Baileys does not require Selenium or any other browser to be interface with WhatsApp Web, it does so directly using a WebSocket. Not running Selenium or Chromimum saves you like half a gig of ram :/

Thank you to @Sigalor for writing the guide to reverse engineering WhatsApp Web and thanks to @Rhymen for the go implementation.

Baileys is type-safe, extensible and simple to use. If you require more functionality than provided, it'll super easy for you to write an extension. More on this here.

If you're interested in building a WhatsApp bot, you may wanna check out WhatsAppInfoBot and an actual bot built with it, Messcat.

Read the docs here

Example

Do check out & run example.ts to see example usage of the library. The script covers most common use cases. To run the example script, download or clone the repo and then type the following in terminal:

cd path/to/Baileys
npm install
npm run example

Install

Create and cd to your NPM project directory and then in terminal, write:

stable: npm install @adiwajshing/baileys
stabl-ish w quicker fixes & latest features: npm install github:adiwajshing/baileys (major changes incoming right now)

Then import in your code using:

import { WAConnection } from '@adiwajshing/baileys'

Unit Tests

Baileys also comes with a unit test suite. Simply cd into the Baileys directory & run npm test.

You will require a phone with WhatsApp to test, and a second WhatsApp number to send messages to. Set the phone number you can randomly send messages to in a .env file with TEST_JID=1234@s.whatsapp.net

Connecting

import { WAConnection } from '@adiwajshing/baileys'

async function connectToWhatsApp () {
    const conn = new WAConnection() 
    const [user, chats, contacts] = await conn.connect ()
    console.log ("oh hello " + user.name + " (" + user.id + ")")
    console.log ("you have " + chats.length + " chats")

    // every chat object has a list of most recent messages
    // can use that to retreive all your pending unread messages
    // the 'count' property a chat object reflects the number of unread messages 
    // the 'count' property is -1 if the entire thread has been marked unread
    const unread = chats.all().flatMap (chat => chat.messages.slice(chat.messages.length-chat.count))

    console.log ("you have " + unread.length + " unread messages")
}

// run in main file
connectToWhatsApp ()
.catch (err => console.log("unexpected error: " + err) ) // catch any errors

If the connection is successful, you will see a QR code printed on your terminal screen, scan it with WhatsApp on your phone and you'll be logged in! If you don't want to wait for WhatsApp to send all your chats while connecting, you can use the following function:

import { WAConnection } from '@adiwajshing/baileys'

async function connectToWhatsApp () {
    const conn = new WAConnection() 
    const user = await conn.connectSlim ()
    console.log ("oh hello " + user.name + " (" + user.id + ")")

    conn.receiveChatsAndContacts () // wait for chats & contacts in the background
    .then (([chats, contacts]) => {
        console.log ("you have " + chats.all().length + " chats and " + contacts.length + " contacts")
    })
}
// run in main file
connectToWhatsApp ()
.catch (err => console.log("unexpected error: " + err) ) // catch any errors

Do note, the chats object returned is now a KeyedDB. This is done for the following reasons:

Most applications require chats to be ordered in descending order of time. (KeyedDB does this in log(N) time)
Most applications require pagination of chats (Use chats.paginated())
Most applications require O(1) access to chats via the chat ID. (Use chats.get(jid) with KeyedDB)

Saving & Restoring Sessions

You obviously don't want to keep scanning the QR code every time you want to connect.

So, do the following the first time you connect:

import * as fs from 'fs'

const conn = new WAConnection() 
conn.connectSlim() // connect first
.then (user => {
    const creds = conn.base64EncodedAuthInfo () // contains all the keys you need to restore a session
    fs.writeFileSync('./auth_info.json', JSON.stringify(creds, null, '\t')) // save JSON to file
})

Then, to restore a session:

const conn = new WAConnection() 
conn.connectSlim('./auth_info.json') // will load JSON credentials from file
.then (user => {
    // yay connected without scanning QR
})

/*
    Optionally, you can load the credentials yourself from somewhere 
    & pass in the JSON object to connectSlim () as well.
*/

If you're considering switching from a Chromium/Puppeteer based library, you can use WhatsApp Web's Browser credentials to restore sessions too:

conn.loadAuthInfoFromBrowser ('./auth_info_browser.json')
conn.connectSlim(null, 20*1000) // use loaded credentials & timeout in 20s
.then (user => {
    // yay! connected using browser keys & without scanning QR
})

See the browser credentials type here.

