How can I send message to specific contact through WhatsApp from my android app?

Question

I am developing an android app and I need to send a message to specific contact from WhatsApp. I tried this code:

Uri mUri = Uri.parse(\"smsto:+999999999\");         


        

Answer 1

Here's my way to do it (more here):

First, if you want to be sure you can send the message, you can check if the person has a WhatsApp account on the address book:

@RequiresPermission(permission.READ_CONTACTS)
public String getContactMimeTypeDataId(@NonNull Context context, String contactId, @NonNull String mimeType) {
    if (TextUtils.isEmpty(mimeType) || !PermissionUtil.hasPermissions(context, Manifest.permission.READ_CONTACTS))
        return null;
    ContentResolver cr = context.getContentResolver();
    Cursor cursor = cr.query(ContactsContract.Data.CONTENT_URI, new String[]{Data._ID}, Data.MIMETYPE + "= ? AND "
            + ContactsContract.Data.CONTACT_ID + "= ?", new String[]{mimeType, contactId}, null);
    if (cursor == null)
        return null;
    if (!cursor.moveToFirst()) {
        cursor.close();
        return null;
    }
    String result = cursor.getString(cursor.getColumnIndex(Data._ID));
    cursor.close();
    return result;
}

and if all seem well, you open it as if it's from the web:

            final String contactMimeTypeDataId = getContactMimeTypeDataId(context, contactId, "vnd.android.cursor.item/vnd.com.whatsapp.profile");
            if (contactMimeTypeDataId != null) {
                final String whatsAppPhoneNumber = PhoneNumberHelper.normalizePhone(phoneNumber);
                String url = "https://api.whatsapp.com/send?phone="+ whatsAppPhoneNumber ;
                intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW,Uri.parse(url));
                intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_FORWARD_RESULT | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_WHEN_TASK_RESET | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_PREVIOUS_IS_TOP)
                .setPackage("com.whatsapp");
                startActivity(intent);
            }

You can also check if WhatsApp is even installed before of all of this (or remove the setPackage and check if any app can handle the Intent) :

        final PackageManager packageManager = context.getPackageManager();
        final ApplicationInfo applicationInfo = packageManager.getApplicationInfo("com.whatsapp", 0);
        if (applicationInfo == null)
           return;

EDIT: about preparing the Intent with the Uri, I think this way is better:

    @JvmStatic
    fun prepareWhatsAppMessageIntent(normalizedPhoneNumber: String?, message: String? = null): Intent {
//     example url: "https://api.whatsapp.com/send?phone=normalizedPhoneNumber&text=abc"
        val builder = Uri.Builder().scheme("https").authority("api.whatsapp.com").path("send")
        normalizedPhoneNumber?.let { builder.appendQueryParameter("phone", it) }
        message?.let { builder.appendQueryParameter("text", it) }
        return Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, builder.build())
    }

or alternative (based on here):

    fun prepareWhatsAppMessageIntent(normalizedPhoneNumber: String?, message: String? = null): Intent {
//     example url: "https://wa.me/normalizedPhoneNumber&text=abc"
        val builder = Uri.Builder().scheme("https").authority("wa.me")
        normalizedPhoneNumber?.let { builder.appendPath(it) }
        message?.let { builder.appendQueryParameter("text", it) }
        return Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, builder.build())
    }