WhatsApp click-to-chat is a link that opens WhatsApp with a phone number and, when you add text, a message the shopper can send. On a Shopify product page, that message is how the person answering knows which item the question is about. The shopper lands in WhatsApp. The transcript stays there. Squadkin’s WhatsApp Chat Button can open that chat with a greeting you write. It does not store the conversation as a Shopify ticket.
A wa.me link is the usual public form of that handoff: the number, then optional pre-filled text. You can build that link yourself and place it in a theme button. The app’s version is a theme app embed that does the same handoff from a floating button or a popup, with the default text filled in before Send. Either way, the reply happens in WhatsApp, outside the Shopify admin.
What the shopper actually opens
Click-to-chat does not embed a WhatsApp thread inside your theme. Popup mode shows a small panel on the page: a header, a greeting bubble, and a text area pre-filled with your default message. Send opens the WhatsApp deep link from whatever text is in that box, so the shopper can add a size or a color before they leave. Direct-link mode skips the panel. The button itself is the link.
The catalog documents one template variable, {{ current_page_url }}. If the shopper is on a product page, the URL in the message is often enough for an agent to open the same item. The catalog does not document a product-title variable. A single store-wide greeting cannot automatically swap in “Linen shirt” on one page and “Wool coat” on the next. Type a product name into the default text only when that sentence is true for every page where the button shows, or rely on the URL and let the shopper add the detail.
Page rules can limit the button to product templates, or exclude a URL you do not want in the chat. Device rules can show it on phones and hide it on desktop, or the other way around. Those rules change where the button appears. They do not change where the transcript is stored.
Write a message that names the product
Agents lose time when the first line is only “Hi”. Give them a sentence they can answer without asking “which product?”. You write that sentence. The app places it in the box.
- Page URL: use the documented variable so the message contains the address of the page they were viewing.
- A fixed product name: type it yourself when the button is limited to one product URL.
- A question prompt: leave a short line such as “Size and colour:” so the shopper fills the blank before Send.
- Your reply window: say when a person answers, especially if you also set business hours.
Outside the hours you set, the popup text changes and the button dims. The button is not removed. Match the greeting to that fact. A line that says “we reply in a few minutes” is a poor default at midnight. The offline text is the place to say when you are back.
If sales and support are different people, the popup can list agents. Each entry has its own number, name, avatar, and greeting, optionally limited to page types. A product-page greeting can ask for size. A wholesale page can ask for quantity. The shopper still picks the person. Nothing in the catalog assigns the chat for them.
Packaging QR codes are a separate step
Some merchants want a code on a hang tag or a parcel insert that opens the same chat. The WhatsApp feature catalog does not document a QR generator. Do not expect the app to print a code for the box. If you need one, create the wa.me link with your number and the sentence you want, then generate the QR in a tool you already trust, and test the printed code with a phone camera.
Keep the packaging link and the website button pointed at the same number, or the person who packed the order and the person who watches the site will miss each other’s chats. The website button can still add the current page URL. A printed code cannot know which product page the shopper was on, so write that packaging sentence as a general “question about my order” line.
What you cannot see inside Shopify
After the shopper taps Send, the thread belongs to the WhatsApp account on that number. The Shopify admin does not gain a transcript, an internal note, or an assignment from this app. Click analytics can show button clicks, popup opens, and send taps for a date range, including today, a total, and a by-day view. Optional Google Analytics and Meta Pixel events can fire on trackable clicks. None of that is the conversation, and none of it is a sales total attributed to WhatsApp.
The shopper will see your number when WhatsApp opens. The catalog does not hide that number or proxy it through a shared line. Use a business number your team can answer. A personal phone that only one person unlocks becomes a bottleneck, and it is still not a shared inbox.
A consent checkbox can sit in the popup and keep Send and the agent links disabled until the shopper ticks it. The wording is yours. The checked state is remembered in that browser. The catalog does not document a consent archive you can export later. If the legal text matters for your store, have someone who owns privacy write it before you turn the checkbox on.
Questions about product-page click-to-chat
Can each product have its own message?
Not through a product-title variable. The documented variable is the current page URL. Limit the button to one product URL and type that product’s name if you need a fixed sentence, or use the URL and a prompt the shopper completes.
Does the app store the chat?
No. The catalog describes a click-to-chat link. The transcript stays in WhatsApp. Shopify does not receive it as a ticket.
Is a QR code included?
A QR generator is not in the WhatsApp feature catalog. Build a wa.me link and make the code elsewhere if packaging needs one. Test it on a phone before you print a run of tags.
The WhatsApp Chat Button page describes the storefront handoff. Install WhatsApp Chat Button when you want that button on product pages. Keep a helpdesk if the team must read the thread inside another tool.