Bow ChatChoose a Bow Chat channel
Compare the WhatsApp Business Platform, a linked WhatsApp Web number, and Customer Rooms, including delivery, policy, and fallback boundaries.
Pick the channel by the job
Every channel in Bow Chat is an inbox. Contacts, conversations, assignment, notes, search, and reporting work across them, but the transport rules are different.
| Channel | Best for | Main control | Main constraint |
|---|---|---|---|
| WhatsApp Business Platform | Approved templates, notifications, campaigns, and higher-volume sending | Official API, delivery events, template and quality controls | Meta approval, consent, category, quality, and messaging rules apply |
| WhatsApp Web connection | Existing business-number conversations and low-volume, consented operational messages | Shared inbox around the number already used by the team | The linked session can disconnect or be restricted; there is no bulk-send or delivery guarantee |
| Customer Rooms | A long-running customer relationship with messages, files, status, and next actions | Business-owned room, customer-visible boundary, PWA and notification recovery | Customers enter through a private link and enable browser notifications separately |
You can combine them. The normal durable design is WhatsApp for discovery and short notifications, and a Customer Room for the relationship and documents that must still make sense months later.
WhatsApp Business Platform
Use the official API for planned outbound traffic, approved templates, campaign reporting, and delivery-state handling. A successful API response means the request was accepted; it does not by itself mean the message was delivered.
Meta prices delivered messages by recipient market and category. Bow Chat keeps Meta and provider charges visible rather than hiding them inside an unlimited promise.
WhatsApp Web connection
Connect the number the business already uses by scanning a QR code. Existing chats and groups sync into a shared inbox. This is useful for human-scale service work and established groups.
A linked Web session does not bypass WhatsApp policy. Do not use it for unsolicited or high-volume automated sending. Recipient reports, repeated unwanted contact, or detected automation can lead to limits or loss of the number. See Safe use of a WhatsApp Web connection.
Customer Rooms
Send one private link. The customer confirms once in the browser and reaches a branded room; there is no app-store download. They can add it to their home screen and separately enable notifications. Messages, photos, files, current status, and the next action stay together.
See Customer access and recovery.
A controlled fallback
A second channel should be a recovery path, not an automatic duplicate sender. Only retry after a terminal failure, keep one idempotency record for the business event, allow at most one approved fallback, and never fall back after an opt-out, block, policy failure, or consent failure.
The delivery and fallback guide defines the state machine.