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Using Twilio for Sending WhatsApp Message in Java

·2 mins

In this blog post, we will try to send WhatsApp message in Java using Twilio account.

Prerequisite:

  1. Create a free account in Twilio.
  2. Once verified, you will have your own account SID and authorization token.
  3. Thereafter, you need to activate the Sandbox.
  4. Now add the number +14155238886 in you mobile account and send a message “join up-post” (without quotes).

This will register your mobile number with Twilio sandbox and now you are eligible to send WhatsApp messages. The sandbox will look like below:

Now we will write simple java code to initiate the engine and send message using program to any registered number.

Maven Dependency #

Add maven dependency for Twilio java library

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.twilio.sdk</groupId>
    <artifactId>twilio</artifactId>
    <version>7.51.0</version>
</dependency>

After adding the maven dependency, create a new program with the below method and global variables.

private String ACCOUNT_SID="ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTVWXYZ";
private String AUTH_TOKEN="123abc456def789ghi";

private void sendMessageUsingTwilio(){
    Twilio.init(ACCOUNT_SID, AUTH_TOKEN);
    Message message = Message.creator(
            new com.twilio.type.PhoneNumber("whatsapp:+xxxxxxxxxxx"),
            new com.twilio.type.PhoneNumber("whatsapp:+14155238886"),
            "Hello there!")
            .create();

    System.out.println(message.getSid());
}

The Message.creator takes three arguments: to, from and message. You can get the account SID and Auth token from the Twilio dashboard.

Custom HTTP Client #

The Twilio Java helper library also provide custom ***HttpClient ***which can be created like this. Twilio used org.apache.http.client package for its custom HttpClient. Add the below lines before creating and sending the message like Message.creator() method.

ProxiedTwilioClientCreator clientCreator = new ProxiedTwilioClientCreator(
        ACCOUNT_SID, AUTH_TOKEN, PROXY_HOST, PROXY_PORT);
TwilioRestClient twilioRestClient = clientCreator.getClient();
Twilio.setRestClient(twilioRestClient);

You can find the entire code here on my Github repository.

References #

NOTE: #

  • This is a fun project but always remember not to share your SID or authorization token details. You should also verify that you don’t mistakenly shared it with the code.
  • Twilio is not free and is having a trial period of 14 days.

Hope you will enjoy as much as I enjoyed trying it out. Please do suggest more content topics of your choice and share your feedback. Also subscribe and appreciate the blog if you like it.