whatsapp_direct_send

A Flutter plugin for Android that sends text messages and/or images directly to a WhatsApp contact via ACTION_SEND intents.

Feature	Supported
Send text-only message	✅
Send image with text	✅
Open chat with any number	✅
Auto-detect WhatsApp / WA Business	✅
Fallback to system share sheet	✅
Android	✅
iOS	❌

Getting started

Installation

Add the dependency to your pubspec.yaml:

dependencies:
  whatsapp_direct_send:
    path: ../plugins/whatsapp_direct_send   # local
    # or from pub.dev:
    # whatsapp_direct_send: ^0.2.1

Android setup

The plugin ships its own FileProvider (a dedicated subclass WhatsappDirectSendFileProvider) and <queries> declarations — no extra manifest configuration is needed in your host app.

Because the plugin uses its own FileProvider subclass instead of androidx.core.content.FileProvider directly, it will not conflict with other plugins or libraries that also declare a FileProvider.

Usage

shareToChat() — text and/or image via ACTION_SEND

import 'package:whatsapp_direct_send/whatsapp_direct_send.dart';

// Send text only
await WhatsappDirectSend.shareToChat(
  phone: '1234567890',   // E.164 without the leading "+"
  text: 'Hello from Flutter!',
);

// Send image with text
await WhatsappDirectSend.shareToChat(
  phone: '1234567890',
  text: 'Check this report',
  filePath: '/data/user/0/com.example/cache/report.png',
);

⚠️ Limitation: shareToChat() uses ACTION_SEND with a WhatsApp-internal jid extra to route the message to a specific contact. This only works if the phone number already has an existing chat thread in the user's WhatsApp history. For unknown numbers WhatsApp silently ignores the jid and shows a contact picker instead ("Send to…"). Use openChat() below if you need to reach any number.

openChat() — text to any number via Click-to-Chat

// Works for ANY number, even without prior chat history
await WhatsappDirectSend.openChat(
  phone: '1234567890',
  text: 'Hello from Flutter!',
);

openChat() opens the WhatsApp chat using ACTION_VIEW with the Click-to-Chat URL (https://wa.me/{phone}?text={text}). This works for any phone number regardless of chat history, but does not support image attachments — only text.

Parameters

shareToChat()

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
phone	String	✅	Phone number in E.164 format without +
text	String	✅	Message body
filePath	String?	❌	Absolute path to a local image file to share

openChat()

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
phone	String	✅	Phone number in E.164 format without +
text	String	✅	Message body (pre-filled in the chat)

Error handling

The plugin throws PlatformException with these codes:

Code	Meaning
FILE_NOT_FOUND	filePath was given but the file does not exist
WHATSAPP_NOT_FOUND	No app found to handle the sharing intent
NO_ACTIVITY	The plugin could not access the foreground Activity
SHARE_ERROR	An unexpected error occurred during sharing

Example

Run the included example app:

cd example
flutter run

The example provides a UI with phone/text fields, an image picker, and buttons to test shareToChat() (text-only, image+text) and openChat() (any number).

License

MIT – see LICENSE for details.