Send broadcast messages and WhatsApp Stories with Baileys

Publish WhatsApp Status updates and send messages to broadcast lists using Baileys. Covers statusJidList, broadcast mode, and supported content types.

Baileys supports two related but distinct distribution mechanisms: broadcast lists, which let you send a message privately to multiple contacts at once, and WhatsApp Status (Stories), which publishes content visible to your contacts for 24 hours. Both use sock.sendMessage with a few additional options.

WhatsApp IDs for broadcasts

Before sending, make sure you have the correct JID format for your target:

Target	JID format
Broadcast list	[timestamp of creation]@broadcast
Status (Stories)	status@broadcast

Send a broadcast or Status update

Add the broadcast, statusJidList, and optionally backgroundColor and font fields to the options object of sock.sendMessage.

await sock.sendMessage(
    jid,
    {
        image: {
            url: url
        },
        caption: caption
    },
    {
        backgroundColor: backgroundColor,
        font: font,
        statusJidList: statusJidList,
        broadcast: true
    }
)

Key options explained:

Option	Description
broadcast	Set to true to enable broadcast mode
statusJidList	Array of contact JIDs who will receive this Status update
backgroundColor	Background color for text status updates
font	Font style for text status updates

statusJidList is required when publishing to status@broadcast. It determines which of your contacts can see the story. You must build and maintain this list yourself.

Supported content types

The message body (the first argument after the JID) can be any of the following content types:

Type	Example use case
extendedTextMessage	Text-based status with background/font
imageMessage	Photo status
videoMessage	Video status
voiceMessage	Audio status

See the AnyRegularMessageContent type alias for the full list of supported content shapes, and MiscMessageGenerationOptions for all available send options.

Send to a broadcast list

You can send messages to a broadcast list the same way you send to an individual chat or group — just use the broadcast list’s JID as the target.

// Send a text message to a broadcast list
await sock.sendMessage('1234567890123456789@broadcast', { text: 'Hello everyone!' })

Query a broadcast list’s name and recipients

const bList = await sock.getBroadcastListInfo('1234@broadcast')
console.log(`list name: ${bList.name}, recps: ${bList.recipients}`)

Limitations

WhatsApp Web does not support creating new broadcast lists. You can still send messages to existing broadcast lists and delete them, but you cannot create new ones through Baileys.

• Broadcast lists must be created in the WhatsApp mobile app first.
• Each broadcast list JID is derived from its creation timestamp, e.g. 1234567890123@broadcast.
• Deleting a broadcast list through chatModify is supported, but creating one is not.