QR Overriding

If you want to do some custom processing with the QR code used to authenticate, you can override the following method:

conn.onReadyForPhoneAuthentication = ([ref, publicKey, clientID]) => {
    const str = ref + ',' + publicKey + ',' + clientID // the QR string
    // Now, use 'str' to display in QR UI or send somewhere
}
const user = await conn.connect ()

If you need to regenerate the QR, you can also do so using:

let generateQR: async () => void // call generateQR on some timeout or error
conn.onReadyForPhoneAuthentication = ([ref, publicKey, clientID]) => {
    generateQR = async () => {
        ref = await conn.generateNewQRCode () // returns a new ref code to use for QR generation
        const str = ref + ',' + publicKey + ',' + clientID // the QR string
        // re-print str as QR or update in UI or send somewhere
        //QR.generate(str, { small: true })
    }
}
const user = await conn.connect ()

Handling Events

Implement the following callbacks in your code:

Called when you have a pending unread message or recieve a new message

import { getNotificationType } from '@adiwajshing/baileys'
// set first param to `true` if you want to receive outgoing messages that may be sent from your phone
conn.setOnUnreadMessage (false, (m: WAMessage) => {
    // get what type of notification it is -- message, group add notification etc.
    const [notificationType, messageType] = getNotificationType(m)

    console.log("got notification of type: " + notificationType) // message, groupAdd, groupLeave
    console.log("message type: " + messageType) // conversation, imageMessage, videoMessage, contactMessage etc.
})

Called when you recieve an update on someone's presence, they went offline or online

conn.setOnPresenceUpdate ((json: PresenceUpdate) => console.log(json.id + " presence is " + json.type))

Called when your message gets delivered or read

conn.setOnMessageStatusChange ((json: MessageStatusUpdate) => {
    let sent = json.to
    if (json.participant) // participant exists when the message is from a group
        sent += " ("+json.participant+")" // mention as the one sent to
    // log that they acknowledged the message
    console.log(sent + " acknowledged message(s) " + json.ids + " as " + json.type + " at " + json.timestamp)
})

Called when the connection gets disconnected (either the server loses internet, the phone gets unpaired, or the connection is taken over from somewhere)
```
conn.setOnUnexpectedDisconnect (reason => console.log ("disconnected unexpectedly: " + reason) )
```

Sending Messages

Send like, all types of messages with a single function:

import { MessageType, MessageOptions, Mimetype } from '@adiwajshing/baileys'

const id = 'abcd@s.whatsapp.net' // the WhatsApp ID 
// send a simple text!
conn.sendMessage (id, 'oh hello there', MessageType.text)
// send a location!
conn.sendMessage(id, {degreeslatitude: 24.121231, degreesLongitude: 55.1121221}, MessageType.location)
// send a contact!
const vcard = 'BEGIN:VCARD\n' // metadata of the contact card
            + 'VERSION:3.0\n' 
            + 'FN:Jeff Singh\n' // full name
            + 'ORG:Ashoka Uni;\n' // the organization of the contact
            + 'TEL;type=CELL;type=VOICE;waid=911234567890:+91 12345 67890\n' // WhatsApp ID + phone number
            + 'END:VCARD'
conn.sendMessage(id, {displayname: "Jeff", vcard: vcard}, MessageType.contact)
// send a gif
const buffer = fs.readFileSync("Media/ma_gif.mp4") // load some gif
const options: MessageOptions = {mimetype: Mimetype.gif, caption: "hello!"} // some metadata & caption
conn.sendMessage(id, buffer, MessageType.video, options)

