The task of integrating the CRM Bitrix24 with WhatsApp was implemented by me and my team 4 times using various methods. (2 times for Cloud Bitrix24 and 2 times for Self-hosted Bitrix24). We have been working on this task for the last 3 months.
The WhatsApp messenger has not yet opened API for everyone, so in order to integrate Bitrix24 with WhatsApp, we had to use third-party services as a proxy.
We investigated the integration of Bitrix24 and WhatsApp through several services, and only two services met our requirements: https://chat2desk.com and https://www.twilio.com/whatsapp.
In this article, we will mainly talk about our experience with the Chat2desk service. Although the principle of integration is applicable to other services.
For the integration of cloud Bitrix24 and self-host Bitrix24 with WhatsApp via Chat2desk we had to write completely different code.
Bitrix24 Cloud REST-API does not allow us to create our custom connector for Bitrix24 open lines.
For cloud Bitrix24, we have developed a chat-bot that listens to incoming messages from various messengers (not only WhatsApp but also Viber, Instagram, Facebook, VC, Telegram, Skype) when the chatbot receives an incoming message, he creates a separate chat for each individual client and invites to this chat the responsible manager - Bitrix24 user.
This is one of the key features of our application, which is not available in other similar solutions in the market.
After that, the Bitrix24 user can communicate in this chat with the client, and if this is a new client, then the system creates a new lead.
In the chat, you can exchange text messages, pictures, files, locations.
It is possible to link the chat not only to a particular lead but also to a deal and/or to a contact:
This application for the cloud Bitrix24 was bought from us by Chat2desk and published in the Bitrix24 Marketplace: https://www.bitrix24.ru/apps/?app=chat2desk.integration
Integration through a chat-bot, and not through a custom connector assumes some functional limitations. Integration via the connector, which is possible only for the self-hosted version of Bitrix24 gives more functionality, therefore, despite the fact that the cloud Bitrix24 application can be launched in the self-hosted Bitrix24 too, for our customers and their self-hosted versions of Bitrix24 we also developed a module that adds a custom connector into the system.
This allows us to work with messages that come from WhatsApp (and from other instant messengers that can be connected) in exactly the same way as with standard Bitrix24 Open Lines.
In addition, for self-hosted Bitrix24 we added the ability to initiate WhatsApp chat directly from the CRM card. Unfortunately, this feature is not yet available for the cloud version.
In the development process, we also discovered a lot of technical details from both the Bitrix 24 REST API and the Bitrix Framework API for the self-hosted version of Bitrix24, I'll write about them in future blog posts.
The WhatsApp messenger has not yet opened API for everyone, so in order to integrate Bitrix24 with WhatsApp, we had to use third-party services as a proxy.
We investigated the integration of Bitrix24 and WhatsApp through several services, and only two services met our requirements: https://chat2desk.com and https://www.twilio.com/whatsapp.
In this article, we will mainly talk about our experience with the Chat2desk service. Although the principle of integration is applicable to other services.
For the integration of cloud Bitrix24 and self-host Bitrix24 with WhatsApp via Chat2desk we had to write completely different code.
Bitrix24 Cloud REST-API does not allow us to create our custom connector for Bitrix24 open lines.
For cloud Bitrix24, we have developed a chat-bot that listens to incoming messages from various messengers (not only WhatsApp but also Viber, Instagram, Facebook, VC, Telegram, Skype) when the chatbot receives an incoming message, he creates a separate chat for each individual client and invites to this chat the responsible manager - Bitrix24 user.
This is one of the key features of our application, which is not available in other similar solutions in the market.
After that, the Bitrix24 user can communicate in this chat with the client, and if this is a new client, then the system creates a new lead.
In the chat, you can exchange text messages, pictures, files, locations.
It is possible to link the chat not only to a particular lead but also to a deal and/or to a contact:
This application for the cloud Bitrix24 was bought from us by Chat2desk and published in the Bitrix24 Marketplace: https://www.bitrix24.ru/apps/?app=chat2desk.integration
Integration through a chat-bot, and not through a custom connector assumes some functional limitations. Integration via the connector, which is possible only for the self-hosted version of Bitrix24 gives more functionality, therefore, despite the fact that the cloud Bitrix24 application can be launched in the self-hosted Bitrix24 too, for our customers and their self-hosted versions of Bitrix24 we also developed a module that adds a custom connector into the system.
This allows us to work with messages that come from WhatsApp (and from other instant messengers that can be connected) in exactly the same way as with standard Bitrix24 Open Lines.
In addition, for self-hosted Bitrix24 we added the ability to initiate WhatsApp chat directly from the CRM card. Unfortunately, this feature is not yet available for the cloud version.
In the development process, we also discovered a lot of technical details from both the Bitrix 24 REST API and the Bitrix Framework API for the self-hosted version of Bitrix24, I'll write about them in future blog posts.
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