WhatsApp API Webhooks Explained: Setup, Events and Debugging
Webhooks are the most misunderstood part of the WhatsApp Business API. They deliver incoming messages and status updates to your server in real time — and when they break, your inbox silently goes quiet.
WhatsApp API 29 Aug 2026 7 min read
The events you actually care about
Meta sends several event types; four of them drive almost every workflow.
- messages — an incoming customer message, button tap or Flow submission
- statuses: sent / delivered / read — per-message delivery lifecycle
- statuses: failed — with an error code explaining the rejection
- template status updates — approval or rejection of a submitted template
Verification handshake
Meta first sends a GET request with a verify token and challenge string. Your endpoint must echo the challenge back. If this fails, no events are ever delivered.
Common failures and fixes
Most webhook problems are infrastructure, not API bugs.
- Endpoint not on HTTPS with a valid certificate
- Responding slower than a few seconds, causing retries and duplicates
- Not returning 200, so Meta keeps retrying and eventually backs off
- Missing idempotency handling, causing duplicate replies to customers
Skip the plumbing
With Tizyy the webhook layer is managed for you: incoming messages land in the shared inbox, statuses power the analytics dashboard, and you can forward clean, structured events to your own endpoint if you want them.
FAQ
Questions people ask about this
Short, practical answers.