Meta's Calling API is now available! This new feature will allow businesses to use WhatsApp voice to initiate more direct conversations with customers. Customers can seamlessly upgrade from chat to voice without leaving WhatsApp.

What value can Calling bring to you?

1. Enhance the customer support experience on WhatsApp

Allow customers to talk to enterprise customer service representatives by clicking the "Call" button (configurable) or clicking the "Call" button on the message template. Helps to help customers solve problems more efficiently.

2. More effective lead conversion

Accelerate customer conversion and convert more potential customers through direct voice communication and WhatsApp rich media messaging during and after calls.

Inbound Calling page function is launched

Calling related configuration

1. You can control whether this feature is enabled. After it is turned off, users will not be able to initiate calls to you through this feature
2. You can control whether the call button next to the user's WhatsApp avatar is displayed. If the button is hidden, users will not be able to initiate calls to you by clicking the button, nor will they be able to initiate calls to you through any historical session records. When you are worried about receiving a large number of unnecessary user calls, you can hide the button to avoid such situations
3. You can also set different call allocation rules, currently supporting random allocation or allocation based on the workload of the day

Agents interface

1. Both administrators and regular agents can improve work efficiency by using the Calling page function reasonably
2. Seats can be set online/offline status
3. Agents can see historical call history in the list
4. Click the "Chat" button on the phone to switch to the corresponding user's Inbox chat page, and have rich interactions on demand while keeping the call
5. Each call can be marked for easy classification and management of subsequent calls
6. During or after the call, the agent can add a summary to the call, condense the call content, or record subsequent to-do items
7. The administrator can access the Calling logs menu to view the historical call records of all agents, and supports clicking to view specific call details, which provides great convenience for managing calls

Inbound Calling API interface is available

We have packaged the incoming call interface for you, including multiple functions such as pre-answering calls, answering calls, rejecting calls, hanging up conversations, etc. In addition, we also provide nanny-style documentation for Streaming Media access and local test demos! We provide you with smooth API access services.

How to enable the Calling function?

Note: Due to the limitations of the current version of Meta, Calling is currently only available to users whose WhatsApp business numbers belong to the following countries: Brazil, Mexico, India, or Indonesia.

Please communicate your needs (such as page functionality or API access) with the Customer Manager in advance and let us know your call scenario, such as:

• Services: Client Server upgrades that require real-time voice interaction, such as complex queries, support and troubleshooting, and customer care solutions
• Marketing/Sales: Complex sales and marketing calls, such as real estate or automobiles
• Reminder Notifications: For example, express/takeout voice calls
  Then, your Customer Manager will activate the corresponding service for you.

How is the calling function charged?

Our internal test will last until December 31, 2024. Before the end of the internal test, YCloud will provide a certain amount of free test quota. After the quota is consumed, it will be charged according to the official WhatsApp voice rate. The specific amount can be determined after communicating with your Customer Manager.

Other common Q & A

Q1: Does the Calling function support both incoming and outgoing calls?
A1: Yes. The Outbound calling feature is still under development, but it should be noted that enterprises must obtain the user's permission when they want to make outbound calls. A call permission request can only be sent when an existing marketing, utility, authentication, service, or free entry point conversation is open.
Q2: Does WhatsApp Business Calling API support video calls?
A2: Video calls are not currently supported in this version.
Q3: When will the WhatsApp Business Calling API be fully launched?
A3: Meta's goal is to fully launch the WhatsApp Business Calling API next year, so we have reason to expect the full launch of the Calling API in 2025.

Inbox Messages Translation

Does your business cater to users of different languages? Is there a language barrier between customer service and users? Want to serve foreign customers but only have local customer service? The Inbox message translation feature will solve the above problems for you, eliminating the trouble of posting texts back and forth, and greatly improving the efficiency of customer service responses. We will provide convenient online instant translation functions through the following aspects. All agents can turn on these features in personal preferences according to their specific needs.

• Message card translation: In the Inbox conversations, select the message card that needs to be translated, click the [Translate] button in [More], and select the target language you need to quickly translate the message content into the corresponding language.

• Automatic translation of user messages: After turning on the automatic translation switch and selecting the target language, enter Inbox and select a specific conversation. The system will automatically translate all user messages on the agent's current browsing interface, including new incoming messages and historical messages, and continue to translate based on your mouse scrolling. By selecting automatic translation, agents will enjoy smooth translation services without having to click the [Translate] button for each message.

