Published on 2025-08-07T06:18:08Z

WhatsApp bot

The WhatsApp bot is a web fetcher for the WhatsApp messaging app, which is owned by Meta. It is not a general-purpose crawler but an on-demand bot that visits a web page only when a user shares a link in a WhatsApp conversation. Its purpose is to retrieve metadata like the title and thumbnail image to generate the rich link preview that appears in the chat. For website owners, this is beneficial as it makes your content more engaging when shared on the platform.

What is the WhatsApp bot?

The WhatsApp bot is a web fetcher for the popular messaging app WhatsApp. It is not a traditional web crawler. Its function is to interact with websites when a user shares a link in a conversation, or when a WhatsApp Business account uses an automated messaging feature. When it visits a site to generate a link preview, it identifies itself with a user-agent string containing WhatsApp.

Why is the WhatsApp bot crawling my site?

A WhatsApp bot is crawling your site because a user has shared a link to your content in a WhatsApp chat. The platform is crawling the page to generate a preview card with a title, description, and image. A WhatsApp bot may also be accessing your site if a business has integrated your web content into their chatbot experience. The frequency of visits depends entirely on how often your content is shared on the platform. This is a legitimate and authorized activity.

What is the purpose of the WhatsApp bot?

The purpose of the WhatsApp bot is to enhance the user experience by providing rich previews of shared content and supporting business automation. For website owners, this is beneficial as it ensures your content appears correctly and attractively when shared on WhatsApp, which can drive traffic and engagement. The preview cards make shared links more appealing and informative. For businesses, the bot supports communication tools that can drive conversions.

How do I block the WhatsApp bot?

To prevent the WhatsApp bot from generating previews of your content, you can add a disallow rule to your robots.txt file. This will cause links to your site to appear as plain text URLs in WhatsApp.

To block this bot, add the following lines to your robots.txt file:

User-agent: WhatsApp
Disallow: /

How to verify the authenticity of the user-agent operated by Meta?

Reverse IP lookup technique

To verify user-agent authenticity, you can use host linux command two times with the IP address of the requester.
  1. > host IPAddressOfRequest
    This command returns the reverse lookup hostname (e.g., 4.4.8.8.in-addr.arpa.). 
  2. > host ReverseDNSFromTheOutputOfFirstRequest
If the output matches the original IP address and the domain is associated with a trusted operator (e.g., Meta), the user-agent can be considered legitimate.

IP list lookup technique

Some operators provide a public list of IP addresses used by their crawlers. This list can be cross-referenced to verify a user-agent's authenticity. However, both operators and website owners may find it challenging to maintain an up-to-date list, so use this method with caution and in conjunction with other verification techniques.