On July 19, 2025, the Government of Nepal made a surprising move: Telegram was officially banned across the country.
For most, this might have been a minor inconvenience. But for me, it pulled the rug out from under my product — which was built entirely around Telegram’s gateway.
Telegram had been best go-to for my in-progress product for a reason:
- Fast to build on
- Zero friction for testing
- No need for business verification or complex approval steps
It was lean, developer-friendly, and perfect for MVPs and POCs. This abrupt ban has put a full stop to that. I'm hopeful the government reconsiders this decision in the near future.
The Pivot: WhatsApp Integration Begins
With Telegram out of reach, the 2nd planned integration was WhatsApp, but let’s be real — it’s not as straightforward as Telegram. First Attempt: Meta’s Official WhatsApp Business API Naturally, I started by exploring Meta’s native WhatsApp Business API. That journey quickly became a tangle of:
- Government-level business verification
- Waiting for approval
- Hard-to-navigate documentation
While it’s clearly built for enterprise-scale products, it’s definitely not beginner- or POC-friendly.
Enter Twilio: A Lifeline for Developers
After a day of struggling and wasting, I pivoted to Twilio’s WhatsApp integration — and it was a breath of fresh air.
- Their sandbox environment made testing quick and easy
- No business documentation required
- Just connect, test, and iterate
For my current POC stage, Twilio is more than sufficient.
During my research, I also came across 360dialog, an official WhatsApp Business Solution Provider (BSP). They simplify WhatsApp API access significantly and skip many of Meta’s painful onboarding steps. But — there’s always a “but” — their pricing model didn’t align with where my product is today. Maybe in the future.
Moving Forward
While losing Telegram was frustrating, this shift forced me to explore more robust messaging infrastructure and dive deeper into enterprise-level integrations. The learning curve has been steep, but worth it.
Lesson learned: Always build with flexibility in mind — platform dependencies can break overnight.
I’ll be sharing more about my WhatsApp bot implementation, including real-time notifications, tech stacks, user interaction flows with AI chat Agent that builds a webpages on fly (lovable but inside yours-friendly Chat App). I will keep writing about the progress here