A webhook is the inbound channel of the WhatsApp Business Platform. Rather than the business polling WhatsApp for updates, WhatsApp pushes an HTTP request to a URL the business has registered.
The WhatsApp Business Platform uses webhooks for incoming messages, for the status of outgoing messages (sent, delivered, read, failed), and for account events: changes to the messaging limit, to a template's status or quality score, or to the account's review status. The business subscribes to the fields it needs and must expose its own endpoint to receive them.
For platforms like Kanal, webhooks are what make real-time features possible: a customer reply can appear in the team inbox, pause an automation, or start the next step of a sequence. See WhatsApp automations for Shopify.
