabilities that extend the power of Dynamics 365 Customer Service Enterprise to enable organizations to instantly connect and engage with their customers across digital messaging channels. An additional license is required to access Omnichannel for Customer Service. For more information, see the Dynamics 365 Customer Service pricing overview and Dynamics 365 Customer Service pricing plan pages.

The WhatsApp channel feature lets you integrate WhatsApp through Twilio with Omnichannel for Customer Service to engage with customers who prefer to use the WhatsApp channel.

The success of social media customer service, like all other customer service, depends on the quality of care provided. Communications from agents should be timely, accurate, sensitive, brief, and friendly, which ultimately improves the customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.

Prerequisites

• Make sure channels are provisioned in your environment. More information: Provision Omnichannel for Customer Service

  Note

  To enable the Twilio channel in an existing environment, you must upgrade to the latest version of Omnichannel for Customer Service. For information, Upgrade Omnichannel for Customer Service.
  
  For newly created Twilio accounts, you must disable a security setting that blocks the ability to send media files. More information: Extended notice and update on security changes: HTTP Authentication for Voice and Messaging Media enabled by default

• Obtain a Twilio account with an appropriate subscription or a Twilio sandbox account. For information on configuring a Twilio sandbox account, see Integrate a Twilio sandbox account with Omnichannel for Customer Service

• Connect Twilio Number to your WhatsApp Business Profile. To learn more, see Connect your Twilio Number to your WhatsApp Business Profile.

• Verify that you have permissions on the secure columns. More information: Configure permissions to access secure columns

WhatsApp message types and 24-hour session rule

• Template messages: Are the outbound messages that agents send through Twilio using one of the preapproved templates? They're typically transactional messages, such as delivery alerts and appointment reminders, sent to users who have opted in to receive messages from your organization. For messages requiring localization, you must get the message approved by WhatsApp in each language. For more information about WhatsApp message templates, see WhatsApp documentation.

• Session messages: According to WhatsApp, session messages are incoming messages from a customer or outgoing replies by an agent to the incoming messages, within 24 hours. A messaging session starts when agents receive a message from a customer. It lasts for 24 hours from the most recently received message. Session messages don't need to follow a template, and can include media attachments.

• 24 hours session rule: A messaging session starts when an agent receives a message from a customer or replies to the incoming message from the customer. When the customer sends a message, the agent has 24 hours to reply from the time the agent received it. However, after 24 hours, the agent can send a message to customer only by using a predefined and approved template.

End-to-end walkthrough

1. Fetch Twilio account details
2. Create a WhatsApp channel
3. Create routing rules
4. Modify settings for a specific WhatsApp phone number

Fetch Twilio account details

Important

Support for the Omnichannel Administration app ended on April 30, 2022, and the app was removed in July 2023. We recommend that you use the Customer Service admin center app to configure the latest features, such as unified routing and voice channel. More information: Omnichannel Administration app is deprecated

To integrate a WhatsApp channel through Twilio with Omnichannel for Customer Service, you need to go to your Twilio account and fetch the ACCOUNT SID and AUTH TOKEN values. Save the values safely because they're required to create a WhatsApp channel configuration in the Omnichannel Administration app.

Go to your Twilio Console Dashboard > Settings > General to fetch the details.

Create a WhatsApp channel

1. In Dynamics 365, go to one of the apps, and perform the following steps.

   Customer Service admin center

   1. In the site map, select Channels in Customer support. The Channels page appears.

   2. Select Manage for Messaging accounts. The Accounts and channels page appears.

   3. Select New account.

   Omnichannel admin center

   • In the site map, select Channels under General settings, and on the Accounts and channels page, select New account.

2. Enter the following details:

   1. On the Channel details page, enter a name and select WhatsApp in Channels.

   2. On the Account details page, enter the following details:

   • Account SID: Specify the value from your Twilio account.
   • Authentication token: Specify the value from your Twilio account.
   3. On the WhatsApp numbers page, select Add, and on the page that appears, enter the following information:
   • Name: Specify a name.
   • Number: Specify the WhatsApp phone number by prefixing the plus (+) symbol.

   4. On the Callback information page, copy the value in the Twilio inbound URL box to use for the Twilio account.

   5. Select Done. The account is added to the list.

3. To configure routing and work distribution, you can create a workstream or select an existing one.

4. Select the workstream that you've created for the WhatsApp channel and on the workstream page, select Set up WhatsApp to configure the following options:

   1. On the WhatsApp number page, in the Available WhatsApp numbers list, select the number that you created.

   2. On the Language page, select the language.

   3. On the Behaviors page, configure the following options:

   • Custom automated messages
   • WhatsApp message templates
   • Post-conversation survey
   4. On the User features page, set the toggle for File attachments to On and select the following checkboxes if you want to allow agents and customers to send and receive file attachments. More information: Enable file attachments.
   • Customers can send file attachments
   • Agents can send file attachments
   5. Verify the settings on the Summary page, and select Finish. The WhatsApp channel instance is configured.

5. Configure routing rules. More information: Configure work classification.

6. Configure work distribution. More information: Work distribution settings

7. Add a bot. More information Configure a bot.

8. In Advanced settings, configure the following options based on your business needs:

   • Sessions
   • Agent notifications
   • Context variables)
   • Smart assist bots
   • Quick replies

Configure WhatsApp message templates

You can configure the option for agents to send WhatsApp-approved messages. If 24 hours pass after a customer's last message, agents will only be able to send messages from WhatsApp-approved templates until the customer responds. You must create your message templates in your Twilio account and have them approved by WhatsApp before you add them in Omnichannel for Customer Service.

