Mark a WhatsApp message as read
Marks an inbound WhatsApp message as read, showing the contact the blue ticks. WhatsApp also marks every earlier message in that conversation read. This does not change the workspace inbox unread count. Use the conversation update endpoint with read to acknowledge messages in the inbox.
Pass typing_indicator: true to show a typing indicator as well. WhatsApp clears it when you send your next message, or after 25 seconds, whichever comes first, and there is no call to clear it early, so ask for one only when you are about to reply. WhatsApp cannot show a typing indicator without a read receipt, so both arrive together.
The acknowledgement is sent asynchronously: a 202 means Bird accepted the request, not that WhatsApp has shown it. Nothing reports back, because WhatsApp publishes no delivery, status or failure callback for an acknowledgement, so there is nothing to poll and no webhook event. Repeating the call is safe, and each call restarts the 25-second typing window. To refresh the indicator, send a fresh Idempotency-Key or none at all: a replayed key answers from the stored response without acknowledging anything again.
Only an inbound message can be marked read. WhatsApp allows this for 30 days after receipt, but Bird keeps the provider id a receipt needs for 15 days, so a message older than that answers 404. A message Bird sent, or one that never reached WhatsApp, answers 422.
Request
- Base URL: https://us1.platform.bird.com
- URL: https://us1.platform.bird.com/v1/whatsapp/messages/{message_id}/read
- Auth: one of:
- HTTP bearer
- API key in cookie bird_session
Path parameters
ID of the inbound message to acknowledge.
Headers
Client-supplied key. On operations supporting request deduplication, a retained response is replayed for duplicate requests with the same key within the idempotency window (3 hours by default). This protection requires a workspace, organization, or staff-account scope. User-only and unscoped unauthenticated operations, streams, and operations with a separate replay contract do not use this response replay.
On a supported operation, if idempotency protection is unavailable before execution, the API returns 503 IdempotencyUnavailable (E01033) without executing this attempt. Retry with backoff using the same key and request. An operation that takes effect before its response is retained can still execute again on retry.
Two distinct 409 errors signal misuse:
- request_in_progress (E01004): The same key is currently being processed by a concurrent request. Wait briefly and retry. The lock expires within 30 seconds.
- idempotency_key_reuse (E01005): The same key has already completed against a different request body or method. Generate a new key.
Recommended key format is <event-type>/<entity-id> (for example welcome-user/usr_abc123).
Workspace context for the request. Required for dashboard authentication and master keys. Workspace keys and access tokens already identify their workspace; send that workspace or omit the header. A different one is rejected.
Organization context for the request. Required for dashboard authentication. An API key or access token carries its own organization, so send either that organization or no header at all; a different one is rejected.
Request body
Example request
{
"typing_indicator": true
}Response
Acknowledgement accepted for asynchronous delivery.
Example response
{
"typing_indicator": true
}Changes
No recorded changes to this operation across all 2 revisions of this API.