We're excited to announce the launch of WhatsApp interview support on the Talky platform. This highly anticipated feature allows you to conduct AI-powered voice interviews directly through WhatsApp, the world's most popular messaging application with over 2 billion active users globally.
Our research showed that many candidates, particularly in hourly roles and international markets, strongly prefer WhatsApp communication over traditional phone calls or emails. By meeting candidates on their preferred platform, companies using WhatsApp interviews are seeing completion rates 40% higher than traditional phone screening.
Why WhatsApp for Recruiting?
WhatsApp has become the primary communication channel for billions of people worldwide, particularly in Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. For many candidates, especially those in logistics, retail, hospitality, and manufacturing, WhatsApp is more accessible and familiar than email or scheduling systems.
Key Benefits
- Higher engagement: 98% message open rates compared to 20-30% for email
- Global reach: Connect with candidates in 180+ countries where WhatsApp is dominant
- Familiar interface: No new apps or platforms for candidates to learn
- Better response rates: 40-60% improvement in screening completion
- Cost-effective: Lower costs than traditional phone calls, especially internationally
How WhatsApp Interviews Work
The WhatsApp interview experience is seamless and intuitive. After creating your interview template in Talky, simply choose WhatsApp as your preferred interview channel when sending candidate invitations. Here's how the candidate experience flows:
Candidates receive a WhatsApp message from your company's verified WhatsApp Business number. The message includes a friendly greeting and instructions to start the interview. When they reply, the AI interview begins immediately with a natural conversation using voice messages.
The AI asks questions one at a time, and candidates can respond via voice messages in their own time. The system automatically transcribes and analyzes each response, asking intelligent follow-up questions based on their answers. The entire interview typically takes 10-15 minutes and feels like a natural conversation.
Technical Capabilities
Our WhatsApp integration is built on WhatsApp's official Business API, ensuring reliability, security, and compliance. The integration supports all core Talky features including:
- Voice message interviews with automatic transcription
- Text-based responses for accessibility
- Multi-language support in 50+ languages
- Rich media sharing for documents or verification
- Real-time interview progress tracking
- Automatic competency scoring and evaluation
- Integration with your existing ATS workflow
Perfect Use Cases
While WhatsApp interviews work for any role, we've seen exceptional results in specific scenarios. High-volume hourly hiring in retail, hospitality, and logistics sees particularly strong engagement. Candidates in these roles often have limited access to computers and prefer mobile-first communication.
We struggled to get delivery drivers to complete phone screens. With WhatsApp interviews, our completion rate went from 32% to 76%. Drivers love that they can interview on their breaks using an app they already have on their phone.
International recruiting also benefits tremendously from WhatsApp interviews. In markets where WhatsApp is the primary communication tool, offering WhatsApp interviews significantly increases engagement and shows cultural awareness. Companies expanding into Latin America, Europe, Asia, or Africa should strongly consider WhatsApp as their primary screening channel.
Setting Up WhatsApp Interviews
Getting started with WhatsApp interviews is straightforward. All Talky customers on Professional and Enterprise plans now have access to WhatsApp interview channels at no additional cost. Here's the setup process:
First, you'll need to verify your WhatsApp Business account through our integration wizard. This typically takes 1-2 business days for WhatsApp to approve. Once approved, you'll receive a verified green checkmark business profile that candidates will see.
Next, customize your WhatsApp interview greeting and branding. You can add your company logo, choose your greeting message tone, and set up automated responses for common candidate questions. Finally, create or adapt your interview templates to work well with WhatsApp's voice message format.
Best Practices for WhatsApp Screening
To maximize success with WhatsApp interviews, follow these proven best practices. Keep your initial greeting message short and friendly, setting clear expectations about the interview process. Mention that candidates will be responding via voice messages and that the interview takes about 10-15 minutes.
Optimization Tips
- Send interview invitations during candidates' active hours (8am-8pm local time)
- Break complex questions into smaller, conversational parts
- Use a warm, conversational tone that matches WhatsApp's casual nature
- Offer both voice and text response options for accessibility
- Send a completion confirmation with next steps immediately after the interview
Privacy and Compliance
We understand that using personal messaging apps for recruiting raises important privacy questions. Our WhatsApp integration is built with privacy and compliance as top priorities. All interviews are conducted through official WhatsApp Business API channels, which are designed for business communication.
Candidates must explicitly opt-in to WhatsApp communication and can opt-out at any time. All conversations are encrypted end-to-end, and we comply with GDPR, CCPA, and other relevant data protection regulations. Candidate data is handled with the same security standards as our phone and email channels.
Real Results from Early Adopters
During our beta program, companies using WhatsApp interviews saw remarkable results. Completion rates increased by an average of 40% compared to traditional phone screening. Time-to-first-interview decreased by 65% as candidates could start immediately rather than scheduling.
One logistics company reported hiring 120 delivery drivers in 30 days using exclusively WhatsApp interviews, a 3x improvement over their previous hiring velocity. A retail chain saw their international hiring costs drop by 60% by replacing expensive international phone calls with WhatsApp interviews.
Getting Started Today
WhatsApp interview support is now available to all Professional and Enterprise Talky customers. If you're on a Starter plan, you can upgrade to access this feature along with other advanced capabilities.
To get started, log into your Talky dashboard and navigate to the Channels section. Click 'Enable WhatsApp' and follow the setup wizard. Our support team is available to help with WhatsApp Business verification and initial configuration.
We're excited to see how WhatsApp interviews help you connect with candidates more effectively. As always, we welcome your feedback as we continue improving this feature. Join thousands of companies already conducting successful interviews on the platform candidates prefer.