API Calling for WhatsApp and Messenger
My Role
Design owner for Cloud API Calling across WhatsApp and Messenger, led design end-to-end from Alpha through GA over 18 months, spanning four platform surfaces (iOS and Android on both apps). Designed user and business-initiated calling, dialer, click-to-call, business hours, call deep links, and interactive call templates. Originated the first-of-its-kind business calling permission model, managed alignment across 6+ cross-functional teams, and delivered product demos and press assets for the Conversations 2025 and 2026 keynote.
Problem
When a customer service conversation escalates, something breaks: the user has to leave the app, dial a traditional phone number, and start over with a new agent who has no context from the chat. The conversation history is lost, the experience is fragmented, and the customer has to repeat themselves.
For businesses, the problem ran deeper. Managing thousands to millions of customer interactions per month through traditional phone channels is expensive, slow, and disconnected from the messaging workflows they already rely on. There was no native way to initiate or receive calls through WhatsApp or Messenger at scale.
Need
Businesses needed a programmatic way to call their customers directly within the platforms where conversations were already happening, without fragmenting the experience or losing context.
Consumers needed the opposite of spam. They wanted calls that felt relevant, timely, and earned, not unsolicited outreach from businesses they hadn't invited to call them.
Solution
Cloud API Calling enables businesses to make and receive voice calls with their customers directly inside WhatsApp and Messenger, keeping the full conversation in a single thread.
To protect consumers, a consent-first permission model was designed from the ground up. Because no competitor had built anything like it, every interaction and piece of content was validated through user research before the full flow could be assessed as a whole.
The permission request surfaces as a message bubble within the chat thread, making it clear the request is coming from the business, not from WhatsApp. Users choose to allow calls permanently, temporarily (7 days), or decline, and can update their preference anytime. The feature shipped across WhatsApp and Messenger on iOS and Android, with platform-specific design decisions that respected each app's distinct design system and user patterns.
Impact
Announced by Mark Zuckerberg at Meta Conversations 2025, featured in TechCrunch, and designed for a platform used by 3B+ people across WhatsApp and Messenger.
