Onboarding as a WhatsApp ASP

As an ASP, you can provide WhatsApp functionality to your customers through the WhatsApp channel of the Conversation API.

This document provides a general guide to onboard to Sinch's services as a WhatsApp ASP. Throughout the guide, we provide instructions for, summaries of, and references to several complex processes. Some of these processes must be completed using Meta's tools, and we reference Meta's documentation in several places throughout this guide and the linked articles. Although these processes are complex, they only need to be completed once in order to onboard as an ASP.

In order to onboard as a WhatsApp ASP at Sinch, you must:

1. Set up your Sinch account
2. Become a Tech Provider
3. Onboard your customers

Setting up your account

To set up your Sinch account as an ASP, you must:

1. Create your account
2. Locate your parent Project ID
3. Gain access to the Conversation API

Creating your account

In order to onboard as an ASP, you must first have a Sinch account. To create your free Sinch account:

1. Visit the Sinch Customer Dashboard signup page.
2. Populate the form with your information (including an email address and phone number) and desired account credentials.
3. Verify your email address (using a link sent to your inbox) and phone number (using the code sent to the phone number you provided in the previous step).
4. Complete any remaining steps in the signup wizard.

Locating your parent Project ID

As an ASP, the Project assigned to your account will serve as a "parent" project, and your customers will create subprojects that are contained within your parent project.

To view your Project ID:

1. Visit the Sinch Customer Dashboard.
2. Click the projects drop-down list. This is usually in the top left corner of the page.
3. Click View all projects. The Projects overview page is displayed

   

   Note:

   If you are having trouble accessing the Projects overview page, try logging into the dashboard and visiting this direct link.
4. Your project, and the corresponding Project ID, are displayed. You may use the copy button to copy the Project ID to the clipboard.

   

Gaining access to the Conversation API

To provide WhatsApp functionalities to your customers as an ASP, you must have access to the WhatsApp channel of the Conversation API. To begin gaining access to the Conversation API:

1. Visit the Sinch Customer Dashboard.
2. Select Conversation API from the left menu.
3. Click GET ACCESS on the Conversation API Overview page.
4. The Terms of Service are displayed. Click AGREE AND CONTINUE.

Becoming a Tech Provider

Sinch provides its WhatsApp services to ASPs by participating in a partner solution. Meta partner solutions allow the parties of the solution to share WhatsApp assets and services. These partnerships are between Tech Providers (or Tech Partners, which are upgraded Tech Providers) and Solution Partners (previously referred to as Business Solution Partners).

Onboarding your customers

In order to allow your customers to send WhatsApp messages using the Conversation API, you must allow them to onboard to Sinch's WhatsApp service. You will then create a corresponding Conversation API app for your customer. Both tasks can be accomplished using the Sinch Build Dashboard.

The easiest and fastest method to onboard your customers is to use the embedded signup process within the Sinch Build Dashboard.

This process involves the creation of a project for your customer. You will then temporarily invite your customer to their specific project, granting them access to the Sinch Build Dashboard. Then, your customer will provide business details by completing the embedded signup process. Finally, you (the ASP) will remove your customer's access to the project and create a Conversation API app with the WhatsApp channel configured to use the Sender ID created during the embedded signup process.

Next steps

After you have successfully onboarded, you can review our Conversation API reference to familiarize yourself with how to send and receive messages, manage conversations, and more.