Sending Messages

Send text, media, contacts, locations, links, polls and presence with the /send endpoints.

All examples assume Basic Auth admin:changeme, a slot called my-device, and GOWA on localhost:3000.

export GOWA=http://localhost:3000
export AUTH=admin:changeme
export DEVICE=my-device

Recipients

phone accepts:

• A number with country code, no +, spaces or dashes: 628123456789 (a leading + is stripped).
• A user JID: [e-mail].
• A group JID: [e-mail].
• status@broadcast to post a status update.

With WHATSAPP_ACCOUNT_VALIDATION=true (default), GOWA checks that a number is on WhatsApp before sending. Check one yourself with GET /user/check?phone=628123456789.

Text

curl -u $AUTH -X POST $GOWA/send/message \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" -H "X-Device-Id: $DEVICE" \
  -d '{"phone": "628123456789", "message": "Hello!"}'

Optional fields:

Field	Description
reply_message_id	Quote an earlier message.
mentions	Phone numbers to mention, for example ["628111111111"]; "@everyone" mentions every group member. Mentions do not need @ in the text.
is_forwarded	Show the “Forwarded” label.
duration	Disappearing-message timer in seconds: 0, 86400 (24 h), 604800 (7 d) or 7776000 (90 d).
allow_reshare	Status posts only (phone = status@broadcast).

Successful sends return the WhatsApp message ID:

{"code": "SUCCESS", "message": "Success", "results": {"message_id": "3EB0B430B6F8F1D0E053AC120E0A9E5C", "status": "Message sent to 628123456789 (server timestamp: ...)"}}

Media

Media endpoints take multipart/form-data. Upload a file, or pass a URL that GOWA downloads (*_url).

Image

curl -u $AUTH -X POST $GOWA/send/image -H "X-Device-Id: $DEVICE" \
  -F phone=628123456789 \
  -F caption="Product photo" \
  -F image=@photo.jpg \
  -F compress=true

Endpoint	File field / URL field	Extra fields
/send/image	image / image_url	caption, view_once, compress, hd, mentions
/send/video	video / video_url	caption, view_once, compress, hd, gif_playback, mentions
/send/file	file / file_url	caption, mentions
/send/audio	audio / audio_url	ptt (send as voice note)
/send/sticker	sticker / sticker_url	JPG, PNG, WebP or GIF; converted to WebP

All media endpoints also accept reply_message_id, is_forwarded and duration. See Media handling for size limits and formats.

Contact, location, link, poll

Contact

curl -u $AUTH -X POST $GOWA/send/contact \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" -H "X-Device-Id: $DEVICE" \
  -d '{"phone": "628123456789", "contact_name": "Jane Doe", "contact_phone": "628987654321"}'

Presence and typing

# account-wide presence: available | unavailable
curl -u $AUTH -X POST $GOWA/send/presence \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" -H "X-Device-Id: $DEVICE" \
  -d '{"type": "available"}'

# typing indicator in one chat: start | stop
curl -u $AUTH -X POST $GOWA/send/chat-presence \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" -H "X-Device-Id: $DEVICE" \
  -d '{"phone": "628123456789", "action": "start"}'

After sending

Task	Endpoint
Edit	POST /message/{message_id}/update with phone, message
React	POST /message/{message_id}/reaction with phone, emoji
Delete for everyone	POST /message/{message_id}/revoke with phone
Delete for me	POST /message/{message_id}/delete with phone
Forward	POST /message/{message_id}/forward with phone (destination). The source message must be in GOWA’s local chat storage.
Star / unstar	POST /message/{message_id}/star, /unstar with phone

Send later

Add scheduled_at and timezone to any send request to schedule it instead. See Scheduled sends.

Sending to many recipients

GOWA has no broadcast endpoint. Loop over recipients in your code, send one request at a time with a delay, and stop on WA_REACHOUT_TIMELOCK errors. Read Sending limits before sending in volume.