• Input translation: After turning on the input translation switch, agents can see the translation preview interface in the input box of Inbox. After entering the content, select the target language and click the [Translate] button on the right side of the translation preview window to get the translation in the target language. Agents can send translations directly to customers.

In the personal preference settings , you can see the number of characters consumed by translation under the current tenant. Before December 31, 2024, you can contact your account manager to participate in our Beta test. No translation fees are charged during this phase.
Starting from January 1, 2025, you can choose the software version that suits you by referring to the different price plans on the official website, and each version will be given a free number of translated characters!

Personal Welcome Message

Set up your unique welcome message as a welcome statement to give your customers a great first impression. Your welcome message will be triggered when the following conditions are met:

• Conversations are open
• Conversations are initiated by customers
• Conversations are transferred to you

Currently, you can send three types of personal welcome messages:

• Text message: plain text type message. Supports Emoji, bold, italic and other styles
• Rich media messages: pictures/videos/files + text messages
• Interactive messages: interactive messages with buttons, such as quick reply buttons, jump buttons, and list buttons

Personal Canned Responses

Canned responses have been expanded from the company dimension to the personal dimension. Administrators can configure quick replies in Inbox settings that can be called by all employees. Agents can also customize personal quick replies according to their specific needs.

• View company canned responses: Find the canned response menu in personal preferences, and click the View Defaults button to view the company quick replies configured by the administrator.

• Manage personal canned reponses: If the company's prest canned responses cannot meet the agent's needs, agents can manage their own personal canned response, including adding, editing, deleting, and searching functions.

• Use canned responses: You can enter "/" in the Inbox input box to bring up the canned response window, and search for the specific canned response by entering the short code corresponding to the it. Preview the content in the column window on the right and confirm it is what you need. Press the Enter key to enter the selected canned response. Canned responses preset by the company in the list will be labeled to make it easy for you to distinguish them.

MM Lite API

Marketing Messages Lite API ("MM Lite API") is a new way to send WhatsApp marketing messages, which offers businesses the ability to leverage Meta’s AI system to drive business performance and improve quality.

Who is it for?

Marketers with limited ad campaign expertise and do not require extensive features of Marketing Messages API will definitely want to try MM Lite API.
Attention: Only available for business whose registered address is in the following regions: Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Chile, Peru.

What value can MM Lite API bring?

• Higher delivery rates & read rates compared with Cloud API (Which you are using now). Marketing messages sent through the MM Lite API will go through Meta's AI system. This system will help you reach customers who are more likely to receive marketing messages during your activities, thereby improving the performance of your marketing activities.
• Track when marketing messages lead to actions on a business’ website (e.g. add to cart, checkout, purchase). If you have already used Pixel targeting on your website, you can track the effectiveness of your marketing messages in your advertising account.

To learn more about how to enable MM Lite API, please visit YCloud’s help documentation: Click here.

New Features for Inbox

Conversation Logs

We have launched two new features for Inbox: conversation logs and conversation tags. These features will not only improve the efficiency of quality management, but also greatly facilitate agents’ customer classification work.

When the team leader needs to conduct regular inspections or spot checks on team members' conversations, the conversation logs are often very useful. The conversation logs are the management backgend of the conversation record, and all the conversations that have occurred will be recorded in it. In addition, the page of conversation logs also provides practical features as follows:

• Conversation logs search: You can search and filter conversation logs through various combinations of conditions.
• Jump to related contact: When hovering the contact column in the specific conversation log, you can choose to jump to the contact list or the Inbox conversation interface of the corresponding contact.
• Conversation details: Click on a specific conversation log to open the corresponding conversation details. You can view adjacent historical conversations by clicking "Click to view the previous conversaiton" or "Click to view the next conversation".

To learn more about how to enable conversation logs, please visit YCloud’s help documentation: Click here.

Conversation tags

Use conversation tags to mark each conversation, including current sessions and historical sessions, to quickly classify sessions and improve session management efficiency.

• Quick tagging: You can mark the current conversation above the conversation box without affecting the current operation of the current conversation.
• Customize tags: Supports customization of label text and color, you can create different types of conversation tags as needed.
• Unified backend management: The tag management backend allows administrators to uniformly and conveniently manage all tags, including adding, editing and deleting conversation tags.

To learn more about how to enable conversation tags, please visit YCloud’s help documentation: Click here.

WhatsApp updates

WhatsApp allows users to set preferences for marketing messages

Starting November 22, 2024, WhatsApp will begin gradually rolling out user preferences for marketing messages. This feature may not be available to WhatsApp users in some regions initially.

