Overview
WhatsApp is a link preview bot used for link unfurling, rich-card generation, social previews, messaging previews, and page metadata fetching.
Its primary user-agent pattern is WhatsApp; related patterns include WhatsApp/2.0; WhatsApp link preview bot; WhatsApp crawler; a representative HTTP user-agent is WhatsApp/2.0.
WhatsApp is Unverified at the identity-evidence level. The listed identity remains useful for detection, but this record does not currently contain authoritative evidence sufficient to authenticate the identity claim.
WhatsApp is marked as respecting robots.txt directives for crawler access control.
WhatsApp can usually be allowed after confirming the source and monitoring request volume.
Identity
- User-Agent Pattern
-
WhatsApp - Aliases
- WhatsApp/2.0; WhatsApp link preview bot; WhatsApp crawler
- HTTP Agent Examples
-
WhatsApp/2.0 - Robots Token
- Identity Type
- Observed
- Evidence Method
- Treat `WhatsApp` as an identity signal only. Confirm it with current operator documentation, cryptographic verification, forward-confirmed reverse DNS, source-network ownership, or other authoritative evidence before trusting the claimed identity.
Classification
- Type
- Preview
- Kind
- Preview
- Family
- Operator
- Company
- Meta
- Purpose
- Preview
Behavior and handling
- Common Use
- WhatsApp is used for link unfurling, rich-card generation, social previews, messaging previews, and page metadata fetching.
- Detection Notes
- WhatsApp traffic is primarily detected by the `WhatsApp` user-agent pattern; related patterns include `WhatsApp/2.0; WhatsApp link preview bot; WhatsApp crawler`; a representative HTTP user-agent is `WhatsApp/2.0`. Compare source IPs, reverse DNS, request paths, and crawl cadence before trusting the traffic.
- Respects robots.txt
- Yes
- Spoofing Risk
- WhatsApp has medium spoofing risk because the user-agent can be copied, even when the bot has strong source or documentation support.
- Risk
- Safe
- Recommended Handling
- Depends
Rules and controls
- Robots.txt Snippet
-
User-agent: WhatsApp Disallow: /