How do you create a WhatsApp link, and where should it go?
Setting up the WhatsApp link for your Instagram bio and business card properly
Your shop's Instagram page says "message us on WhatsApp to order" and shows your number. What you are asking of the customer is long: copy the number, save it as a contact, open WhatsApp and find it. A few people give up at every step. A link that opens a chat with you in a single tap costs nothing, and it is a feature WhatsApp itself provides.
This article explains how that link is built, the most common ways it gets written wrong, how to put a ready-made sentence in the customer's message box, and how to turn the link into a QR code for a business card or a shop window. None of it requires installing an app or signing up anywhere.
What a wa.me link is made of
WhatsApp calls this feature click to chat. According to the rule on its help page, the link starts with https://wa.me/ followed by the full phone number in international format. Whoever opens it gets a chat with you in their WhatsApp, with no need to save your number first. WhatsApp states that the same link works on phones and in WhatsApp Web.
So the link has three parts: WhatsApp's fixed address, the country code and your number. Optionally a fourth part goes at the end: the sentence that will be waiting in the customer's message box. The diagram separates those parts for a UK mobile number; in a real link there are no spaces between them, everything is written together.
WhatsApp Help Center: How to use click to chat →
Five ways the number gets written wrong
WhatsApp's help page asks for the number without zeros, brackets or dashes, and its own example marks the plus sign as the wrong way. Under that rule the UK mobile 07700 900123 becomes 447700900123: the leading 0 goes, the UK country code 44 takes its place and the spaces disappear. A US number such as (212) 555-0100 becomes 12125550100.
| Written as | Problem | Correct form |
|---|---|---|
| wa.me/07700900123 | No country code, leading 0 still there | wa.me/447700900123 |
| wa.me/7700900123 | Country code forgotten; 7 is Russia's code, so the number is read as Russian | wa.me/447700900123 |
| wa.me/+447700900123 | The plus sign is not part of the rule | wa.me/447700900123 |
| wa.me/4407700900123 | Country code added but the 0 not removed | wa.me/447700900123 |
| wa.me/44 7700 900123 | An address with spaces is not recognised as a link or is cut at the first space | wa.me/447700900123 |
What the tool does for you, and what it cannot
The WhatsApp link tool on this site puts the number into the right form however you typed it. Because an English page cannot guess whether you are in the UK, the US or India, it does not assume a country: either pick one from the country code list or start the number with +, in which case the list is ignored and your own country code is used. For the UK it drops the leading 0, and if you have already typed 44 it does not add it twice.
The one thing it cannot know is whether the number is actually used on WhatsApp. Under WhatsApp's rule the link opens a chat only if that number has an active WhatsApp account. Before the link goes into your bio or the QR code goes to the printer, open it from another phone and check that your own name appears; the test takes a minute and can save a box of leaflets.
Pre-filled message: write the customer's first sentence
When ?text= and a sentence are added to the end of the link, that sentence is already typed in the message box when the chat opens. It is not sent automatically; the customer can edit it, delete it or send it as it is. For a small business the real gain is this: the customer does not write "hi" and wait, their request arrives in the very first message.
The sentence cannot go into the link as it is. Spaces, accented letters, the question mark and the & sign mean something else inside an address, so WhatsApp asks for the text to be URL-encoded (percent-encoded). As the diagram shows, a space becomes %20 and a question mark %3F. Do not try this by hand: the WhatsApp link tool encodes the message itself. If you only have a piece of text to encode, the URL Encoder tool does that job on its own.
It helps to word the message so it tells you where the customer found you. Make one link for the shop-window QR saying "Hi, I saw the sign in your window" and another for Instagram saying "Hi, I found you on Instagram", and the first message tells you which channel brought the customer in. Keep the sentence short: a long message lengthens both the link and the QR code.
Where to put the link: screens and paper are different jobs
On Instagram the link is pasted into the links field of the Edit profile screen; an address typed into the bio text itself usually cannot be tapped. On your website you can attach the link to a "Message us on WhatsApp" line, and you can add it under your e-mail signature. On a screen the link opens with one tap, so it does not matter that it looks long.
Business cards, flyers, menus and shop windows are another matter: nobody types an address off paper letter by letter. Wherever it is printed, use the link's QR code and write your number clearly underneath it, so a customer whose camera will not read the code, or who does not know how to scan one, can still call you. The link tool produces the QR code at the same time: choose PNG for phones and Word documents, SVG for large prints.
Before ordering prints, print the code on ordinary paper and scan it with two different phones from a few steps back. A code behind shop-window glass can catch reflections, so try it in evening light too. If a logo or a sticker will sit on top of it, the general QR Code tool lets you raise the error correction level. For print size and the margin around the code, see the QR code guide on this site.
The other direction: messaging someone without saving them
The same feature works for you too. For someone you will message once, such as a customer whose parcel is late or a person selling something online, you do not have to save the number. Type wa.me/ followed by the number with its country code into the address bar of your phone's browser (wa.me/447700900123); WhatsApp opens and the chat begins, and your contacts do not fill up with one-off numbers.
There is also a form without any number. According to WhatsApp's help page, when wa.me/?text= is followed by an encoded message, whoever opens the link is shown a list of contacts to choose who should receive it. That suits a share button along the lines of "send this offer to a friend".
Frequently asked questions
Does a WhatsApp link expire?
No. The link carries your number directly, with no paid service or redirect in between, so it keeps working as long as WhatsApp is used on that number. If you change your number, the old link and every printed QR code carrying it will no longer reach you.
What if I do not want to share my personal number with customers?
In a wa.me link the number is written in plain sight and cannot be hidden. If you want to keep your personal line private, get a separate line for the business, set up WhatsApp on it and build the link with that number.
Does the link open on a computer too?
Yes. WhatsApp states that the link works both on phones and in WhatsApp Web.
I use WhatsApp Business. Is the link written differently?
No. The wa.me format is the same for any number that has a WhatsApp account; write your business number under the same rule.
Should I shorten the link with a URL shortener?
There is no need; a wa.me address is already short. A shortener puts a third party in the middle: if that service shuts down or starts charging, every printed code carrying its address stops working too.
Last updated: October 12, 2026