WhatsApp provides a setting (Offers and announcements) that allows users to stop or resume delivery of marketing template messages from your business, or to indicate their interest level in these types of messages.

Stop/Resume controls

WhatsApp users can use the Offers and announcements setting to stop or resume delivery of marketing template messages from your business.

If you attempt to send a marketing template to a WhatsApp user who has stopped marketing template messages from your business, the API will process the request but not send the message. Instead, the API will trigger a messages webhook with:

status set to failed,

code set to 131050,

title set to Unable to deliver the message. This recipient has chosen to stop receiving marketing messages on WhatsApp from your business

To be notified whenever a WhatsApp user stops or resumes delivery of marketing template messages from your business, subscribe to the user_preferences webhook.

Interested/Not Interested feedback

WhatsApp users can use the Offers and announcements setting to indicate how interested they are in receiving marketing template messages from your business.If a user chooses Not interested, it can affect per-user marketing template messaging limits between you and the user.

Include read rates as an indicator for account assessment

To best connect with your customers, all messages should be relevant and expected.

Beginning Nov 22, we are expanding the existing account-level quality enforcements to take action on accounts with extremely low read rates. Businesses will be provided with the existing business experience to unblock messaging if/when enforced. This change will be rolled out globally across all API accounts.

Rules

When an account read rate drops significantly (extremely low read rates) - where the majority of messages sent by the account are unread, enforcement in the form of messaging blocks begins on the account, with an increase in severity if consistently low read rates at scale are observed.

If the WABA read rate is extremely low:

• Businesses (WABA) will be blocked from sending business-initiated messages. They can still respond to customer-initiated messages. This first soft account lock may be acknowledged by clicking on the acknowledge button in Account Quality to begin messaging again.

• If read rate continues to drop or remains low after the soft lock, businesses may face a gradual increase in enforcement actions (few days of messaging restrictions).

• Businesses will have to wait for the enforced-upon limit to begin messaging again. If read rate continues to remain low after repeat soft locks, the account will eventually be offboarded.

How to stay updated on these warnings and enforcements:

For real-time updates, businesses should subscribe to the account_update webhook if they have not already. Similar to existing platform enforcement , businesses will be notified about these actions and have the ability to acknowledge using the Account quality page in Business Manager. Please ensure you have the correct details listed as Admin in Business manager so you do not miss these notifications.

Notifications about severe spam violations will be:

• Surfaced in the Business Manager Notifications Center
• Sent as an email to all admins set in Business Manager
• Sent as a webhook notification to those subscribed to the account_update webhook

Updates to customizable message validity periods

WhatsApp continues to invest to improve consumer experiences and business outcomes. For utility and authentication, WhatsApp is updating the range for customizable message validity periods (aka time-to-live or TTL) to provide businesses more control and flexibility, to ensure these messages are always timely and relevant for users.

• Utility: From 30 seconds to 12 hours, for businesses on Cloud API
• Authentication: From 30 seconds to 15 minutes, for businesses on Cloud API or On-Premises API

Launch WhatsApp Flows

YCloud officially supports the ability for our clients to send WhatsApp Flows through its products! WhatsApp Flows are designed to help enterprises collect information more efficiently, refine operations, and meet various scenario needs, such as order confirmation and tracking, appointment scheduling, customer support, product promotion, and collecting user feedback.

In addition to sending WhatsApp Flows messages, YCloud also allows users to view and analyze reply data directly in the backend, helping businesses to see user response rates and information more intuitively and adjust strategies in a timely manner.

Launch the Journey

We are proud to introduce our brand-new marketing automation tool—Journey.

Built on the WhatsApp platform, this automation marketing tool is designed to help businesses drive revenue growth and operational efficiency. It allows marketers to focus on developing strategies rather than dealing with tedious operations. Let the strategy run on its own, delivering the right message to the right customer at the right time.

• Personalized Customer Journeys: Build customer journeys with a visual interface, no coding required. You can precisely plan and optimize interactions based on customer preferences and behaviors.
• Real-Time Accurate Triggering: Journey uses event-based triggers to send customized WhatsApp messages to customers at the most appropriate moments, whether it's for registration, purchases, or changes in personal attributes. This enhances marketing effectiveness and boosts conversion rates.
• Shopify Integration: Journey connects with your Shopify store, enabling you to use YCloud's pre-built Journey templates to automatically send WhatsApp reminders for abandoned carts within minutes.
• Reduce Customer Complaints and Protect Your WhatsApp Account: Journey only sends messages to customers triggered by specific events, ensuring each message is relevant and minimizing unnecessary complaints and risks. This helps maintain the safety and stability of your WhatsApp account.

