Skip to main content

​
WhatsApp Groups

Switchbord now includes the first foundation for WhatsApp group conversations. The inbox can mark conversations as groups, expose group summaries, and filter the conversation list to Groups for internal-team testing.
This is a foundation layer. It does not yet claim full group lifecycle management, participant management, or complete group-send enforcement.

​
Meta Groups API constraints

Meta’s Groups API has different constraints from standard one-to-one Cloud API messaging:
  • Businesses must have an Official Business Account (OBA) to use Groups API features.
  • Groups are invite-only and participants join through a group invite link.
  • Maximum group participants: 8.
  • Supported message types include text, media, text-based templates, and media-based templates.
  • Unsupported experiences include Calling API, disappearing messages, view-once messages, authentication messages, commerce messages, and interactive messages.
  • Template analytics are not available for templates used in groups; create separate templates for group use.

​
Current Switchbord support

The v0.15.53 foundation adds:
  • Conversation.isGroup and Conversation.group domain summaries.
  • Metadata-backed group detection from conversations.metadata (chatType, conversationType, type, or isGroup).
  • A Groups-only pill in /inbox next to the existing conversation-list filters.
  • Server-side groupsOnly=1 support on /api/inbox/conversations.
  • A Supabase metadata index for group conversation discovery.
  • Mock internal-team group data for early QA.
Until a dedicated group table lands, group conversations should carry metadata similar to:
Avoid returning invite links to broad inbox list responses unless the operator action specifically needs them.

​
Current limitations

  • The inbox can filter and identify groups, but the selected detail pane still needs group-first presentation polish.
  • Group-specific send constraints are not fully enforced yet.
  • Participant list management is not implemented.
  • Invite-link creation/refresh is not implemented.
  • Group templates and analytics should be separated from one-to-one campaign templates.

​
Follow-up implementation checklist

  1. Promote group name, group id, and participant count in the list row, header, and right-side detail pane.
  2. Add group-specific send guards for unsupported message types.
  3. Add group import/sync from Meta Groups API once OBA eligibility is confirmed.
  4. Add participant management and invite-link actions behind explicit permissions.
  5. Add tests with the internal team group as the first production QA target.