Docs · Integration guide

Conversational · WhatsApp

The miaPOS WhatsApp Business bot lets a registered seller issue instant-payment links from a WhatsApp chat at +373 690 02 773. Same backend broker as Telegram; channel mechanics differ.

AudienceSeller & integrator

StatusLive · since 14.06.2026

Updated2026-06-25

Overview

WhatsApp acceptance is a sibling channel of Telegram acceptance — same product family, same cap-svc broker contract, same payment rail. They differ in what the underlying chat API allows: WhatsApp Cloud API has no inline mode, no general group surface, and imposes a 24-hour customer-service window on free-form replies. Architecture reflects that — common stays common at the platform layer, channel-specific stays channel-specific.

For sellers — getting set up

The seller's WhatsApp phone is the identity. There is no /start, no contact-sharing handshake.

The merchant has an account at one of the miaPOS partner banks (see For Banks) and the seller's WhatsApp phone is registered against that merchant in CAP.
The seller opens WhatsApp on their phone and sends any message to +373 690 02 773 — or taps wa.me/37369002773.
The bot resolves the seller's phone through the partner bank and confirms in chat in the seller's CAP-configured locale. An unknown phone gets a polite refusal.
The seller is ready. No further setup required.

Command grammar

Short and forgiving. Five equivalent ways to issue a 100 MDL payment link:

pay 100
pay 100 "Cafea + croissant"
pay 100 "Cafea + croissant" #cafea
/pay 100 #cafea
100

Command	What it does
`pay <amount> [<desc>] [#<tag>]`	Issue a payment link for `<amount>` in the merchant's currency. Description and tag are optional and surface in the merchant portal for reconciliation.
`/pay <amount> …`	Slash-prefixed alias of `pay` — equivalent.
`<amount> [<desc>] [#<tag>]`	Implicit shorthand. A leading number is rewritten as `pay <amount> …`. Safe on WhatsApp — the Cloud API surfaces no group context to a business number, so a bare number cannot leak into a group.
`/rtp <amount> …`	Request-to-Pay. Available where the underlying instant-payment rail supports it.
`/lang`	Opens an interactive list with five language rows — Română, Русский, English, Français, Deutsch. The chosen locale persists per phone for all subsequent messages.

Locales

Five locales out of the box: RO · RU · EN · FR · DE. The locale is stored per WhatsApp phone (the seller's), defaults from the partner bank's CAP record, and is changed at any time via /lang. All chat copy — confirmation, error states, paid/failed notifications, retry prompts — is locale-aware.

The 24-hour customer-service window

Architectural constraint, not a miaPOS choice. Meta's WhatsApp Business Cloud API allows a business number to send free-form messages only within 24 hours of the user's last inbound message. Outside that window, the business may send only Meta-approved templates (Utility / Authentication / Marketing categories).

What this means in practice for the miaPOS bot:

Inside the window (≤ 24 hours since the seller's last message): the bot delivers paid / failed / declined / expired updates as ordinary chat messages, in real time.
Outside the window: the payment link itself keeps working — the customer still pays, the merchant's account is still credited. Late status updates require a Meta-approved Utility template; that rollout is in progress.
The window is per seller, not per merchant. A seller who chats with the bot every day stays inside the window continuously.

vs Telegram

The product surface is the same. The chat-API affordances differ:

Aspect	Telegram	WhatsApp
Address	`@miaposbot`	`+373 690 02 773`
Where the bot lives	1:1 chats, group threads, channels, inline mode	1:1 chats only
Onboarding	`/start` + Share-phone tap	First inbound message; phone is intrinsic
Free-form replies	Anytime	Within 24-hour customer-service window
Late status updates	Anytime	Require Meta-approved Utility templates (rollout in progress)
Identity surface	Telegram `user_id` + phone (via Share-phone)	E.164 phone (intrinsic to every payload)
Locales	RO · RU · EN · FR · DE	RO · RU · EN · FR · DE
Broker contract	cap-svc Rev 2	cap-svc Rev 2 (identical)
Payment rail	Same IPS rail	Same IPS rail

Architecture (integrator view)

The WhatsApp bot is a thin channel adapter over the same broker contract used by Telegram. Phone-based seller resolution, ecomm token issuance, AES-GCM secret handling, audit trail, and merchant configuration live in cap-svc (Rev 2). The Rev 2 contract is channel-agnostic by design — it accepts a phone, returns a posUserId, and brokers ecomm tokens. The WhatsApp channel consumes it as-is with zero contract changes.

Inbound: Meta Cloud API webhook → bot ingests messages.from (E.164 phone) and messages.text.body → command parser → cap-svc resolution by phone.
Outbound: payment link delivery and status notifications via the Cloud API POST /{phone-number-id}/messages endpoint, with interactive list messages for the /lang picker.
Identity: production WABA + permanent System User token managed under the Finergy Tech Business Portfolio (operational facts kept out of this guide; contact [email protected]).

Security model

Same as Telegram. Payment authorization always happens in the customer's own banking app. The bot only issues a link — it has no knowledge of the customer's card or account credentials, because there are no cards in the flow.

Seller resolution is gated by the partner bank's CAP record. A blocked seller's pay is refused in chat.
The payment-link page is the same hosted-checkout surface used by the e-commerce flow.
Webhook signature verification on the Meta side uses the App Secret; the bot rejects unsigned or invalid-signature webhooks.

Roadmap

Utility templates — Meta-approved templates per locale to deliver late status updates outside the 24-hour window.
Multi-bank picker — interactive list to choose the merchant if a seller's phone is bound to more than one merchant (Telegram has this in production; WhatsApp parity in progress).
Broader geo coverage — additional WhatsApp Business numbers for non-MD operations as new partner banks come online.