Send text to specific contact programmatically (whatsapp)

I've found the right way to do this:

Source code: phone and message are both String.

    PackageManager packageManager = context.getPackageManager();
    Intent i = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);

    try {
        String url = "https://api.whatsapp.com/send?phone="+ phone +"&text=" + URLEncoder.encode(message, "UTF-8");
        i.setPackage("com.whatsapp");
        i.setData(Uri.parse(url));
        if (i.resolveActivity(packageManager) != null) {
            context.startActivity(i);
        }
    } catch (Exception e){
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

Enjoy yourself!


I think the answer is a mix of your question and this answer here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/15931345/734687 So I would try the following code:

  1. change ACTION_VIEW to ACTION_SENDTO
  2. set the Uri as you did
  3. set the package to whatsapp
Intent i = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SENDTO, Uri.parse("content://com.android.contacts/data/" + c.getString(0)));
i.setType("text/plain");
i.setPackage("com.whatsapp");           // so that only Whatsapp reacts and not the chooser
i.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SUBJECT, "Subject");
i.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_TEXT, "I'm the body.");
startActivity(i);

I looked into the Whatsapp manifest and saw that ACTION_SEND is registered to the activity ContactPicker, so that will not help you. However ACTION_SENDTO is registered to the activity com.whatsapp.Conversation which sounds more adequate for your problem.

Whatsapp can work as a replacement for sending SMS, so it should work like SMS. When you do not specify the desired application (via setPackage) Android displays the application picker. Thererfor you should just look at the code for sending SMS via intent and then provide the additional package information.

Uri uri = Uri.parse("smsto:" + smsNumber);
Intent i = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SENDTO, uri);
i.putExtra("sms_body", smsText);  
i.setPackage("com.whatsapp");  
startActivity(i);

First try just to replace the intent ACTION_SEND to ACTION_SENDTO . If this does not work than provide the additional extra sms_body. If this does not work than try to change the uri.

Update I tried to solve this myself and was not able to find a solution. Whatsapp is opening the chat history, but doesn't take the text and send it. It seems that this functionality is just not implemented.