How to send WhatsApp message from your Android App using Intent

If you are developing and Android Application wherein you want to integrate WhatsApp App to send messages to your contacts, you can achieve it simply by explicit Intents.

Let's take a simple example for demonstration,

We create an Android App with a Layout.xml containing an EditText to type a message and Button. When the button is clicked we fetch the value of the EditText and send it to WhatsApp application using Intent.

activity_main.xml

xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:paddingBottom="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
    android:paddingLeft="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:paddingRight="@dimen/activity_horizontal_margin"
    android:paddingTop="@dimen/activity_vertical_margin"
    tools:context="com.code2care.example.whatsappintegrationexample.MainActivity"
    tools:ignore="HardcodedText" >

    android:id="@+id/message"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
    android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
    android:onClick="sendMessae"
    android:layout_marginBottom="21dp"
    android:text="Send to WhatsApp" />

    android:id="@+id/editText1"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:hint="Type your WhatsApp message here ...."
    android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
    android:background="#FFFFFFEF"
    android:padding="10dp"
    android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
    android:layout_marginTop="65dp"
    android:layout_height="200dp"
    android:ems="10" />

MainActivity.java

package com.code2care.example.whatsappintegrationexample;

import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.v7.app.ActionBarActivity;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.EditText;

public class MainActivity extends ActionBarActivity {

	private EditText message;

	@Override
	protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
		super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
		setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

		message = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.message);

	}

	public void sendMessage(View v) {

		String whatsAppMessage = message.getText().toString();

		Intent sendIntent = new Intent();
		sendIntent.setAction(Intent.ACTION_SEND);
		sendIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_TEXT, whatsAppMessage);
		sendIntent.setType("text/plain");

		// Do not forget to add this to open whatsApp App specifically
		sendIntent.setPackage("com.whatsapp");
		startActivity(sendIntent);

	}

}