Working with a customer who wants to use Microsoft Bot Framework and "Whatsapp" as a channel. Though Whatsapp has released its public business API, it is still in limited public preview and Microsoft Bot Framework understandably doesn't yet support it. As an alternate, we are planning to use "Clickatell" for whatsapp integration, where Bot Framework would call the Clickatell APIs and enable integration with Whatsapp. Has anyone worked on this scenario and can throw some light on any challenges? such as how this custom channel would work and how security etc would be handled in the non-standard channel (Whatsapp)
Thanks
If I understand this correctly – Microsoft/Azure Bot will allow the business to implement AI based bots specific to their business to interact with users on various channels, WhatsApp being one. This can be done today, and will have no bearing on any roadmap items. This is how Clickatell Touch integrates today.
If there is an expectation to enable a bot within the WhatsApp application to make the interactions “rich” (like in FB messenger), then that will be a discussion with WhatsApp directly.