The wa.me format
A wa.me link has two parts: the address https://wa.me/ and the full phone number in international format. An optional message follows after ?text=.
https://wa.me/971501234567?text=Hello
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country code 971 + number 501234567The number must have only digits, starting with the country code. A plus sign, leading zeros, spaces, dashes and brackets are not allowed.
Local number to wa.me number
| Country | Local number | In the link |
|---|---|---|
| United Arab Emirates | 050 123 4567 | 971501234567 |
| United Kingdom | 07911 123456 | 447911123456 |
| United States | (202) 555-0143 | 12025550143 |
| India | 98765 43210 | 919876543210 |
| Brazil | (11) 91234-5678 | 5511912345678 |
The rule: drop the local zero, add the country code, and keep only the digits. The builder above does it for you and shows how the number is split into country code and national number.
The link checker
Paste any WhatsApp chat link into the checker to see what it contains: the phone number, the decoded message and a list of problems. It understands wa.me links, api.whatsapp.com/send links and whatsapp://send links, and it offers a corrected wa.me link when it finds a mistake.
Mistakes that it finds
- A plus sign in the number, as in wa.me/+971501234567.
- Spaces, dashes or brackets in the number.
- A number that starts with 0 or 00 and not with the country code.
- A number that is too short or longer than 15 digits.
- A message that was encoded twice, which shows as %2520 in place of %20, so that the person sees the codes in the message.
Which format should you use?
Use wa.me. It is short and it is the format that WhatsApp documents. The api.whatsapp.com/send form does the same thing, and you will meet it in older pages. The whatsapp:// form opens the app directly and does not work on a computer without the app, so it is not suited to web pages.
A group invite link, which starts with chat.whatsapp.com, is a different kind of link, and WhatsApp makes it inside the group settings. See the WhatsApp link generator for ready-made HTML and QR codes, and the guide for the whole process.