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WhatsApp Bridge

This guide explains how to use the WhatsApp bridge from the EMS Integration Manager to integrate your WhatsApp chats with your EMS server.

It requires your EMS server to have federation on.

The following instructions are done with the Element Desktop on the Element side and on Element iOS for the WhatsApp side. Element Android should be almost identical to Element Web.

Purchase the WhatsApp integration

  1. Open the EMS control panel at: https://ems.element.io/user/hosting

  2. Click the Integrations tab and if you have more than one server, select the server you wish to add the WhatsApp integration to
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  3. Click on WhatsApp Bridge in the list of available Bridges temp

  4. Enter the maximum number of users in Maximum WhatsApp users.
    Please note: this is the maximum number of WhatsApp users who actually send messages over the bridge each month. You are only billed for the number of WhatsApp users who are active. Once you exceed the maximum, then the bridge will be disabled until you increase the maximum.

    • If you enter less than 5, you will get a warning
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    • If you enter 5 or greater in Maximum WhatsApp users, you will not see a warning
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    • Once you have entered Maximum WhatsApp users, click Purchase (remember you can always go back to this step and increase the maximum number of WhatsApp users if you need more in the future).

  5. A dialogue will remind you of the price per user and ask if you wish to proceed. Click Purchase if you wish to proceed with the WhatsApp Integration
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  6. You will have to wait a few minutes while your host is reprovisioned with the WhatsApp bridge. Once reprovisioning is finished, you are able to bridge WhatsApp to your EMS server using your Element client.

Bridge WhatsApp to your Element account

  1. Once the bridge is running, open your Element app. Click on the + next to People temp

  2. Create a Direct Message conversation by typing @whatsappbot:example.ems.host (replace the domain with the one of your homeserver). Then clickGo
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  3. The bridge account will join your room and tell you how to use it temp

  4. Open WhatsApp on your mobile device (iOS or Android) and go to Settings and then Linked Devices and then Link a Device and tap OK to start the WhatsApp QR code scanner. You will use this QR code scanner to scan a QR code displayed by your Element client in the next step
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  5. From your Element client, send a login message to the bot to connect to your WhatsApp account
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  6. A QR code will be displayed. Quickly scan the QR code with WhatsApp on your mobile device. You have about a minute before it times out. If it times out, just send the login message again to generate another QR code
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  7. On your Element client, you will see Successfully logged in, synchronizing chats... and you will see invitations for each of your WhatsApp chats in your Element client. Each WhatsApp chat is a separate Matrix room. Join one or more chats and start chatting from either your Element app on desktop, iOS or Android or your WhatsApp on mobile.

Sending a message to an WhatsApp User

To send a message to a WhatsApp user, you must first be connected to the bridge (see above).

  1. On your Element client, open the "WhatsApp bridge bot" room.
  2. Say pm followed by the international formatted phone number for your contact.
  3. You will be invited to a DM with that user, and can send messages to them.

For the EMS bridge to work, you must login to WhatsApp on iOS or Android every 14 days

From WhatsApp's documentation at: https://faq.whatsapp.com/general/download-and-installation/about-linked-devices:

Your phone won’t need to stay online to use WhatsApp on linked devices, but if you don’t use your phone for over 14 days, your linked devices will become disconnected.

This means that you cannot uninstall the iOS or Android WhatsApp app and that you must login to that app every 14 days. If you don't, the Element WhatsApp Bridge will stop working.

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