Video messages display a thumbnail preview of a video image with an optional caption. When the WhatsApp user taps the preview, it loads the video and displays it to the user.

Sending Video Messages

Use the POST /<WHATSAPP_BUSINESS_PHONE_NUMBER_ID>/messages endpoint to send a video message to a WhatsApp user.

Request Syntax

POST /<WHATSAPP_BUSINESS_PHONE_NUMBER_ID>/messages

Post Body

{
  "messaging_product": "whatsapp",
  "recipient_type": "individual",
  "to": "{{wa-user-phone-number}}",
  "type": "video",
  "video": {
    "id" : "<MEDIA_ID>", /* Only if using uploaded media */
    "link": "<MEDIA_URL>", /* Only if linking to your media */
    "caption": "<VIDEO_CAPTION_TEXT>"
  }
}

Post Body Parameters

Placeholder	Description	Example Value
`<VIDEO_CAPTION_TEXT>` String	Optional. Video caption text. Maximum 1024 characters.	`A succulent eclipse!`
`<MEDIA_ID>` String	Required if using an uploaded media asset (recommended). Uploaded media asset ID.	`1166846181421424`
`<MEDIA_URL>` String	Required if linking to your media asset (not recommended) URL of video asset on your public server. For better performance, we recommend that you upload your media asset instead.	`https://www.luckyshrub.com/assets/lucky-shrub-eclipse-viewing.mp4`
`<WHATSAPP_USER_PHONE_NUMBER>` String	Required. WhatsApp user phone number.	`+16505551234`

Supported Video Formats

Only H.264 video codec and AAC audio codec supported. Single audio stream or no audio stream only.

Note that videos encoded with the H.264 “High” profile and B-frames are not supported by Android WhatsApp clients. We recommend that you use H.264 “Main” profile without B-frames, or the H.264 “Baseline” profile when encoding (or re-encoding with a tool like ffmpeg), and place moov boxes before mdat boxes, for broader compatibility. If you are using ffmpeg, you can use the -movflags faststart flag to place moov boxes before mdata boxes.

Video Type	Extension	MIME Type	Max Size
3GPP	.3gp	video/3gpp	16 MB
MP4 Video	.mp4	video/mp4	16 MB

Example Request

Example request to send a video message with a caption to a WhatsApp user.

curl 'https://graph.facebook.com/v25.0/106540352242922/messages' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer EAAJB...' \
-d '{
  "messaging_product": "whatsapp",
  "recipient_type": "individual",
  "to": "+16505551234",
  "type": "video",
  "video": {
    "id" : "1166846181421424",
    "caption": "A succulent eclipse!"
  }
}'

Example Response

{
  "messaging_product": "whatsapp",
  "contacts": [
    {
      "input": "+16505551234",
      "wa_id": "16505551234"
    }
  ],
  "messages": [
    {
      "id": "wamid.HBgLMTY0NjcwNDM1OTUVAgARGBI1RjQyNUE3NEYxMzAzMzQ5MkEA"
    }
  ]
}

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