Differences Between Cloud API and On-Premise API for Partners

As announced in November 2023, Meta is transitioning to a fully Cloud-hosted WhatsApp Business Platform and will stop supporting On-Premise API in October 2025. Starting from On-Premise client v2.53, all new feature updates will be exclusively delivered to Cloud API. While the On-Premise API client will receive quarterly releases, they will focus solely on bug fixes and security patches.

• See differences between On-premise API and Cloud API

• Enable Cloud API in your Partner Hub to be able to register Cloud API numbers

• Learn how to change hosting type of registered numbers

Enabling Cloud hosting in your Partner Hub

To enable the option of Cloud hosting, go to the Integrations Tab in your Partner Account > Default Hosting Platform Type > and click on the button

Before you proceed, you will be asked if you wish to keep the Cloud API data storage in the default US setting or set a specific local storage. You can choose the designated option. A pop-up will appear afterwards confirming the changes.

Please note that, if you have Cloud hosting enabled in your Partner Hub:

1. Cloud hosting automatically becomes the default choice for all new numbers.

2. Any number that is ported to your Partner Hub will be automatically hosted in the Cloud API.

From May 15, 2024, it is not possible to onboard numbers with On-Premise API. This means that you should remove the onpremise parameter from the Integrated Onboarding trigger to register or migrate new numbers. Learn here how to integrate with Cloud API.

If you still have any concerns or limitations about your integration with Cloud API, please reach out to us and we will work together to adapt to this new reality.

Make sure your team is aware of this information and prepared to receive new numbers under Cloud hosting as migration from Cloud to On-premise hosting is not recommended.

Suggestions for partners implementing code changes to support integration with Cloud API

1. Start with adjusting a simple text message, so you can test if the whole networking flow of the request works as expected

2. As a next step work with /media endpoint and see if uploads and media_id generation work as expected.

3. Proceed to check if the media_id inserted in the simple media type message works as you expect.

4. In case of problems with more complex calls (Interactive messages for example), please check out Reference - WhatsApp Business Platform Cloud API - Documentation - Facebook for Developers for a more detailed description of endpoints.
5. See Cloud API Error Codes for error references.

Account differences

On a Cloud hosted account you will still need to use the D360-Api-Key available per channel/phone number to start messaging. See how to retrieve it here.

You can get a channel's Hosting platform type from the Get Channel's request.

Endpoint differences

Root URL

On-premise	CloudAPI
https://waba.360dialog.io	https://waba-v2.360dialog.io

All Cloud API and On-Premise actions are available via different request types that use a combination of a root base URL and an endpoint suffix. Some endpoints (setting webhook and template configurations) vary in the requirement of v1/ in the URL which could cause your request to fail. Please refer to our documentation to ensure you are using the correct endpoint or reach out to our Support Team for clarification.

While referring to Meta's Documentation, you may encounter requests with the path /PHONE_NUMBER_ID. Please note that 360dialog already transmits this value to Meta, hence, there is no need to include it in your request, as doing so may result in errors. (e.g. waba-v2.360dialog.io/PHONE_NUMBER_ID/business_compliance_info)

Webhooks (Incoming messages)

See our specific documentation about setting up webhooks to receive outbound and inbound notifications.

Webhook URLs or headers for Cloud API does not support "_"(underscore) or ":xxxx"(port)in (sub)domain names.

Invalid webhook URL: https://your_webhook.example.com Valid webhook URL: https://yourwebhook.example.com

Invalid webhook URL:https://subdomain.your_webhook.example.com:3000 Valid webhook URL: https://subdomain.yourwebhook.example.com

Messaging

See On Premise API request.

Both endpoints (On Premise API and Cloud API) accept message object. The message object is built from:

• commonly accepted: audio, contacts, document, image, interactive, location, recipient_type, status, sticker, template, text, to, type, fields.

• On-Premise only: hsm , preview_url

• Cloud API only: messaging_product

Send a text message

POST https://waba-v2.360dialog.io/messages

To send a message, use the request URL and the following body parameters.

In the Cloud API the messages, messaging_product and contacts objects are returned.

Request example

{
    "recipient_type": "individual",
    "to": "wa_id",
    "type": "text",
    "text": {
        "body": "Hello, dear customer!"
    }
}

Request Body

Name	Type	Description
recipient_type	string	individual
to*	string	wa_id of the contact you want to message
type	string	text
text	object	contains body field

201

A successful response includes a messages object with an ID for the newly created message.