To note:

id is the WhatsApp ID of the person or group you're sending the message to.
- It must be in the format [country code][phone number]@s.whatsapp.net, for example +19999999999@s.whatsapp.net for people. For groups, it must be in the format 123456789-123345@g.us.
- Do not attach @c.us for individual people IDs, It won't work.
- Please do not explicitly disable ID validation (in MessageOptions) because then your messages may fail for no apparent reason.
For media messages, the thumbnail can be generated automatically for images & stickers. Thumbnails for videos can also be generated automatically, though, you need to have ffmpeg installed on your system.

MessageOptions: some extra info about the message. It can have the following optional values:

const info: MessageOptions = {
    quoted: quotedMessage, // the message you want to quote
    contextInfo: { forwardingScore: 2, isForwarded: true }, // some random context info 
    // (can show a forwarded message with this too)
    timestamp: Date(), // optional, if you want to manually set the timestamp of the message
    validateID: true, // if you want to validate the ID before sending the message, true by default
    caption: "hello there!", // (for media messages) the caption to send with the media (cannot be sent with stickers though)
    thumbnail: "23GD#4/==", /*  (for location & media messages) has to be a base 64 encoded JPEG if you want to send a custom thumb, 
                                or set to null if you don't want to send a thumbnail.
                                Do not enter this field if you want to automatically generate a thumb
                            */
    mimetype: Mimetype.pdf, /* (for media messages) specify the type of media (optional for all media types except documents),
                                    import {Mimetype} from '@adiwajshing/baileys'
                            */
    filename: 'somefile.pdf' // (for media messages) file name for the media
}

Forwarding Messages

const messages = await conn.loadConversation ('1234@s.whatsapp.net', 1)
const message = messages[0] // get the last message from this conversation
await conn.forwardMessage ('455@s.whatsapp.net', message) // WA forward the message!

Reading Messages

const id = '1234-123@g.us'
const messageID = 'AHASHH123123AHGA' // id of the message you want to read

await conn.sendReadReceipt(id, messageID) // mark as read
await conn.sendReadReceipt (id) // mark all messages in chat as read

await conn.sendReadReceipt(id, null, 'unread') // mark the chat as unread

id is in the same format as mentioned earlier.
The message ID is the unique identifier of the message that you are marking as read.
On a WAMessage, the messageID can be accessed using messageID = message.key.id.

Update Presence

import { Presence } from '@adiwajshing/baileys'

conn.updatePresence(id, Presence.available)

This lets the person/group with id know whether you're online, offline, typing etc. where presence can be one of the following:

export enum Presence {
    available = 'available', // "online"
    unavailable = 'unavailable', // "offline"
    composing = 'composing', // "typing..."
    recording = 'recording', // "recording..."
    paused = 'paused', // I have no clue
}

Downloading Media

If you want to save the media you received

import { MessageType, extensionForMediaMessage } from '@adiwajshing/baileys'
conn.setOnUnreadMessage (false, async m => {
    if (!m.message) return // if there is no text or media message

    const messageType = Object.keys (m.message)[0]// get what type of message it is -- text, image, video
    // if the message is not a text message
    if (messageType !== MessageType.text && messageType !== MessageType.extendedText) {
        const buffer = await conn.downloadMediaMessage(m) // to decrypt & use as a buffer
        
        const savedFilename = await conn.downloadAndSaveMediaMessage (m) // to decrypt & save to file
        console.log(m.key.remoteJid + " sent media, saved at: " + savedFilename)
    }
}

Deleting Messages

const jid = '1234@s.whatsapp.net' // can also be a group
const response = await conn.sendMessage (jid, 'hello!', MessageType.text) // send a message

await conn.deleteMessage (jid, {id: response.messageID, remoteJid: jid, fromMe: true}) // will delete the sent message for everyone!
await conn.clearMessage (jid, {id: response.messageID, remoteJid: jid, fromMe: true}) // will delete the sent message for only you!

