Whatsapp Click-to-Chat "Couldn't open link" Error Chrome Android/iPhone

Question

I'm using Whatsapp Click-to-chat functionality, without a phone number. It previously worked but with the new Chrome version 76.0.3809.132, both on iOS and Android is not working anymore. On Android, it's showing a Toast with Couldn't open link. Tried contacting Whatsapp Support but no answer as of yet. With the latest update their own documentation example is not working, link to docs. Any suggestions or experiences?

Link example:

<a target="_blank" href="https://wa.me/?text=Villa%20stone%20road%20piece%2015%20meters%20from%20the%20asphalt%20street" title="Share on WhatsApp">

Error picture Imgur: picture

A table with my tested devices and versions on Imgur

Answer 1

The best is to use the custom url scheme format. Universal links do not work well with native clients

whatsapp://send/?phone=&text&source&data

It will work without phone number also.

My issue on a recent breaking-change: Universal links stopped working

There was a great blog post about the issue, however it is already outdated and proposes a php specific solution (nevertheless might gives you a good idea, how to think about the problem)

Answer 2

If you use https://api.whatsapp.com/send instead of https://wa.me/ you don't need to specify a phone number.

e.g

https://api.whatsapp.com/send?text=Your%20Custom%20Text