How to Use WhatsApp to Validate Identity

WhatsApp can be used as a channel to validate the identity of its end users through the use of identity validators in the flows (or Chatbots) that have been created. For more information on how to create a flow, visit:

You can add the Digital Identity products as validation blocks according to your business needs: Document ID, Document ID + Face Match, Phone, and Email.

Document ID

It allows you to validate the authenticity of the document of your end users, to whom the validator will ask to upload a photo of the front and back. It is recommended to send the photo horizontally. JPEG, JPG and PNG are the only supported formats and the maximum allowed size is 30MB. For more information on how to take a good picture of the document, please visit the Document Picture Tips guide.

To improve the user experience, you can configure:

  • The number of Allowed retries for uploading document photos in case the user uploads a blurry photo.
  • The Allowed document types according to each country.
  • To include a background check* add a Custom Type in the field Check type. When the cumston type is created, the key dataset_document_validation must have a value equal to zero.

Note:

To perform a background check, you will need to hire the service. Please contact your assigned sales representative or contact us through WhatsApp

Contact us
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document_id

Document ID and Face match

It has all the features of Document ID, as well as the functionality of validate if the face of the person who uploads the document matches the face in the document. For this, the end-user will be asked to take a selfie.

According to the level of user experience and security you want to implement in the validation process, you can configure the Document ID + Face match validator.

  • Threshold is the percentage of similarity desired between the selfie and the face in the identity document. It is a decimal value between 0 and 1 with two significant figures, by default, the treshold is set to 0.65. Please note that the higher the percentage of similarity, the higher the friction with the end-user, resulting in a decrease in customer conversion.

  • You can include a method for reinforcing with a proof of life:

    • Video selfie: The user must upload a short video looking at the camera, without instructions. Formats supported are: webm, mp4, avi, and mov. Maximum size is 16 MB. Recommended for WhatsApp.
    • Guided video: The user must upload a short following some instructions (e.g: look up, look down, look right). Formats supported are: webm, mp4, avi, and mov. Maximum size is 16 MB. Recommended for WhatsApp. [Deprecated]
    • Photo: The user must take a picture of his or her face. Formats supported are: jpeg, png and webp. Maximum size is 5 MB. Recommended for WhatsApp.

Note: The allowed retries only apply to document validator. Please see more details in Face Recognition.

document_id_face_match

Phone and Email

Phone and Email are two different validators that can be used together or separately and have the same functionality, validate if the phone number and/or email registered in the flow (or Chatbot) belongs to the end-user. This is done by sending an OTP (One-Time Password) code that the user must return as a response.

The OTP code can be delivered as a text message, WhatsApp message, or phone call in the case of phone validation. For email validation, the code can be sent as a message in the inbox of the registered email address. You can configure the number of retries allowed for this validation, the maximum value is 3.

For usage information via API Phone and Email.

phone_and_email

How to use the flow in WhatsApp

You can use your flows whether you are sending the message (Outbound) or the client is sending it (Inbound). From the dashboard, when you create a WhatsApp flow, you can use the Outbound and Inbound type messages .

An alternative to test the flow can be found in the following guide.

Step 1: First you must create the Outbound message and send it to Meta to be approved as follows:

outbound_create

Step 2: After it is approved you can send it to your end users in the following way:

outbound_send

Once you create the Inbound message, you can share the link with your final users so that they can activate the conversation whenever they want. To generate a production link for your end users, please follow this guide.

inbound

If you want to get information on how to create Outbound and Inbound messages by API, see WhatsApp Integration Guide.

Get Results

The process results can be obtained in two ways:

  1. Polling: You can get the process (or flow) results with a query to Truora’s API or from the dashboard. For more information, please see the Guide to Get Results.

  2. Webhooks: You can get automatic notifications about Results from a user, for which you must subscribe Webhooks. This alternative allows you to receive hooks of actions/rules you created. For more information please visit Webhooks guide.

Note: You can configure others parameters to improve the behavior of the validators and the user experience. Please see Config Validator Guide for more information on customization.