Common Marketing Automation Strategies:

• Welcome New Contacts: Automatically greet and engage new contacts with personalized messages.

• Abandoned Cart Reminders: Send reminders to customers who have left items in their shopping cart without completing the purchase.

• Automated Customer Re-engagement: Reconnect with customers who have become inactive or lost interest.

• Celebrate Customer Birthdays: Send special offers or greetings to customers on their birthdays.

• Collect Customer Feedback: Automatically request feedback from customers after interactions or purchases.

• Send Order Confirmations Automatically: Provide immediate confirmation and details of orders to customers.

• Encourage Customer Reviews: Automatically prompt customers to share their reviews and feedback on your products or services.

Whether you’re looking to enhance customer interactions, increase sales conversions, or streamline operational processes, we hope Journey can provide you with a tailored solution.

If you need any assistance, please feel free to contact our support team, and we will guide you through the entire process.

Chatbot AI Launch: Explore Enhanced Service Intelligence

This upgrade focuses on leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance performance. You can configure smart and powerful chatbots within minutes to resolve 50% of customer issues immediately, providing your clients with a more intelligent and personalized service experience.

New Feature Highlights:

• Natural Language Understanding Triggers: Previously, Chatbot responses relied on keyword triggers, which sometimes failed to match customer expressions accurately, leading to incorrect responses. Now, with YCloud, Chatbots support natural language understanding triggers, allowing them to more accurately interpret user text and intent. This enhances the precision of Chatbot Flows and improves response coverage.

• Knowledge Learning and Application: Previously, YCloud Chatbot was limited by preset triggers and processes. Now, with the introduction of advanced AI language models, you can upload your own knowledge base links or Q&A documents. The Chatbot can quickly analyze and learn from these resources, independently understanding messages sent through WhatsApp. It can extract relevant information from the knowledge base within a controlled scope and generate smooth, coherent responses, effectively handling user queries outside of predefined processes.

We have deployed it on the official YCloud WhatsApp account, and you can scan the QR code below to experience the conversation. Notably, it has already learned all the knowledge of the YCloud platform. When you have usage questions, you can not only contact our support team but also directly ask it for answers.

WhatsApp Number: +1 833 627 4849

（Use your camera or WhatsApp to scan the QR code.）

Check out the demo video.

Due to the costs associated with using AI language models, we have not made this update available to all customers to avoid unnecessary resource wastage.

However, we encourage more business customers to test it. We will provide the first batch of testers with a free and substantial usage quota for their daily customer interactions. Please contact our support team to learn more.

WhatsApp will update the prices for Utility and Marketing conversations in August and October respectively.

Our vision is to make WhatsApp the primary way for businesses and people to communicate. We will continue to invest to ensure WhatsApp maintains a healthy ecosystem, providing a good experience for users and powerful performance for businesses.
Utility conversation fees – From August 1, 2024, we will lower the prices to stay competitive with other channels and encourage businesses to bring more end-to-end post-purchase customer journeys to WhatsApp.
Marketing conversation fees – From October 1, 2024, we will update the prices in specific markets as part of more frequent price updates to reflect demand and the value of marketing messaging.

— From WhatsApp

Now, the YCloud Team provides a detailed interpretation of this price update:

Price Update on August 1, 2024

Utility conversation prices are significantly reduced in most countries/regions except Indonesia, with the maximum reduction reaching 92%.

Combined with WhatsApp's 24-hour conversation billing mechanism (no additional charges for same-type messages), WhatsApp will become the most cost-effective medium for notification reminders.

Price Update on October 1, 2024

Marketing conversation fees are adjusted in a small range, with some increases and some decreases;

The countries/regions with reduced prices include the UK, with a reduction of 25%;

The countries/regions with increased prices are:

• India increased by 8.08%
• Saudi Arabia increased by 11.07%
• United Arab Emirates increased by 12.94%

• In addition, WhatsApp emphasizes that they may update prices more frequently in the future (up to once per quarter) to adapt to market changes.

For this price adjustment, YCloud will follow suit.

(Since WhatsApp has not specified the exact time of the price change, and to avoid billing discrepancies due to different time zones, the specific time of the billing price change will be determined by YCloud, and the update will be displayed on the YCloud Pricing Page)

If you wish to obtain the new pricing in advance, please contact YCloud's business team.