Universal link
The wa.me links are so called universal links. On modern systems when the user has the mobile or desktop app installed, this will directly open the app. When that is not the case they will be send to the WhatsApp website with download instructions.
Only open WhatsApp
https://wa.me/Start chat to phone number
The number must be in international format without any symbols or spaces.
https://wa.me/1234Start chat and prefill text field
Leave out the phone number to display the contacts list.
https://wa.me/1234/?text=Hello%20worldStart a voice/video call
https://wa.me/call/1234The user has WhatsApp
The following only work if the app is installed, otherwise the user may get an error.
Only open WhatsApp
whatsapp://Start a chat
whatsapp://sendStart chat to phone number
The number must be in international format without any symbols or spaces.
whatsapp://send?phone=1234Start chat and prefill the text field
Leave out the phone number to display the contacts list.
whatsapp://send?phone=1234&text=Hello%20worldStart a voice/video call
whatsapp://call?phone=1234Beta versions
These showed up in my website stats. I think they are meant to target beta versions of the app. Where consumer is probably the normal one and smb the business variant. They follow the same scheme as whatsapp:// but the fpm command appears to be some internal platform migration.
whatsapp-consumer://fpm?version=3
whatsapp-smb://Web-based app
The links below open the web version of WhatsApp. You still need the regular app or access to the phone’s SMS messages to login.
Only open the webapp
https://web.whatsapp.comStart a chat
https://web.whatsapp.com/sendStart chat to phone number
The number must be in international format without any symbols or spaces.
https://web.whatsapp.com/send?phone=1234Start a chat and prefill the text field
Leave out the phone number to display the contacts list.
https://web.whatsapp.com/send?phone=1234&text=Hello%20worldStart a voice/video call
https://web.whatsapp.com/calluser?phone=1234Changelog
2025-10-17 – Added call links and note about consumer and smb variants.
2025-01-23 – Small rewrite since wa.me is now the standard.
2019-12-02 – Added url to only launch the app. Rewrite text.
There is a new url ‘wa.me’ for the redirector. Right now it is still using the old one at ‘api.whatsapp.com’, but they don’t say if it is going to be replaced. Maybe ‘wa.me’ is going to be a universal link that it tightly connected with the app. When you have the app installed it will open immediately without the web redirect. And when you don’t have it the website opens. Time will tell.
Is it a way to send a message without opening the app and click on send on Whatsapp?
I just want to enter the url and the message is send…
I don’t believe there is a way to bypass the app using the URL schemes. The only way to directly talk to WhatsApp is by building your own solution using the Business API: https://www.whatsapp.com/business/api
I don’t want to send messages or do a call, I want to open whatsapp and that’s it. what will be the URL scheme for that.
You can leave out the command section:
whatsapp://Or
https://api.whatsapp.com/Nice