Perform the following steps:

1. For the selected workstream for WhatsApp, edit the WhatsApp account.
2. On the Behaviors tab, in WhatsApp message templates, select Add.
3. On the Add message template dialog box, do the following:
   • Name: Specify a name for the template.
   • Default language: Select the language from the list.
   • WhatsApp approved text: Copy and paste the approved text from the template that you created in WhatsApp.
4. Select Save.
5. Create as many templates as required.

Integrate a Twilio sandbox account with Omnichannel for Customer Service

1. In Twilio, go to the Programmable SMS > Programmable Messaging > WhatsApp sandbox.
2. In the WHEN A MESSAGE COMES IN box, enter the Twilio inbound URL that you generated in Omnichannel for Customer Service, and save the changes.
3. To test the WhatsApp channel with the Twilio sandbox, you can send a WhatsApp message to the number provided by Twilio with a unique code that is also provided by Twilio. You can also use the sandbox message template provided by Twilio to test sending messages outside of the 24-hour window.

Create a WhatsApp channel in Omnichannel Administration

Important

Support for the Omnichannel Administration app ended on April 30, 2022, and the app was removed in July 2023. We recommend that you use the Customer Service admin center app to configure the latest features, such as unified routing and voice channel. More information: Omnichannel Administration app is deprecated

After you create a workstream for the WhatsApp channel through Twilio, create a WhatsApp channel in the Omnichannel Administrator app.

To create a WhatsApp channel, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to the Omnichannel Administration app. Select WhatsApp under Channels.

2. In the New WhatsApp page, do the following.

   Section	Field	Description
   Twilio account details	Name	Specify a name for the WhatsApp channel.
   Twilio account details	Account SID	Fetch the value from your Twilio account and paste it here.
   Twilio account details	Auth Token	Get the value from your Twilio account and paste it here.

3. Select Save. In the Callback information section, the Twilio inbound URL field is generated with a link. Copy the link from the field.

4. Go to your Twilio console, select Senders, and then select the WhatsApp phone number. Under Messaging, paste the link that you copied in the preceding step in the Twilio inbound URL field.

5. In the WhatsApp phone numbers section, select New WhatsApp Number. The New WhatsApp Number page is displayed.

6. Do the following.

   Section	Field	Description	Example value
   Phone number details	Name	Specify a name for the WhatsApp channel.	WhatsApp phone number
   Phone number details	WhatsApp Account	The WhatsApp Account field is populated by default. However, you can change the value using the lookup.	WhatsApp channel
   Phone number details	WhatsApp Number	Specify the WhatsApp number.	123456989
   Work distribution	Work stream	Select the out-of-the-box workstream from the lookup. To create a new workstream, see Create work streams.	WhatsApp channel work stream

7. Select Save. The WhatsApp phone number is saved.

8. Select the back button on the browser to go to the WhatsApp channel page. You can see that the WhatsApp phone number is added in the WhatsApp phone numbers section.

9. Select Save.

10. In the Validation section, select Validate to validate the Account SID, Auth token, and phone numbers. After you validate, a toast notification displays with the success or error.

Create routing rules

1. Go to Work Distribution Management > Work Streams.
2. Open the out-of-the-box workstream or the one you created.
3. On the Routing rules items tab, you can create a routing rule to transfer the message to an appropriate agent. Select the entity as WhatsApp Engagement Context. For example, you can create a rule to transfer WhatsApp chat from a customer to the default queue.

When you create conditions for routing rules, the WhatsApp Engagement Context (Conversation) entity enables you to set the Customer Phone Number and Customer First Message attributes. The Customer First Message attribute lets you create a prefilled message that automatically appears in the text field of a customer chat, which can be used for routing.

Modify settings for a specific WhatsApp phone number

1. In the Omnichannel Administration app, go to your WhatsApp application and select the WhatsApp phone number you want to modify.

2. On the General settings tab, provide the following information:

   • Language: Select the preferred language for your WhatsApp phone number.

   • Work stream: Select an existing workstream or create a new one.

   • Enable file attachments for customers: Set to Yes to allow customers to send file attachments to agents. Otherwise, set No.

   • Enable file attachments for agents: Set to Yes to allow agents to send file attachments to customers. When the agent sends an attachment, the app sends the blob storage URL to the channel. Otherwise, set No.

     To learn more about attachments, see File attachments.

     To learn more about uploading media in WhatsApp, see Twilio support documentation.

3. On the Automated messages tab, configure automated messages.

4. On the Message templates tab, you can configure agents' ability to send WhatsApp approved messages. If 24 hours pass after a customer's last message, agents will only be able to send messages from WhatsApp approved templates until the customer responds.

   Note

   Create your message templates in your Twilio account and have them approved by WhatsApp before you add them in Omnichannel for Customer Service.

   Select New to create a template and complete the following fields:

   • Name: Label the group of messages that go in this template.

   • Message trigger: Select the event that triggers the message to be sent.

   • Message description: Give the message template a description.

   Select Save and the Localization Data (Message template) panel appears. Select New localization and complete the following fields:

   • Language code: Select the language for the message.

   • Localized text: Write the message in the language specified. You must create localized text for each translation of the message.

5. On the Surveys tab, configure a post-conversation survey.

See also

Understand and create workstreams
Create and manage routing rules
Configure automated messages
Configure a post-conversation survey
Skill-based routing
Create message templates
Templates
Delete a configured channel
Support for live chat and asynchronous channels