Set up WhatsApp alerts

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WhatsApp alerts are designed to be sent through the official Meta Cloud API using a pre-approved message template, not a regular chat message.

Settings reference

Setting (UI label)	API field (v2)	Type / allowed values	Default	Plan limits	What it does for you
Contact Type	`type`	`"whatsApp"`	-	-
Phone number	`address`	Phone number in full international format	- (required)	-	Where the message is sent, once creation ships

Add a WhatsApp contact (once available)

Open Contacts and click Add contact.
Choose WhatsApp.
Enter the phone number in full international format, and give the contact a name.
Save and confirm the contact as prompted (the type is confirmable by code, same as SMS).

What the message looks like

A WhatsApp message using a pre-approved Meta template - the monitor’s name and what happened, similar in content to an SMS.

Do it with the API or MCP

The type is registered (GET /contact/type lists it, creatable: false), but creating one is refused today with 422 contact_type_not_creatable. There’s no API or MCP workaround while the channel is parked.

Limits and gotchas

Not creatable today - see the caution above.
WhatsApp is designed to bill the same way as SMS (same segment/encoding math, drawn from the same SMS credit balance) once it ships - it is not planned as a free channel. See SMS & voice billing.
Because WhatsApp requires the recipient to have an active WhatsApp account, plan to keep a fallback channel (email or SMS) subscribed to the same monitors once you do add it.
Once it ships, WhatsApp is designed to receive every alert kind HostTracker sends, including certificate-expiry, domain-expiry, DNSBL blacklist and Web Risk notices - the restriction that blocks those from a plain generic webhook contact only applies to http contacts.