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openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix WhatsApp reactions are not received as inbound events [1 participants]

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openclaw/openclaw#57288•Fetched 2026-04-08 01:51:33
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mgontomgonto
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WhatsApp message reactions (e.g. 👍, ❤️) are not delivered to the agent as inbound events. Only text messages, media, and replies generate inbound events.

Root Cause

WhatsApp message reactions (e.g. 👍, ❤️) are not delivered to the agent as inbound events. Only text messages, media, and replies generate inbound events.

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Summary

WhatsApp message reactions (e.g. 👍, ❤️) are not delivered to the agent as inbound events. Only text messages, media, and replies generate inbound events.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Configure WhatsApp channel with actions.reactions: true in openclaw.json
  2. Send a message from the agent to a group chat
  3. Have a user react to that message with any emoji (e.g. 👍)
  4. Observe that no inbound event is received by the agent

Expected Behavior

Reactions should be delivered as inbound events (similar to how replies are delivered), so the agent can act on them (e.g. updating a tracking sheet when someone reacts with 👍 to a reference).

Actual Behavior

Reactions are silently ignored. The agent only learns about them if a user explicitly mentions it in a follow-up text message.

Context

  • The actions.reactions: true config only controls outbound reactions (agent reacting to messages), not inbound reception
  • There is no documented config key (e.g. receiveReactions) to enable inbound reaction events
  • This affects use cases like polls, approvals, and any workflow where users respond via reaction instead of text

Environment

  • Channel: WhatsApp (Baileys)
  • Config: channels.whatsapp.actions.reactions: true

extent analysis

Fix Plan

To fix the issue of WhatsApp message reactions not being delivered to the agent as inbound events, we need to implement a custom solution since there is no documented config key to enable inbound reaction events.

Here are the steps to follow:

  • Update the WhatsApp channel configuration to listen for reaction events
  • Modify the Baileys WhatsApp library to handle reaction events
  • Create a custom event handler to process incoming reaction events

Example Code

// Update WhatsApp channel configuration
const whatsappConfig = {
  ...otherConfig,
  receiveReactions: true // Add this config key
};

// Modify Baileys WhatsApp library to handle reaction events
const baileys = require('@adiwajshing/baileys');
const client = baileys.createClient({
  // ... other options
  receiveReactions: true
});

// Create a custom event handler to process incoming reaction events
client.on('message-reaction-add', (msg) => {
  // Process the reaction event
  console.log(`Received reaction: ${msg.reaction}`);
  // Update the tracking sheet or perform other actions
});

Verification

To verify that the fix worked, follow these steps:

  • Send a message from the agent to a group chat
  • Have a user react to that message with any emoji (e.g. 👍)
  • Check the console logs or the tracking sheet to see if the reaction event was received and processed correctly

Extra Tips

  • Make sure to update the Baileys WhatsApp library to the latest version to ensure compatibility with the custom solution.
  • Consider adding error handling and logging to the custom event handler to ensure that any issues are properly tracked and resolved.

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