{
    "messaging_product": "whatsapp",
    "contacts": [
        {
            "input": "16505076520",
            "wa_id": "16505076520"
        }
    ],
    "messages": [
        {
            "id": "wamid.HBgLMTY1MDUwNzY1MjAVAgARGBI5QTNDQTVCM0Q0Q0Q2RTY3RTcA"
        }
    ]
}

Differences in the description of messages request:

On Premise API	Cloud API
messaging_product field is not used at all in On-Premise Api	messaging_product is required in every message
hsm is still available for On-Premise API though it was deprecated in WABA v2.39	hsm shouldn't be use at all
preview_url is top lvl message field object in On-Premise API	preview_url is subfield of text object instead of top lvl object

There are some differences in objects that build the message object. Those differences appear in:

• interactive.action.product_retailer_id object in documentation for On Premise API has listed limitation "Maximum 100 characters for both Single Product and Multi-Product messages." Which isn’t specified in CloudAPI docs.

• media.provider - Used only for On-Premise API, not in CloudAPI (meaning that authentication for media from sources which require authorization must be done differently)

• media.caption - On-Premise documentation specifies limitation to 1024 characters while CloudAPI doesn’t specify any limitation in docs.

• template.namespace is not used in CloudAPI, for On-Premise API it’s optional since WABA v2.41 , before that it has been required.

• template.datetime In CloudAPI only fallback value is used. In On-Premise API also other data can be provided to try compute the localized value.

• text.preview_url - In On-Premise API this value is passed as top lvl field of message object, in CloudAPI the value is subfield of text field.

• components.button - Documentation on this is convoluted. From checking out the examples it should work the same, but must be verified, because documentation is refuting itself. (for example On-Premise docs say that index field is not used in components, and few lines later it is used in the example).

You can also use the official Meta docs as a reference, available here.

Media

See On Premise requests.

To send a media message:

Send a media message

POST https://waba-v2.360dialog.io/message

Request Body

Name	Type	Description
recipient_type	string	individual
to*	string	wa_id of the contact you want to message
type	string	text
SPECIFIC PARAMETHERS		Check Parameters for media messages

201

Only relevant object (media ID) is returned.

{
                "id":"ID"
            }

To upload a media file, the differences are:

• File type specified in form parameter

• Data passed as form parameter

• Requires passing messaging_product=whatsapp

Upload Media

POST https://waba-v2.360dialog.io/media

Make a POST request to /media to upload your media.

Request example

curl -X POST
'https://waba-v2.360dialo.io/media'
-H 'D360-API-KEY: YOUR_API_KEY'
-F 'file=@/local/path/file.jpg;type=image/jpeg' 
-F '"messaging_product" = "whatsapp"'

Headers

Name	Type	Description
D360-API-KEY	string	360dialog API KEY

200

{
    "media": [
        {
            "id": "f043afd0-f0ae-4b9c-ab3d-696fb4c8cd68"
        }
    }

To retrieve a media you need to use an endpoint to retrieve the URL and submit get again with the URL received:

Get Media

GET https://waba-v2.360dialog.io/{media_id}

You can then retrieve the media from the local volume by referencing the media_id.

Request example

curl -X GET
'https://waba-v2.360dialog.io/MEDIA_ID'
-H 'D360-API-KEY: YOUR_API_KEY''

Path Parameters

Name	Type	Description
media_id	string	media_id

Headers

Name	Type	Description
D360-API-KEY	string	360dialog API KEY

200

{
  "messaging_product": "whatsapp",
  "url": "URL",
  "mime_type": "image/jpeg",
  "sha256": "HASH",
  "file_size": "SIZE",
  "id": "ID"
}

Path of URL obtained from previous endpoint needs to be called with waba-v2.360dialog.io host URL:

curl -X GET 'waba-v2.360dialog.io/PATH -H "D360-API-KEY: <api_key>"

So for the response you obtain, delete the root hostname https://lookaside.fbsbx.com and a attach the rest /whatsapp_business/attachments/?mid=130345565692730173924&ext=1664537344507&hash=ATtBt0Cdio to our root url https://waba-v2.360dialog.io

Example

GET response was:

{ "messaging_product": "whatsapp", "url": https://lookaside.fbsbx.com/whatsapp_business/attachments/?mid=130345565692730173924&ext=1664537344507&hash=ATtBt0Cdio, "mime_type": "image/jpeg", "sha256": "HASH", "file_size": "SIZE", "id": "ID" }

To download media:

curl -X GET 'waba-v2.360dialog.io/whatsapp_business/attachments/?mid=130345565692730173924&ext=1664537344507&hash=ATtBt0Cdio' -H 'D360-API-KEY: YOUR_API_KEY' > media_file

Please treat the postfix of this message as secret. This link will be valid for 5 mins.

Depending on your cURL version you may receive a BINARY response instead of the expected JSON. In this case please add the --compressed flag to your cURL query.

