Inbox API

Put WhatsApp inside your own product or service, and let the Inbox keep the conversations.

The Inbox API is a REST API over the same backend as the hosted Inbox. Your software reads conversations, sends messages and gets told when something new arrives. The Inbox keeps the history, tracks the conversation windows, hosts the media, and fans the single WhatsApp webhook out to every service that needs it.

You keep your interface and your workflow. You do not build the conversation layer.

The Inbox is available to 360dialog direct clients on the Premium plan, at no extra charge.

When to use it

You want to…	Use
Show and answer WhatsApp conversations inside your CRM, helpdesk or product	Inbox API
Connect several services to one number — a bot, a CRM, a data pipeline — without them fighting over one webhook	Inbox API
Let a bot answer first and a person take over when needed	Inbox API together with the Hosted Inbox
Let an AI agent send and receive WhatsApp messages	Inbox MCP
Only send messages and handle raw WhatsApp webhooks yourself, with no stored history	The WhatsApp API directly. See Messaging API

How it fits together

A customer writes to your number. The Inbox stores the message, updates the chat, and calls the webhook of every service you connected. Your service replies through the API, the Inbox sends it through your channel, and reports back when it is sent, delivered and read.

Everything is shared. A reply your service sends shows up in the hosted Inbox, and a reply your team types in the hosted Inbox shows up in the API. That is what makes a bot-plus-human setup work without extra glue.

What the Inbox does for you, and what it leaves to you

The Inbox handles	You decide
Storing chats, contacts and full message history	Which service or person handles which chat — the API gives you assignment, not routing rules
When each conversation window expires, per chat	What to send, and when a template is needed
Media upload and hosting	Where your master customer data lives — your CRM or product stays the source of truth
One webhook per service, from the single WhatsApp webhook	How your service reacts to each event
Assignment, tags and resolved status, shared with the hosted Inbox	How your team and your automations split the work

Each number has its own Inbox, its own URL and its own storage. Up to 1.5 million messages are kept per Inbox; beyond that, the oldest are removed first.

In this section

Page	What it covers
Quickstart	Connect, start a conversation from your phone, and reply through the API
Authentication	Create a user for each service and get its token
Receiving messages	Get new messages delivered to your endpoint
Sending messages	Replies when the window is open, templates when it is closed
Reading conversations	Your chats and their message history
Managing conversations	Assignment, tags and resolved status
Contacts	Who you are talking to, and how to identify them
Playbooks	Complete setups for the most common integrations
Reference	Request basics and every endpoint