Meta •
Since 2016
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Official Docs
What is WhatsApp?
WhatsApp's crawler generates link previews when URLs are shared in chats and groups. As one of the world's most popular messaging apps with over 2 billion users, WhatsApp's link preview functionality is crucial for content visibility. The bot extracts page titles, descriptions, and images to create previews that help users decide whether to click links. Unlike other social crawlers, WhatsApp's bot operates more privately, generating previews on-demand for shared links. The crawler respects standard meta tags and Open Graph protocol for optimal preview generation.
User Agent String
WhatsApp/2.23.20.0
How to Control WhatsApp
Block Completely
To prevent WhatsApp from accessing your entire website, add this to your robots.txt file:
# Block WhatsApp
User-agent: WhatsApp
Disallow: /
Block Specific Directories
To restrict access to certain parts of your site while allowing others:
User-agent: WhatsApp
Disallow: /admin/
Disallow: /private/
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Allow: /public/
Set Crawl Delay
To slow down the crawl rate (note: not all bots respect this directive):
User-agent: WhatsApp
Crawl-delay: 10
How to Verify WhatsApp
Verification Method:
Monitor for WhatsApp user agent
Monitor for WhatsApp user agent
Learn more in the official documentation.
Detection Patterns
Multiple ways to detect WhatsApp in your application:
Basic Pattern
/WhatsApp/i
Strict Pattern
/^WhatsApp/2\.23\.20\.0$/
Flexible Pattern
/WhatsApp[\s\/]?[\d\.]*?/i
Vendor Match
/.*Meta.*WhatsApp/i
Implementation Examples
// PHP Detection for WhatsApp
function detect_whatsapp() {
$user_agent = $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] ?? '';
$pattern = '/WhatsApp/i';
if (preg_match($pattern, $user_agent)) {
// Log the detection
error_log('WhatsApp detected from IP: ' . $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);
// Set cache headers
header('Cache-Control: public, max-age=3600');
header('X-Robots-Tag: noarchive');
// Optional: Serve cached version
if (file_exists('cache/' . md5($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html')) {
readfile('cache/' . md5($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']) . '.html');
exit;
}
return true;
}
return false;
}
# Python/Flask Detection for WhatsApp
import re
from flask import request, make_response
def detect_whatsapp():
user_agent = request.headers.get('User-Agent', '')
pattern = r'WhatsApp'
if re.search(pattern, user_agent, re.IGNORECASE):
# Create response with caching
response = make_response()
response.headers['Cache-Control'] = 'public, max-age=3600'
response.headers['X-Robots-Tag'] = 'noarchive'
return True
return False
# Django Middleware
class WhatsAppMiddleware:
def __init__(self, get_response):
self.get_response = get_response
def __call__(self, request):
if self.detect_bot(request):
# Handle bot traffic
pass
return self.get_response(request)
// JavaScript/Node.js Detection for WhatsApp
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
// Middleware to detect WhatsApp
function detectWhatsApp(req, res, next) {
const userAgent = req.headers['user-agent'] || '';
const pattern = /WhatsApp/i;
if (pattern.test(userAgent)) {
// Log bot detection
console.log('WhatsApp detected from IP:', req.ip);
// Set cache headers
res.set({
'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=3600',
'X-Robots-Tag': 'noarchive'
});
// Mark request as bot
req.isBot = true;
req.botName = 'WhatsApp';
}
next();
}
app.use(detectWhatsApp);
# Apache .htaccess rules for WhatsApp
# Block completely
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} WhatsApp [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
# Or redirect to a static version
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} WhatsApp [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/static/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /static/$1 [L]
# Or set environment variable for PHP
SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "WhatsApp" is_bot=1
# Add cache headers for this bot
<If "%{HTTP_USER_AGENT} =~ /WhatsApp/i">
Header set Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600"
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noarchive"
</If>
# Nginx configuration for WhatsApp
# Map user agent to variable
map $http_user_agent $is_whatsapp {
default 0;
~*WhatsApp 1;
}
server {
# Block the bot completely
if ($is_whatsapp) {
return 403;
}
# Or serve cached content
location / {
if ($is_whatsapp) {
root /var/www/cached;
try_files $uri $uri.html $uri/index.html @backend;
}
try_files $uri @backend;
}
# Add headers for bot requests
location @backend {
if ($is_whatsapp) {
add_header Cache-Control "public, max-age=3600";
add_header X-Robots-Tag "noarchive";
}
proxy_pass http://backend;
}
}
Should You Block This Bot?
Recommendations based on your website type:
| Site Type | Recommendation | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| E-commerce | Optional | Evaluate based on bandwidth usage vs. benefits |
| Blog/News | Allow | Increases content reach and discoverability |
| SaaS Application | Block | No benefit for application interfaces; preserve resources |
| Documentation | Selective | Allow for public docs, block for internal docs |
| Corporate Site | Limit | Allow for public pages, block sensitive areas like intranets |
Advanced robots.txt Configurations
E-commerce Site Configuration
User-agent: WhatsApp
Crawl-delay: 5
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /*?sort=
Disallow: /*?filter=
Disallow: /*&page=
Allow: /products/
Allow: /categories/
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml
Publishing/Blog Configuration
User-agent: WhatsApp
Crawl-delay: 10
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /drafts/
Disallow: /preview/
Disallow: /*?replytocom=
Allow: /
SaaS/Application Configuration
User-agent: WhatsApp
Disallow: /app/
Disallow: /api/
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /settings/
Allow: /
Allow: /pricing/
Allow: /features/
Allow: /docs/
Quick Reference
User Agent Match
WhatsApp
Robots.txt Name
WhatsApp
Category
social
Respects robots.txt
Yes
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