Pabbly Chatflow Number Formatter

Hi guys,

Could someone explain why the integration between Pabbly Connect and Pabbly Chatflow requires phone numbers without the + before the country code?

For example, the WhatsApp field says:

Enter the recipient's WhatsApp mobile number with the country code (without '+' sign). Ensure the mobile number is active on WhatsApp. E.g. 919656xxxx85.

In many of our workflows we already use a Number Formatter to output phone numbers in E.164 format, which includes the + symbol in front of the country code. To send a message via Pabbly Chatflow, I now have to add an extra step just to remove the + sign, which feels unnecessary.

It would be much easier if Pabbly Chatflow accepted numbers with the + symbol, and then handled any required formatting internally when the message is processed (for example, stripping the + at your end if needed).

At the moment, this means I would have to update every single action just to remove the + for Pabbly Chatflow, while other messaging systems like SMS or Bird work fine with + followed by the country code. This is why the current behaviour seems a bit strange to me.

Hello,

This is the only format in which the Pabbly Chatflow API currently accepts phone numbers. We understand that this requires an additional step in your workflow, but at the moment you will need to remove the “+” symbol before passing the number to Chatflow.

Any plans for reviewing this integration & phone formatting in the near future?

Currently, we don't have any plans to change this behavior, but if you want, you can request the change on your dedicated platform:

https://roadmap.pabbly.com/b/Update-Existing-Application

Thanks & Regards,
Arshil Ahmad
Customer Support Associate
? Pabbly.com
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