Media

/v1/media

Use the media node to upload, retrieve, or delete media.

Edges

The following edges are connected to this node:

Before You Start

When a media message is sent, the media is stored on the WhatsApp servers for 14 days. If a user makes a request to download the media after 14 days, the WhatsApp servers will request the same media file from the WhatsApp Business on-premises client. If the media has been removed, the user will be notified that the media is unavailable.

It is not safe to assume the media was downloaded simply based on the delivered and read receipts. Outgoing media is generally safe to be removed past 30 days, but you should employ a strategy that best suits your business.

Constraints

• If you use the media upload process rather than linking to a media URL, the file must be uploaded to the media volume. Once the upload is complete, you can send a message using the media ID.
• The application processes the media that is uploaded before it's sent to the server. While the maximum file size for media that can be uploaded to the media node is 100MB, there are post-processing limits for the various media types outlined in the Post-Processing Media Size table below.
• Media storage needs to be handled by the business. If the media volume gets full, message sending will start to fail.
• There is no support for:
  • Sending media by byte streams.
  • Sending messages with animated stickers.

Uploading

Make a POST request to /v1/media to upload your media. The body of the on-premises request must contain the binary media data and the Content-Type header must be set to the type of the media being uploaded. See the Supported Content-Types section for supported options.

Sending binary data in a POST HTTP request is a standard way of uploading binary data. If you want to upload an image, for example, you issue a POST request with the actual image bytes in the payload. Alternatively, you can use --data-binary if you want cURL to read and use the given file in binary exactly as given.

Example

Uploading media:

POST /v1/media
Content-Type: image/jpeg or other appropriate media type

your-binary-media-data

Uploading media with cURL:

curl -X POST \
https://your-webapp-hostname:your-webapp-port/v1/media \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer your-auth-token' \ 
-H 'Content-Type: image/jpeg'  \ # or other appropriate media type
--data-binary @your-file-path

In both cases, a successful response returns the id field, which you need for retrieving media or sending a media message to your customers.

{
    "media": [
        {
            "id": "f043afd0-f0ae-4b9c-ab3d-696fb4c8cd68"
        }
    ]
}

If you receive an error message, see Error and Status Messages for more information.

Supported Content-Types

Post-Processing Media Size

This is the maximum allowed size of the media file after compression and encryption.

FAQ

docker volume inspect whatsappMedia

[
    {
        "Driver": "local",
        "Labels": {},
        "Mountpoint": "/var/lib/docker/volumes/whatsappMedia/_data",
        "Name": "whatsappMedia",
        "Options": {},
        "Scope": "local"
    }
]

ls /var/lib/docker/volumes/whatsappMedia/_data/

Learn More

• Best Practices
• Messages
• Reference