Today HubSpot only supports setting the opt-in communications subscription preference either through:
Customers explicitly opting in through the use of a keywoard like START or SUBSCRIBE in a customer-initiated WhatsApp conversation, or
Manually setting the preference through the HubSpot App UX; and only one contact at a time, no bulk updates
Meta/WhatsApp allows for explicit consumer opt-in to be gathered through multiple channels:
SMS
Website
In a WhatsApp thread
By phone (using an interactive voice response (IVR) flow)
In person or on paper (customers can sign a physical document to opt in)
However the HubSpot approach today only covers one of these channels: "in a WhatsApp thread."
In our use case we get explicit opt-in through a web form. So it would be ideal if we could push this opt-in through the Subscription Preferences API, just like we can for email opt-in/opt-out.
Now we are not able to send whatsapp communication to new leads as we can't set the whatsapp subscription automatically. Whatsapp messages for newly added contacts are failing as the only way to initiate an outbound whatsapp message with the contact is by manually going to the contact and doing the opt-in. This idea is highly needed as going forward all new outbound whatsapp messages will be failing due to lack of automatic whatsapp opt-in.
The fact that Hubspot does not allow us to contact clients, even though they have granted permission for contact through other channels is extremely frustrating.
This is one of the reasons I signed up for Hubspot as I was under the impression that could be done. I am now finding myself searching for other services outside of Hubspot to use the Whatsapp API to its full potential which is another additional costs.
