When an outbound WhatsApp call could not be placed, agents sometimes saw
a completely empty error (`{"error":""}`) with no indication of what
went wrong. This makes an outbound call that is blocked at Meta (for
example, a WhatsApp Business Account with a billing/eligibility problem)
look like a generic, unexplained failure. Agents now see the actual
reason Meta returned.
## Closes
No linked issue — found via a customer support investigation (outbound
calling returning `422 {"error":""}`).
## How to reproduce
1. On an account with WhatsApp calling enabled, place an outbound call
to a contact whose WhatsApp Business Account is not eligible for calling
(Meta returns error code `131044`, "Business eligibility payment issue
for calling").
2. Before: the call fails with `422 {"error":""}` — an empty message.
3. After: the call fails with Meta's actual message (e.g. "Business
eligibility payment issue for calling"), so the agent/admin knows it is
a Meta-side eligibility issue to resolve, not a Chatwoot bug.
## What changed
Meta's error responses can contain an **empty** `error_user_msg` (`""`)
while the real reason lives in `error.message` / `error_user_title` —
notably error `131044`. The previous code used `parsed.dig('error',
'error_user_msg') || 'Failed to initiate call'`, but an empty string is
truthy in Ruby, so the blank message was surfaced instead of the
fallback.
- Added a small `meta_error_message(parsed, default)` helper that
prefers the first **non-blank** field: `error_user_msg` → `message` →
`error_user_title` → default.
- Used it in both `process_initiate_call_response` (outbound call
initiate) and `update_calling_status`, which had the same pattern.
The `[WHATSAPP CALL] initiate_call failed: status=… body=…` server log
(with the full Meta body) is unchanged and remains the source of truth
for debugging.
---------
Co-authored-by: Muhsin Keloth <muhsinkeramam@gmail.com>
Chatwoot
The modern customer support platform, an open-source alternative to Intercom, Zendesk, Salesforce Service Cloud etc.
Chatwoot is the modern, open-source, and self-hosted customer support platform designed to help businesses deliver exceptional customer support experience. Built for scale and flexibility, Chatwoot gives you full control over your customer data while providing powerful tools to manage conversations across channels.
✨ Captain – AI Agent for Support
Supercharge your support with Captain, Chatwoot’s AI agent. Captain helps automate responses, handle common queries, and reduce agent workload—ensuring customers get instant, accurate answers. With Captain, your team can focus on complex conversations while routine questions are resolved automatically. Read more about Captain here.
💬 Omnichannel Support Desk
Chatwoot centralizes all customer conversations into one powerful inbox, no matter where your customers reach out from. It supports live chat on your website, email, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, Telegram, Line, SMS etc.
📚 Help center portal
Publish help articles, FAQs, and guides through the built-in Help Center Portal. Enable customers to find answers on their own, reduce repetitive queries, and keep your support team focused on more complex issues.
🗂️ Other features
Collaboration & Productivity
- Private Notes and @mentions for internal team discussions.
- Labels to organize and categorize conversations.
- Keyboard Shortcuts and a Command Bar for quick navigation.
- Canned Responses to reply faster to frequently asked questions.
- Auto-Assignment to route conversations based on agent availability.
- Multi-lingual Support to serve customers in multiple languages.
- Custom Views and Filters for better inbox organization.
- Business Hours and Auto-Responders to manage response expectations.
- Teams and Automation tools for scaling support workflows.
- Agent Capacity Management to balance workload across the team.
Customer Data & Segmentation
- Contact Management with profiles and interaction history.
- Contact Segments and Notes for targeted communication.
- Campaigns to proactively engage customers.
- Custom Attributes for storing additional customer data.
- Pre-Chat Forms to collect user information before starting conversations.
Integrations
- Slack Integration to manage conversations directly from Slack.
- Dialogflow Integration for chatbot automation.
- Dashboard Apps to embed internal tools within Chatwoot.
- Shopify Integration to view and manage customer orders right within Chatwoot.
- Use Google Translate to translate messages from your customers in realtime.
- Create and manage Linear tickets within Chatwoot.
Reports & Insights
- Live View of ongoing conversations for real-time monitoring.
- Conversation, Agent, Inbox, Label, and Team Reports for operational visibility.
- CSAT Reports to measure customer satisfaction.
- Downloadable Reports for offline analysis and reporting.
Documentation
Detailed documentation is available at chatwoot.com/help-center.
Translation process
The translation process for Chatwoot web and mobile app is managed at https://translate.chatwoot.com using Crowdin. Please read the translation guide for contributing to Chatwoot.
Branching model
We use the git-flow branching model. The base branch is develop.
If you are looking for a stable version, please use the master or tags labelled as v1.x.x.
Deployment
Heroku one-click deploy
Deploying Chatwoot to Heroku is a breeze. It's as simple as clicking this button:
Follow this link to understand setting the correct environment variables for the app to work with all the features. There might be breakages if you do not set the relevant environment variables.
DigitalOcean 1-Click Kubernetes deployment
Chatwoot now supports 1-Click deployment to DigitalOcean as a kubernetes app.
Other deployment options
For other supported options, checkout our deployment page.
Security
Looking to report a vulnerability? Please refer our SECURITY.md file.
Community
If you need help or just want to hang out, come, say hi on our Discord server.
Contributors
Thanks goes to all these wonderful people:
Chatwoot © 2017-2026, Chatwoot Inc - Released under the MIT License.