Sharing link on WhatsApp from mobile website (not application) for Android

I have developed a website which is mainly used in mobile phones.
I want to allow users to share information directly from the web page into WhatsApp.

Using UserAgent detection I can distinguish between Android and iOS.
I was able to discover that in order to implement the above in iOS I can use the URL:

href="whatsapp://send?text=http://www.example.com"

I'm still looking for the solution to be used when the OS is Android (as the above doesn't work).
I guess it is somehow related to using "intent" in Android, but I couldn't figure out how to do it as parameter for href.

Solution 1:

Just saw it on a website and seems to work on latest Android with latest chrome and whatsapp now too! Give the link a new shot!

<a href="whatsapp://send?text=The text to share!" data-action="share/whatsapp/share">Share via Whatsapp</a>

Rechecked it today (17^th April 2015):
Works for me on iOS 8 (iPhone 6, latest versions) Android 5 (Nexus 5, latest versions).

It also works on Windows Phone.

Solution 2:

The above answers are bit outdated. Although those method work, but by using below method, you can share any text to a predefined number. The below method works for android, WhatsApp web, IOS etc.

You just need to use this format:

<a href="https://api.whatsapp.com/send?phone=whatsappphonenumber&text=urlencodedtext"></a>

UPDATE-- Use this from now(Nov-2018)

<a href="https://wa.me/whatsappphonenumber/?text=urlencodedtext"></a>

Use: https://wa.me/15551234567

Don't use: https://wa.me/+001-(555)1234567

To create your own link with a pre-filled message that will automatically appear in the text field of a chat, use https://wa.me/whatsappphonenumber/?text=urlencodedtext where whatsappphonenumber is a full phone number in international format and URL-encodedtext is the URL-encoded pre-filled message.

Example:https://wa.me/15551234567?text=I'm%20interested%20in%20your%20car%20for%20sale

To create a link with just a pre-filled message, use https://wa.me/?text=urlencodedtext

Example:https://wa.me/?text=I'm%20inquiring%20about%20the%20apartment%20listing

After clicking on the link, you will be shown a list of contacts you can send your message to.

For more information, see https://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/general/26000030

Solution 3:

Currently, it's very easy to achieve this. You only need to add the following code to your pages:

<a href="whatsapp://send?text=<<HERE GOES THE URL ENCODED TEXT YOU WANT TO SHARE>>" data-action="share/whatsapp/share">Share via Whatsapp</a>

And that's it. No Javascript needed, nothing else needed. Of course you can style it as you want and include a nice Whatsapp icon.

I tested this in my Android device with Google Chrome. The versions:

• Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean)
• Chrome Mobile 37.0.2062.117. Also tested on Firefox Mobile 31.0.
• Whatsapp V 2.11.399

It also works on iOS. I've made a quick test on an iPhone 5 with Safari and it works as well.

Hope this helps someone. :-)