Social Sender WhatsApp

Pub Version License: MIT Pub Likes Pub Points Popularity

A Flutter plugin for sending WhatsApp messages and sharing files directly to specific phone numbers or via a general share sheet on both Android and iOS.

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Features

  • Send Text Messages: Open WhatsApp with a pre-filled message for a specific contact.
  • Share Files: Share files (PDFs, Images, Videos, etc.) to WhatsApp.
  • Optional Phone Number: If the phone number is not provided, it opens the WhatsApp contact picker (Android) or the system share sheet (iOS).
  • WhatsApp Business Support: Automatically detects and offers sharing via WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business on both platforms.
  • Integrated Error Handling: Throws structured exceptions for easier debugging.

Platform Capabilities

Due to strict differences in operating system capabilities and WhatsApp's official platform integrations, some features behave differently on Android and iOS:

Feature Android iOS
Send Text Message ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
Direct to specific phone number ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
WhatsApp Business Support ✅ Yes ✅ Yes
Share Multiple Files ✅ Yes ❌ No (Only first file is shared)*
Share File with Text Caption ✅ Yes ❌ No (WhatsApp iOS limitation)
Target specific app for file sharing ✅ Yes (Intent filtering) ⚠️ OS Share Sheet presented**

Note

  • iOS Multiple Files: UIDocumentInteractionController is used to trigger file sharing natively on iOS, which strictly supports only a single file at a time.

** iOS Share Sheet Limitation: On modern iOS (16+), Apple's strict sandboxing design prevents apps from programmatically restricting the native share sheet to a specific third-party app. When sharing files, the OS evaluates the file content and presents a system share sheet containing all apps capable of handling that file type (e.g., sharing an image will show WhatsApp alongside other image-capable apps like Notes, Save to Files, Chrome, etc.). This is a core iOS OS-level behavior and cannot be bypassed.

Getting Started

Android Setup

The plugin automatically includes the necessary <queries> configuration in its own manifest. For most projects, no manual setup is required.

However, to ensure compatibility with all build environments and Android 11+ (API 30+), you can optionally add the following to your android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml within the <manifest> tag (outside <application>) if you encounter visibility issues:

<queries>
    <package android:name="com.whatsapp" />
    <package android:name="com.whatsapp.w4b" />
    <intent>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.SEND" />
        <data android:mimeType="*/*" />
    </intent>
    <intent>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
        <data android:scheme="https" android:host="wa.me" />
    </intent>
</queries>

Important

Do NOT add a FileProvider manually to your AndroidManifest.xml. The plugin handles this internally to prevent manifest merger conflicts.

iOS Setup

Add the following to your ios/Runner/Info.plist to allow the app to check if WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business are installed:

<key>LSApplicationQueriesSchemes</key>
<array>
  <string>whatsapp</string>
  <string>whatsapp-business</string>
</array>

Usage

Simple Text Message

import 'package:social_sender_whatsapp/social_sender_whatsapp.dart';

// Send a pre-filled message to a specific number
await SocialSenderWhatsapp.instance.send(
  phone: "1234567890",
  text: "Hello from Flutter!",
);

Sharing Files

// Share multiple files with an optional message
await SocialSenderWhatsapp.instance.send(
  phone: "1234567890", // Optional: opens contact picker if omitted on Android
  text: "Check out these files",
  files: [
    "/path/to/file1.pdf",
    "/path/to/file2.png",
  ],
);

Exceptions

The plugin throws SocialSenderWhatsappException which contains a type identifying the error:

  • whatsappNotInstalled: WhatsApp is not found on the device.
  • fileNotFound: One or more provided file paths are invalid or inaccessible.
  • unknown: Any other platform-specific error.

Support and Feedback

If you encounter any issues or have suggestions, feel free to open an issue on the GitHub repository.

Contributors

Contributors

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Libraries

social_sender_whatsapp
social_sender_whatsapp_method_channel
social_sender_whatsapp_platform_interface