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Build a WhatsApp Chatbot with Python, Flask and Twilio

twilio.com

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Re: Build a WhatsApp Chatbot with Python, Flask and Twilio

#21

Post by air7 »

This is nice but quite expensive. Up to 0.09$ per message inbound or outbound!

Pricing for Template messages

Outbound template messages to WhatsApp destinations have two different components:

Edit: Here's the price breakdown. [0] > Twilio charges a flat fee of $0.005 per message for all WhatsApp messaging. This applies to all incoming messages, outbound Template and Session messages. > WhatsApp also charges a per-message fee to send outbound Template messages. This fee may vary, depending on the destination country or region.

The second fee varies wildly up to 0.09$ in Germany! [1]

[0] https://support.twilio.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037672734-Ho... [1] https://developers.facebook.com/docs/whatsapp/pricing/

Re: Build a WhatsApp Chatbot with Python, Flask and Twilio

#22

Post by mmsimanga »

I am divided about this. In my home country WhatsApp is the Internet (along with Facebook and Twitter). Mobile service providers sell WhatsApp data bundles which are orders of magnitude more affordable than "normal" data bundles. So we all communicate via WhatsApp. We use WhatsApp groups and it works well. News, videos, pictures everything I get by WhatsApp from contacts. IMHO it works well because there is not advertising and no bots spamming us. Some of the groups are noisy but you can mute.

I am divided because I like WhatsApp as it is right now. But we are not paying for it and the money has to come from somewhere. Using third party providers like Twilio is probably one way to pay for it. I am divided because having to use Twilio is likely to freeze out developers from my home country. C'est la vie.

Re: Build a WhatsApp Chatbot with Python, Flask and Twilio

#23

Post by yomansat »

The pricing model is:

Template Message: $0.0085 WhatsApp fee + $0.005 Twilio fee = $0.0135 [1].

WhatsApp Session Message, sent or received: $0.005. A session ends 24h after last user message [1].

Compared to just $0.0075 for sending/receiving SMS [2].

[1]: https://www.twilio.com/whatsapp/pricing/us

[2]: https://www.twilio.com/sms/pricing/us

Re: Build a WhatsApp Chatbot with Python, Flask and Twilio

#24

Post by gcbw3 »

mmsimanga wrote: post #22

I am divided about this. In my home country WhatsApp is the Internet (along with Facebook and Twitter). Mobile service providers sell WhatsApp data bundles which are orders of magnitude more affordable than "normal" data bundles. So we all communicate via WhatsApp. We use WhatsApp groups and it works well. News, videos, pictures everything I get by WhatsApp from contacts. IMHO it works well because there is not adver…

> we are not paying for it

"With location sharing data, 60 billion messages sent per day and access to users' entire contact lists, Facebook has access to a ton of personal information – all uploaded and saved on its servers."

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/04091...

Re: Build a WhatsApp Chatbot with Python, Flask and Twilio

#25

Post by [deleted] »

mmsimanga wrote: post #22

I am divided about this. In my home country WhatsApp is the Internet (along with Facebook and Twitter). Mobile service providers sell WhatsApp data bundles which are orders of magnitude more affordable than "normal" data bundles. So we all communicate via WhatsApp. We use WhatsApp groups and it works well. News, videos, pictures everything I get by WhatsApp from contacts. IMHO it works well because there is not adver…

[deleted]

Re: Build a WhatsApp Chatbot with Python, Flask and Twilio

#27

Post by miguelgrinberg »

machbio wrote: post #16
sixhobbits wrote: post #13

wow this is by Miguel Grinberg who is the author of some of the best Flask tutorials and books around. Nice to see Twilio is attracting such high quality writers for their blog

Miguel Grinberg was recently hired by Twilio

Yes, this is true. I will be involved with the Twilio blog as part of my duties, by writing original articles and also by working with other contributors to get their posts published.

Re: Build a WhatsApp Chatbot with Python, Flask and Twilio

#28

Post by ericmarcos »

Chatbots on Whatsapp are kind of hard from a UX point of view because the platform don't support rich elements like buttons or webviews (unlike Facebook messenger). I hope Whatsapp adds these kind of features soon, otherwise users will get frustrated when interacting with bots and never use it to talk to businesses again. And no, AI/NLP is not the answer to this because users are lazy and prefer to tap on buttons than to write 20 characters... I know this because I'm the creator of Botonic (a React-based conversational framework) and we've been building conversational apps on Whatsapp and other platforms for years. By the way, if anyone is interested in access to the Whatsapp Business API beta feel free to drop me a line at eric@botonic.io

Re: Build a WhatsApp Chatbot with Python, Flask and Twilio

#29

Post by daveFNbuck »

pmlnr wrote: post #10
namanaggarwal wrote: post #2

I really didn't like the WhatsApp approach on this. Basically only partnering with few big vendors like twilio and then asking people to build apps via them (by basically paying for it). Other apps like telegram allows anyone to directly interact with them

Paying isn't necessarily the issue. WhatsApp needs to make money, and this is a fairly clear way. The issue is the 3rd party. I don't understand why it needs to go through another service.

I use Twilio to automate SMS messaging with users. Some of Twilio's sales people told me about this a few weeks ago, saying I'd be able to seamlessly connect with people through SMS, Whatsapp, or however they like to communicate.

I think the idea here is that if you're building a Whatsapp bot, you probably want the other types of bots that Twilio offers anyway and it's easier if the services are bundled together under a single vendor.

Re: Build a WhatsApp Chatbot with Python, Flask and Twilio

#30

Post by streetcat1 »

3riverdev wrote: post #26

Hey all, I'm the engineering manager for teams at Twilio responsible for WhatsApp integration, among other channels. We're more than happy to answer any technical or general questions -- fire away with replies. Will keep an eye on it today.

So are you planning to offer any sort of NLU services or just the webhook?
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