A WhatsApp click-to-chat link opens a chat with a number straight away. The person tapping it doesn't have to save your contact first. Put one in an Instagram bio, an email signature, a website button or a QR sticker, and customers are one tap from messaging you.
The link format is simple, but most broken links come from getting the phone number slightly wrong. This guide covers the exact format, a country code table and the usual mistakes.
The link format
https://wa.me/<number>
https://wa.me/<number>?text=<message>The <number> must be in full international format, digits only:
- Start with the country code.
- No
+sign. - No spaces, dashes or brackets.
- No leading
0from your local format.
Examples:
| You write it as | Country | wa.me number |
|---|---|---|
| (415) 555-0132 | United States | 14155550132 |
| (416) 555-0199 | Canada | 14165550199 |
| 07700 900123 | United Kingdom | 447700900123 |
| 0151 23456789 | Germany | 4915123456789 |
| 06 12 34 56 78 | France | 33612345678 |
| 0412 345 678 | Australia | 61412345678 |
| 077 123 4567 | Sri Lanka | 94771234567 |
The rule behind all of these: drop the local trunk 0 and put the country code in front. The US and Canada have no trunk 0; there you just add 1.
Common country codes
United States / Canada 1 · United Kingdom 44 · Ireland 353 · Germany 49 · France 33 · Netherlands 31 · Spain 34 · Italy 39 · Belgium 32 · Switzerland 41 · Sweden 46 · Australia 61 · New Zealand 64 · UAE 971 · Singapore 65 · India 91 · Sri Lanka 94
Exception: Italian landline numbers keep their 0 after the country code (for example 39 06 … for Rome). Italian mobiles start with 3 and have no 0 to remove.
Adding a pre-filled message
Add ?text= and the message, URL-encoded. The customer then only has to press send:
https://wa.me/14155550132?text=Hi!%20I%20would%20like%20to%20book%20a%20table%20for%20Friday.- A space becomes
%20and a line break becomes%0A. - Emoji and non-English text also work once encoded. The easiest way to encode is to let a tool do it: in Excel, use
=ENCODEURL(A1); in a browser console, useencodeURIComponent("your text"). - Keep it to one short line the customer would actually send, like "Hi, I saw your page and want to order".
Fixing "The phone number shared via url is invalid"
WhatsApp shows this error when the number isn't a registered WhatsApp account in the format it expects. Check, in this order:
- There's a
+, space or dash in the link. Remove everything except the digits. - The local 0 is still there, as in
4407700900123. Remove the 0 after the country code. - The country code is missing, as in
07700900123. Add it. - The number isn't on WhatsApp. Try opening a chat with it from your own phone first.
The quick way
If you'd rather not assemble and encode the link by hand, this free WhatsApp link generator does it for you:
- Paste the number in any format and type the message, and it gives you the wa.me link and a QR code as a PNG.
- It adds your country code when you type a local number.
- It needs no sign-up.
Disclosure: the generator is part of Duqit, a set of small-business tools I work on.
Where to use the link
- Instagram, TikTok and Facebook bios: people tap it on the phone they're already holding.
- Email signatures and websites: a "Chat on WhatsApp" button converts better than a bare phone number.
- Printed QR codes: shop counters, delivery bags, business cards.
- Google Business Profile: add it as the website or booking link if you mainly take orders by chat.
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