• In case you receive 308 Permanent Redirect errors using cURL, please use the --location option to follow redirects.

Business Profile

The endpoints to get and change the Business Profile information have a few changes.

See here how this works on the On Premise API.

Retrieve Business Profile information

GET https://waba-v2.360dialog.io/whatsapp_business_profile?fields=address,description,email,profile_picture_url,websites,vertical'

Use this edge to retrieve the information available in the Business Profile: business address, business description, email for business contact, business industry, and business website.

Request example

GET /whatsapp_business_profile?fields=address,description,email,profile_picture_url,websites,vertical'

Request Body

Name	Type	Description
vertical	string	Industry of the business. Must be one of these accepted values: UNDEFINED / OTHER / AUTO / BEAUTY / APPAREL / EDU / ENTERTAIN / EVENT_PLAN / FINANCE / GROCERY / GOVT / HOTEL / HEALTH / NONPROFIT / PROF_SERVICES / RETAIL / TRAVEL / RESTAURANT / NOT_A_BIZ The business vertical cannot be set back to an empty value after it is created.
websites	array of strings	URLs (including http:// or https://) associated with the business (e.g., website, Facebook Page, Instagram). Maximum of 2 websites with a maximum of 256 characters each.
email	string	Email address (in valid email format) to contact the business. Maximum of 128 characters.
description	string	Description of the business. Maximum of 512 characters.
address	string	Address of the business. Maximum of 256 characters.

200

A successful response includes the profile object containing the business profile data.

{
  "data": [{
    "messaging_product": "whatsapp",
    "address": "ADDRESS",
    "description": "DESCRIPTION",
    "vertical": "INDUSTRY",
    "email": "EMAIL",
    "websites": [
       "https://WEBSITE-1",
       "https://WEBSITE-2"
     ],
     "profile_picture_url": PROFILE_PICTURE_HANDLE
  }]
}

Differences in the response received:

On Premise API	Cloud API
Essential data nested in settings.business	Essential data nested in data data object also includes messaging_product
Profile picture is not available here (it is edited through /v1/settings/profile/photo)	Existence of profile_picture_url
Description have a maximum of 256 characters	Description have a maximum of 512 characters
Verticals are: Automotive Beauty Spa and Salon Clothing and Apparel Education Entertainment Event Planning and Service Finance and Banking Food and Grocery Public Service Hotel and Lodging Medical and Health Non-profit Professional Services Shopping and Retail Travel and Transportation Restaurant Other	Verticals are: UNDEFINED OTHER AUTO BEAUTY APPAREL EDU ENTERTAIN EVENT_PLAN FINANCE GROCERY GOVT HOTEL HEALTH NONPROFIT PROF_SERVICES RETAIL TRAVEL RESTAURANT NOT_A_BIZ

Update Business Profile information

POST https://waba-v2.360dialog.io/whatsapp_business_profile

Use the endpoint to configure the following business profile settings: business address, business description, email for business contact, business industry, and business website.

If you only need to update a couple of fields with new information, you can make a request which changes only the necessary fields. You can use the profile_picture_handle parameter to update the profile photo.

HANDLE_OF_PROFILE_PICTURE is url obtained from by the Resumable Upload API.

Request example

curl -X POST 'https://waba-v2.360dialog.io/whatsapp_business_profile' -H 'D360-API-KEY: YOUR_API_KEY' -d '{ "messaging_product": "whatsapp", "address": "ADDRESS", "description": "DESCRIPTION", "vertical": "INDUSTRY", "email": "EMAIL", "websites": [ "https://WEBSITE-1", "https://WEBSITE-2" ], "profile_picture_handle": "HANDLE_OF_PROFILE_PICTURE" }'

Request Body

Name	Type	Description
vertical	string	Industry of the business. Must be one of these accepted values: UNDEFINED / OTHER / AUTO / BEAUTY / APPAREL / EDU / ENTERTAIN / EVENT_PLAN / FINANCE / GROCERY / GOVT / HOTEL / HEALTH / NONPROFIT / PROF_SERVICES / RETAIL / TRAVEL / RESTAURANT / NOT_A_BIZ The business vertical cannot be set back to an empty value after it is created.
websites	array of strings	URLs (including http:// or https://) associated with the business (e.g., website, Facebook Page, Instagram). Maximum of 2 websites with a maximum of 256 characters each.
email	string	Email address (in valid email format) to contact the business. Maximum of 128 characters.
description	string	Description of the business. Maximum of 512 characters.
address	string	Address of the business. Maximum of 256 characters.

Migrating a phone number from On-premise to Cloud API

Please refer to this page to migrate a phone number from On-premise to Cloud API.