Modifying Chats

const jid = '1234@s.whatsapp.net' // can also be a group
await conn.modifyChat (jid, ChatModification.archive) // archive chat
await conn.modifyChat (jid, ChatModification.unarchive) // unarchive chat

const response = await conn.modifyChat (jid, ChatModification.pin) // pin the chat
await conn.modifyChat (jid, ChatModification.unpin, {stamp: response.stamp})

const mutedate = new Date (new Date().getTime() + 8*60*60*1000) // mute for 8 hours in the future
await conn.modifyChat (jid, ChatModification.mute, {stamp: mutedate}) // mute
setTimeout (() => {
    conn.modifyChat (jid, ChatModification.unmute, {stamp: mutedate})
}, 5000) // unmute after 5 seconds

await conn.deleteChat (jid) // will delete the chat (can be a group or broadcast list)

Note: to unmute or unpin a chat, one must pass the timestamp of the pinning or muting. This is returned by the pin & mute functions. This is also available in the WAChat objects of the respective chats, as a mute or pin property.

Misc

To check if a given ID is on WhatsApp

const id = 'xyz@s.whatsapp.net'
const exists = await conn.isOnWhatsApp (id)
console.log (`${id} ${exists ? " exists " : " does not exist"} on WhatsApp`)

To query chat history on a group or with someone

// query the last 25 messages (replace 25 with the number of messages you want to query)
const messages = await conn.loadConversation ("xyz-abc@g.us", 25)
console.log("got back " + messages.length + " messages")

You can also load the entire conversation history if you want

await conn.loadEntireConversation ("xyz@c.us", message => console.log("Loaded message with ID: " + message.key.id))
console.log("queried all messages") // promise resolves once all messages are retreived

To get the status of some person

const status = await conn.getStatus ("xyz@c.us") // leave empty to get your own status
console.log("status: " + status)

To get the display picture of some person/group

const ppUrl = await conn.getProfilePicture ("xyz@g.us") // leave empty to get your own
console.log("download profile picture from: " + ppUrl)

To change your display picture or a group's

const jid = '111234567890-1594482450@g.us' // can be your own too
const img = fs.readFileSync ('new-profile-picture.jpeg') // can be PNG also
await conn.updateProfilePicture (jid, newPP)

To get someone's presence (if they're typing, online)

// the presence update is fetched and called here
conn.setOnPresenceUpdate (json => console.log(json.id + " presence is " + json.type))
await conn.requestPresenceUpdate ("xyz@c.us") // request the update

To search through messages

const response = await conn.searchMessages ('so cool', null, 25, 1) // search in all chats
console.log (`got ${response.messages.length} messages in search`)

const response2 = await conn.searchMessages ('so cool', '1234@c.us', 25, 1) // search in given chat

Of course, replace xyz with an actual ID. Append @s.whatsapp.net for individuals & @g.us for groups.

Groups

To create a group

// title & participants
const group = await conn.groupCreate ("My Fab Group", ["abcd@s.whatsapp.net", "efgh@s.whatsapp.net"])
console.log ("created group with id: " + group.gid)
conn.sendMessage(group.gid, "hello everyone", MessageType.extendedText) // say hello to everyone on the group

To add people to a group

// id & people to add to the group (will throw error if it fails)
const response = await conn.groupAdd ("abcd-xyz@g.us", ["abcd@s.whatsapp.net", "efgh@s.whatsapp.net"])

To make/demote admins on a group

// id & people to make admin (will throw error if it fails)
await conn.groupMakeAdmin ("abcd-xyz@g.us", ["abcd@s.whatsapp.net", "efgh@s.whatsapp.net"])
await conn.groupDemoteAdmin ("abcd-xyz@g.us", ["abcd@s.whatsapp.net", "efgh@s.whatsapp.net"]) // demote admins

