What WhatsApp allows through Orbit (and what it doesn’t)

Orbit uses the official WhatsApp API. Almost everything you do in the WhatsApp Business app can also be done from the Inbox — but Meta does not offer some features to businesses answering through a platform. This is the complete list, so nobody goes looking for a button that cannot exist.

What works just like the app

• Photos, videos, audio, documents and stickers you receive show up in the conversation, open full screen and are kept in Orbit. Meta's links expire; Orbit's copy stays.
• Audio, including voice notes and forwarded audio, plays right in the conversation at 1×, 1.5× and 2× speed.
• The “Forwarded” label shows on messages the customer forwarded.
• Reply with a quote, both ways: you quote the customer's message, and you see the quote when they reply quoting yours.
• React with an emoji, and see the customer's reaction.
• Delivery ticks (✓, ✓✓ and blue ✓✓) and Message info, with the time of each step.
• Read receipts and “typing…” for the customer — you can turn them off in the channel settings.
• Location as a map and contact card with a button to message the number.
• Star messages (each team member has their own list) and forward to up to 5 conversations.

How to use each one: Reply, react, star, forward and delete messages.

What Meta does not allow through the API

• Delete for everyone. There is no command to delete a message from the customer's phone. In Orbit, Delete removes the message from Orbit only, for the whole team — the customer still sees it.
• Edit a sent message. The API has no editing. If you made a mistake, send a new message correcting it.
• The “Forwarded” label on what you forward. Through Orbit, the message reaches the customer as a new one.
• Groups, status, polls and view-once messages. They do not go through the API. When the customer sends a poll or a view-once photo, Orbit shows “Unsupported message” — check it on their phone. More in Groups don't work on the official API.
• Voice and video calls. Orbit does not make or receive calls.
• Writing after 24 hours without a message from the customer. Outside the window, only an approved template, charged by Meta. See The 24-hour window.
• Reacting to, or marking as read, a message older than 30 days.

When the customer deletes a message

WhatsApp does not always tell the platform when a customer deletes a message “for everyone”. When it does, the message becomes The customer deleted this message in Orbit, and the content — text, photo, file — is really removed. When it doesn't, the message stays in Orbit.

What about Instagram and Messenger?

• Instagram: reply with a quote, react, “seen” and “typing…” work within the 24-hour window. Instagram reports when a message is read, but not when it is delivered. If Instagram refuses a quote, the reply goes out without it and Orbit flags it on the message itself. A message deleted by the customer becomes The customer deleted this message.
• Messenger: reply with a quote, delivered and read work. Reactions do not exist in the Messenger API — the option shows as disabled, with the reason.
• Neither lets the business start a conversation: you can only reply to people who wrote first.
• Location and contact cards only exist on WhatsApp.