WhatsApp Messaging API (WhatsAPI fork)
Overview
An exploration of programmatic WhatsApp messaging using the open-source venomous0x/WhatsAPI PHP library, an unofficial interface to WhatsApp’s (FunXMPP) protocol. This is a vendored copy of that OSS project used as a sandbox.
Why It Exists
Before WhatsApp offered an official Business API, sending and receiving messages programmatically meant reverse-engineered libraries. This folder was the developer’s testbed for understanding how such WhatsApp automation worked.
What We Built
The archive is the WhatsAPI library checkout (README, src/, tests/, CHANGELOG, git metadata) rather than original code, an evaluation/integration sandbox. The README documents WhatsApp’s modified XMPP (“FunXMPP”) server, the JID + IMEI-hash login, and the TCP/SSL message format the library speaks to.
Technologies & Approach
PHP with the WhatsAPI library, which implements WhatsApp’s proprietary XMPP-derived protocol (login via Digest Access Authentication, custom binary message framing, HTTP media upload). Framed honestly as evaluating and integrating an existing OSS library, not authoring the protocol stack.
Outcome / Impact
A protocol-exploration build, later superseded by the whatsapp2 (mgp25/Chat-API) build with a working send script. It proved the developer’s willingness to dig into low-level, reverse-engineered messaging protocols.
Capabilities Demonstrated
- Integrating and evaluating third-party messaging libraries
- Understanding protocol-level messaging (XMPP/FunXMPP)
- Working with unofficial/reverse-engineered APIs