Checking LIVE users availability

Questions
1

Hello everyone, so I need this one feature, maybe someone would have a better idea how to achieve this (and even talking with someone helps it out)

Basically I need to check if a ‘teacher’ is available in live time, let’s say a ‘student’ comes to the website, clicks a button “Check availability” and then we wait for the ‘teacher’ to answer yes/no ,
but we need to give the teacher more options on how to respond because he can be away using his phone for example and not on the website, and we need to get the answer ASAP.

I was thinking sending SMS to teachers with an url containing a ‘I’m here’ webhook, but they are from many countries, so it can get expensive. Maybe push notifications?
If someone has ever done anything similar please let me know, thanks!!

2

Do you think using WhatsApp with Twilio would be better than SMS?
From the API docs, it seems relatively straightforward. It seems that conversations with users only last 24 hours after the last message the user sends, and after 24 hours a new “conversation” must be initiated. This doesn’t seem to be a problem for your use case though!

Kevin
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3

yeah, that could definitely work. There’s already a plugin for it!

4

For some more detail:
There could be a bit of a process to go through as our last experience required the following:

  1. You will need to obtain a Twilio number as you can’t use non-Twilio numbers for Whatsapp if using the Twilio Whatsapp API.
  2. Apply for a Facebook Business Manager account if you don’t already have one. Normally this will require that your business Facebook’s page is verified first. This verification process can take several weeks. Things might have changed and may be shorter now. If this is a new business, it might be tricky getting the Business Facebook page verified and hence getting a Facebook Business Manager account.
  3. Enable your Twilio number for Whatsapp from Twilio.

Also,
Your application must implement some explicit user opt-in. Your number can be blocked if you don’t have this. There are two kinds of messages that Whatsapp supports:

  1. App initiated/Outbound - This is message that your app sends to a customer such as a notification. You cannot just send any such message. You will need to create a template and get approval from Whatsapp first. (Generally as long as the message doesn’t look like an ad, a solicitation, spam, etc it will get approved.)
  2. Response to a customer initiated message. If responding to a customer within a 24hr time zone you’re free to send any message without using a template.

Hope this helps. It’s been a while since we implemented this so hopefully it’s a little shorter now, but this was our experience!

Kevin
Free no-code bootcamp by Airdev

5

Thanks for a great explanation, this seems to be a great option, because I would only send 1 message to the teachers

> are you there? If you are click here - www.bubblewebsite.com/webhook
And fortunately I have facebooks BM and recently submited my documents for twilio for verificaiton as well, hopefully they are ready and we can start right ahead!
Thanks!

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