To change group settings

import { GroupSettingChange } from '@adiwajshing/baileys'
// only allow admins to send messages
await conn.groupSettingChange ("abcd-xyz@g.us", GroupSettingChange.messageSend, true)
// allow everyone to modify the group's settings -- like display picture etc.
await conn.groupSettingChange ("abcd-xyz@g.us", GroupSettingChange.settingChange, false)
// only allow admins to modify the group's settings
await conn.groupSettingChange ("abcd-xyz@g.us", GroupSettingChange.settingChange, true)

To leave a group

await conn.groupLeave ("abcd-xyz@g.us") // (will throw error if it fails)

To get the invite code for a group

const code = await conn.groupInviteCode ("abcd-xyz@g.us")
console.log("group code: " + code)

To query the metadata of a group

const metadata = await conn.groupMetadata ("abcd-xyz@g.us") 
console.log(json.id + ", title: " + json.subject + ", description: " + json.desc)

// Or if you've left the group -- call this
const metadata2 = await conn.groupMetadataMinimal ("abcd-xyz@g.us")

Broadcast Lists & Stories

You can send messages to broadcast lists the same way you send messages to groups & individual chats.
Unfortunately, WA Web does not support creating broadcast lists right now but you can still delete them.
Broadcast IDs are in the format 12345678@broadcast

To query a broadcast list's recipients & name:

const bList = await conn.getBroadcastListInfo ("1234@broadcast")
console.log (`list name: ${bList.name}, recps: ${bList.recipients}`)

Writing Custom Functionality

Baileys is written, keeping in mind, that you may require other custom functionality. Hence, instead of having to fork the project & re-write the internals, you can simply write extensions in your own code.

First, enable the logging of unhandled messages from WhatsApp by setting

conn.logLevel = MessageLogLevel.unhandled // set to MessageLogLevel.all to see all messages received

This will enable you to see all sorts of messages WhatsApp sends in the console. Some examples:

Functionality to track of the battery percentage of your phone. You enable logging and you'll see a message about your battery pop up in the console: [Baileys] [Unhandled] s22, ["action",null,[["battery",{"live":"false","value":"52"},null]]]

You now know what a battery update looks like. It'll have the following characteristics.
- Given const bMessage = ["action",null,[["battery",{"live":"false","value":"52"},null]]]
- bMessage[0] is always "action"
- bMessage[1] is always null
- bMessage[2][0][0] is always "battery"
Hence, you can register a callback for an event using the following:
```
conn.registerCallback (["action", null, "battery"], json => {
    const batteryLevelStr = json[2][0][1].value
    const batterylevel = parseInt (batteryLevelStr)
    console.log ("battery level: " + batterylevel + "%")
})
```
This callback will be fired any time a message is received matching the following criteria: message [0] === "action" && message [1] === null && message[2][0][0] === "battery"
Functionality to keep track of the pushname changes on your phone. You enable logging and you'll see an unhandled message about your pushanme pop up like this: [Baileys] [Unhandled] s24, ["Conn",{"pushname":"adiwajshing"}]

You now know what a pushname update looks like. It'll have the following characteristics.
- Given const pMessage = ["Conn",{"pushname":"adiwajshing"}]
- pMessage[0] is always "Conn"
- pMessage[1] always has the key "pushname"
- pMessage[2] is always undefined
Following this, one can implement the following callback:
```
conn.registerCallback (["Conn", "pushname"], json => {
    const pushname = json[1].pushname
    conn.userMetaData.name = pushname // update on client too
    console.log ("Name updated: " + pushname)
})
```
This callback will be fired any time a message is received matching the following criteria: message [0] === "Conn" && message [1].pushname

A little more testing will reveal that almost all WhatsApp messages are in the format illustrated above. Note: except for the first parameter (in the above cases, "action" or "Conn"), all the other parameters are optional.

Note

This library is in no way affiliated with WhatsApp. Use at your own discretion. Do not spam people with this.