WhatsApp Channel API: Post Updates, Polls and Quizzes and Read Statistics

WhatsApp Channels are one-way broadcast feeds: followers see your posts, react and vote, but cannot reply in a chat. That makes them a good fit for product news, daily content or community updates, and a tedious one to run by hand every day. This guide shows how to use the WhatsApp Channel API in Maytapi to create a channel, publish every post type (including polls, questions and quizzes), read votes and answers back, manage admins and pull follower statistics.

How the WhatsApp Channel API works

A channel has an ID ending in @newsletter, for example 120363098765432109@newsletter. Your paired number owns or administers the channel, and you use the same endpoints you already know:

All endpoints live under https://api.maytapi.com/api/PRODUCT_ID/PHONE_ID/ and take your token in the x-maytapi-key header. The examples below use these shell variables:

export PRODUCT_ID=your-product-id
export PHONE_ID=your-phone-id
export TOKEN=your-api-token

Create and configure a channel

createChannel takes a name, plus an optional description and image URL:

curl -X POST "https://api.maytapi.com/api/$PRODUCT_ID/$PHONE_ID/createChannel" \
  -H "x-maytapi-key: $TOKEN" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "Acme Store",
    "description": "New arrivals, restocks and weekly deals",
    "image": "https://example.com/acme-logo.png"
  }'

The response returns the new channel's @newsletter ID and its name. To find channels later, call GET /getChannels. Each item includes channelName, owner, subscribeCount and, with ?invite=true, an inviteLink you can share on your site or in a WhatsApp link.

To change the name, description or image afterwards, send the fields you want to update to channel/config together with conversation_id. channel/inviteCode returns the channel's invite link, and deleteChannel removes a channel you own.

Post updates: text, links, media, audio and stickers

Publishing works through sendMessage. Set to_number to the channel ID and pick a channel message type:

A media post with a caption from Node.js 18+:

const base = `https://api.maytapi.com/api/${PRODUCT_ID}/${PHONE_ID}`;
const headers = { "x-maytapi-key": TOKEN, "Content-Type": "application/json" };
const CHANNEL = "120363098765432109@newsletter";

const res = await fetch(`${base}/sendMessage`, {
  method: "POST",
  headers,
  body: JSON.stringify({
    to_number: CHANNEL,
    type: "channel_media",
    message: "https://example.com/autumn-collection.jpg",
    text: "Autumn styles are live. Free shipping this week only."
  })
});
console.log(await res.json());

channel_link posts get a link preview. Since September 2026 the preview is sent at a larger size, with an automatic fallback to the smaller one when the large preview can't be sent.

Polls, questions and quizzes in channels

The three interactive post types are what make a channel feel two-way.

A channel created with createChannel, with a media post and a channel_poll sent through sendMessage.

Polls

A poll needs the question in message and an options array. Set only_one: true if followers should pick a single answer:

{
  "to_number": "120363098765432109@newsletter",
  "type": "channel_poll",
  "message": "Which color should we add next?",
  "options": ["Forest green", "Navy", "Sand"],
  "only_one": true
}

Questions

channel_question posts an open question that followers can answer. It was added in August 2026:

{
  "to_number": "120363098765432109@newsletter",
  "type": "channel_question",
  "message": "What should our next workshop be about?"
}

Quizzes

channel_quiz (added October 2026) is a poll with a right answer. correct_option is the zero-based index of the correct option, so 1 below means "Paris". A quiz needs between 2 and 12 options, and they must be unique:

{
  "to_number": "120363098765432109@newsletter",
  "type": "channel_quiz",
  "message": "What is the capital of France?",
  "options": ["London", "Paris", "Berlin"],
  "correct_option": 1
}

A few ways teams use these post types: a weekly poll to pick the next product color or event date, a Friday quiz about your industry with the answer revealed in Monday's post, or a question asking followers what they want covered next. Because results are readable through the API, you can feed them into a dashboard or post a summary automatically.

Keep the message ID from the sendMessage response (or read it from channel/getMessages later). You need it to read results or delete the post with channel_delete_message.

Read votes, answers and reactions

GET /channel/getMessages/{conversation_id} returns the channel's recent posts. Use count to set how many posts to fetch and page to go further back. To check a single post, use GET /getMessage/{msgId}.

Each post's message object includes the results for its type:

A small script that prints the score of every quiz in the latest 20 posts:

const r = await fetch(`${base}/channel/getMessages/${CHANNEL}?count=20`, { headers });
const { data } = await r.json();
// some connections wrap the result in an array: [{ users, messages, me }]
const { messages } = Array.isArray(data) ? data[0] : data;

for (const post of messages) {
  const m = post.message;
  if (m.correct_option === undefined) continue;
  console.log(m.text, `${m.correct_votes}/${m.total_votes} correct`);
  for (const o of m.options) console.log(`  ${o.name}: ${o.votes}`);
}

Run it on a schedule (or after a quiz closes) and you have a results feed for your next post: "62% got it right, the answer was Paris".

Channel statistics: followers and reach

GET /channel/statistics/{conversation_id} returns the analytics WhatsApp keeps for a channel you own:

curl "https://api.maytapi.com/api/$PRODUCT_ID/$PHONE_ID/channel/statistics/120363098765432109@newsletter" \
  -H "x-maytapi-key: $TOKEN"

Check dataStatus before using the numbers. Statistics come from WhatsApp, so a brand new channel may not have data yet.

Reactions on each post and the channel/statistics endpoint for followers and reach.

Manage channel admins

Adding an admin is a two-step handshake:

1. Send a channel_admin_invite message to the person: to_number is their number, channelId is the channel and message is the invitation text.
2. If the invited number is also connected to Maytapi, the invitation arrives on its webhook as a channel_admin_invite message with the channelId and an expiry time (inviteCodeExp). That number accepts with channel/acceptAdminInvite and conversation_id set to the channel. Otherwise the person accepts in WhatsApp.

To cancel a pending invitation, call channel/revokeAdminInvite with conversation_id and number. To remove an existing admin, call channel/demote with conversation_id and number (for example 4072xxxxx67@c.us).

To invite followers rather than admins, the channel_invite message type sends a channel invitation card to a contact.

Discover and follow other channels

Your number can also act as a follower, which is handy for monitoring competitors or partner channels:

• POST /channel/search with text (and page) searches channels by keyword.
• GET /channel/searchByCountry/{countryCode} lists channels for a two-letter country code such as US.
• GET /channel/getInfoByInviteCode/{inviteCode} resolves an invite link to a channel.
• channel/subscribe / channel/unsubscribe take a conversation_id; subscribeByInviteCode / unsubscribeByInviteCode take an inviteCode.

Search results come in pages of up to 50 channels with channelName, subscribeCount and image. Once you follow a channel, channel/getMessages reads its posts too.

Note: Channels run on your own WhatsApp number through an unofficial API. Posting to your channel is low risk, but keep follows and searches at a human pace and read the ban prevention guide before automating anything at volume.

Next steps

• See every channel endpoint on the WhatsApp Channel API page.
• Running groups as well? The community API guide covers announcements and sub-groups.
• Check request and response examples in the API documentation.
• Create a test channel and post your first quiz on the 3-day free trial.