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Wacli – WhatsApp CLI

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Re: Wacli – WhatsApp CLI

#31
post #22
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's really unfortunate that telegram doesn't do e2ee, bc it's hands down the best messenger otherwise :(

It does, but only for chats between two specific devices. Multi-device support is one of its best features that you lose with E2E. Key distribution is just too hard. I think we won't get a messenger for non-tech people that works well with multi-device and E2E basically ever.

What are you talking about? WhatsApp, iMessage, and Signal all have multi-device support and are E2E encrypted, just to name a few very popular options.

Re: Wacli – WhatsApp CLI

#32
post #10

I wish it mentioned how safe this is. Some years ago I got banned for just logging in with a third-party client, without sending any messages. Given how critical WhatsApp is for some people, and how permanent the bans are, that's a big risk.

You should use a separate WhatsApp account for bot purposes. Recently, I used a separate WhatsApp account to interact with a group chat that I have with my friends. After about a week, they disabled the account, with no way to re-enable it.

In my case I did, but it's still wasted time and money. And when breaking TOS there's always a chance of getting related accounts also banned, though I don't know if that has already happened with WhatsApp or not.

Re: Wacli – WhatsApp CLI

#34

(Caveat I’m the founder of https://wassist.app - The WhatsApp Agent Platform) Please be very careful using this tool to automate your WhatsApp - if you send too many messages, too quickly, you are going to get banned. This is NOT an officially supported api by WhatsApp and the risk of ban is relatively high

The way I would put it as someone who works at Beeper is: only use messaging automations for personal use, and don't use it to spam anyone or do anything you wouldn't do yourself within the app.

As long as you don't abuse and keep your usage within the parameters of any human, you'll be fine.

Re: Wacli – WhatsApp CLI

#35

Beware that if this does not use a real web browser then it's likely to get your whatsapp account suspended. Don't use it with any account you care about, you will lose all your data. Hell, I got my whatsapp account suspended (appealed and reversed) just for using the official web client too soon after creating a new account.

Right now I see many bots on WhatsApp.

Re: Wacli – WhatsApp CLI

#36
I don't know why in 2026 I'm still surprised CLIs are taking off. But here's the difference today. It's for real world end user platforms like WhatsApp and Claude. That's the difference. Previously it was only Dev and infrastructure focused. Today we're saying you know what, I need programmatic access to this real world thing. It's fascinating because I rarely open my laptop now or try not to.

Who are these people using the cli?

Re: Wacli – WhatsApp CLI

#38
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do - but the utility is so high vs the risk (for a new number) that it’s worth doing anyway for many users and even organizations. Just yesterday we spoke with a $50-100m ARR org org using baileys for internal messaging!

> a $50-100m ARR org org using baileys for internal messaging Couldnt they just use post-it notes internally and still be a $50-100m ARR org?

Yes - the interesting part is the decision that the “risk of losing internal comms to a ban is worth it” - even at that size.

According to one of the founders there’s no better way for them to reach a lot of low-skill part-time employees reliably.

It shows the need to bring AI to where people already are and onto the platforms they already use.

Re: Wacli – WhatsApp CLI

#39

I just use telegram. Just yesterday I setup a bot which is easy via botfather And also, setup an app (claude built it but I had to fiddle with it, it works like pagerduty) but uses cloudflate worker to push downtime/errors (via fcm) in production (from graphana) via webhooks to "full screen, by pass dnd, alerts, with loud music, this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0IQBWWabuU ) I named the app "Siren". It's not…

Second this. Their API is such a breeze and it is so much more automation friendly than any other messenger platform. It has a good adoption % too, otherwise Signal is the real winner if we account for privacy.

Re: Wacli – WhatsApp CLI

#40

I just use telegram. Just yesterday I setup a bot which is easy via botfather And also, setup an app (claude built it but I had to fiddle with it, it works like pagerduty) but uses cloudflate worker to push downtime/errors (via fcm) in production (from graphana) via webhooks to "full screen, by pass dnd, alerts, with loud music, this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0IQBWWabuU ) I named the app "Siren". It's not…

I personally don't use whatsapp because I like it, but because all my contacts in my country are over there. It is officially more used than SMS here. It is not optional in my case :/
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