Send Your First Message

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You will finish this page with a text message sent from a live BaileysEx connection.

Before you begin

  • Your connection reaches WhatsApp successfully
  • Your session is already paired
  • You know the recipient JID
  • Your auth state includes the normal Signal credentials (signed_identity_key, signed_pre_key, and registration_id) or you overrode the default repository

Steps

1. Send a text message

Call BaileysEx.send_message/4 with a user JID and a content map.

BaileysEx builds the built-in production Signal adapter automatically during connect/2 when the auth state includes the standard Signal credentials. Use signal_repository: or signal_repository_adapter: only when you need a custom repository implementation.

{:ok, sent} =
  BaileysEx.send_message(connection, "15551234567@s.whatsapp.net", %{text: "Hello from Elixir"})

The return value includes the generated message id, destination JID, encoded message, and timestamp.

2. Subscribe to incoming messages

Use BaileysEx.subscribe/2 if you want a simple message loop.

unsubscribe =
  BaileysEx.subscribe(connection, fn
    {:message, message} -> IO.inspect(message, label: "incoming")
    {:connection, update} -> IO.inspect(update, label: "connection")
    _other -> :ok
  end)

This is the simplest way to build bots and automations on top of the public facade.

3. Reply to a received message

Use the incoming message key to reply in the same chat.

{:message, incoming} = receive do
  event -> event
end

{:ok, _reply} =
  BaileysEx.send_message(connection, incoming.key.remote_jid, %{
    text: "I received your message",
    quoted: incoming
  })

Quoted replies use the original message metadata so WhatsApp renders the reply thread correctly.

Check that it worked

You should see a result like %{id: "3EB0..."} from send_message/4, and the recipient should receive the message in WhatsApp.

Next steps:

  • Messages — send reactions, polls, forwards, and other non-media payloads
  • Media — upload and download images, audio, documents, and stickers