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WhatsApp notifications

Available in:Pro

HappenBoard Pro can send your attendees a WhatsApp message when they sign up, when they cancel and before the event. Your usual emails still go out.

The messages go out through Twilio, a messaging service. You need your own Twilio account, and each attendee needs to give a phone number on your sign-up form.

WhatsApp notifications need HappenBoard Pro. See what Pro adds.

Before you start

  • A Twilio account, with its Account SID and Auth Token. You find both in the Twilio Console.
  • A WhatsApp sender in Twilio. The Twilio sandbox is enough for tests. To message real attendees, you need a WhatsApp Business sender approved by Twilio, and approved message templates (see below).
  • A phone field on your sign-up form: a Pro custom field of type Text (single line), with Collected from set to Attendee registration. Give it the key phone. It then appears on your RSVP form.

Connect your Twilio account

  1. Go to HappenBoard → Integrations.
  2. On the WhatsApp (Pro) card, click Configure.
  3. Paste your Twilio Account SID.
  4. Paste your Twilio Auth Token. Once saved, it is never shown again. Leave the field empty on a later visit to keep it.
  5. In From number (Twilio WhatsApp sender), type your sender number with + and the country code. The sandbox number is +14155238886.
  6. In Pro custom-field slug carrying the phone, type the key of your phone field, without the _happenboard_cf_ prefix. The default is phone.
  7. Under Subscribed events, tick the messages you want. All three are ticked at first.
  8. Click Save changes.

HappenBoard checks your values when you save. If the Account SID is not AC followed by 32 letters and digits, or the sender is not an international number, nothing is saved. A message tells you which value is wrong and why.

The card then shows Active. If it shows Configured, the SID, token or sender is missing, or no message is ticked, and nothing is sent.

The three messages

MessageWhen it goes outWhat it says
RSVP confirmationAs soon as someone signs up or buys a ticket and gets a seat, or moves from the waitlist to going.Their name, the event, their date and time, the venue and a link to the event page.
RSVP cancellationWhen the attendee cancels with the link in their email, or when a refund cancels their ticket.A short note naming the event.
Event reminderWith the reminder email, once per date.The same details as the confirmation, for the attendee’s own date.

When you cancel someone yourself on the Attendees screen, no WhatsApp message is sent.

The reminder follows your email settings, not a fixed 24 hours. It needs Send reminder email before each event to be on in HappenBoard → Settings → Email, and goes out at the time set in Send reminder hours before start (24 by default).

The reminder is sent once per date, together with the reminder email. If the email does not go out (the event was cancelled, or the attendee is no longer going), the WhatsApp reminder does not either.

An attendee with no usable phone number is skipped. They get no message, and their registration works as usual.

These messages do not use the language from emails in the attendee’s language.

Which phone numbers work

HappenBoard removes spaces, dots, brackets and dashes from the number, and turns a leading 00 into +. So +33 6 12 34 56 78 and 0033 6 12 34 56 78 both work.

A number that starts with a single 0, such as 06 12 34 56 78, has no country code. HappenBoard cannot guess the country, so it skips that attendee. Ask for the number “with country code” in the field label or help text.

Typing a phone number in your form counts as the attendee’s agreement to receive these messages. Label the field clearly, and make it optional if you can.

Approved templates for real attendees

WhatsApp delivers a free-form message (plain text) only in the Twilio sandbox, or within 24 hours after the attendee last wrote to your WhatsApp number. Your messages are sent first, so outside that window WhatsApp only accepts a template it has approved. Twilio refuses anything else with error 63016.

  1. In Twilio’s Content Template Builder (the panel links to it), create one template per message and submit it to WhatsApp for approval.
  2. In the WhatsApp panel, under Approved templates, paste each Content SID in its field: RSVP confirmation: Content SID, RSVP cancellation: Content SID or Event reminder: Content SID.
  3. Click Save changes. A Content SID is HX followed by 32 letters and digits. Any other value is refused.

Your templates can use these variables:

VariableValue
{{1}}The attendee’s name
{{2}}The event title
{{3}}The date and time
{{4}}The venue
{{5}}The link to the event page

An empty value is sent as a dash. A message with no Content SID is still sent as free-form text.

Send a test message

  1. Under Send test message, type Your number in international format, such as +33612345678.
  2. In Message, choose A free-form test line to check the connection, or a template to check its Content SID with sample values.
  3. Click Test message.

The test uses the saved settings, so save a new Content SID before you test it. On the sandbox, join it from that phone first, or Twilio refuses to deliver. If Twilio refuses a message, its error appears on screen.

If something goes wrong

  • One attendee gets nothing: their number is missing, sits in another field, or starts with a single 0.
  • Twilio error 63016: you are outside the 24-hour window. Add an approved template for that message.
  • No reminder: check that reminder emails are on. Someone who signs up after the reminder time has passed gets no reminder.

Next steps

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