Send Images over WhatsApp in C#/.NET (Visual Studio 2022) - Complete Guide

Automate WhatsApp Image Sharing with C#/.NET and Visual Studio 2022

Looking to automate WhatsApp image sharing, visual notifications, or media delivery from your modern C#/.NET applications? This guide walks you through sending images to WhatsApp users using C# with Visual Studio 2022 and the WhatsMate WA Gateway REST API. Perfect for .NET developers using the latest Visual Studio IDE who want to integrate visual content delivery into their C#-based workflows.

Note for Visual Studio 2019 users: If you’re using Visual Studio 2019, please read this Visual Studio 2019 tutorial instead.

📋 Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:

1. A WhatsMate WA Gateway account - Required for API access
2. Recipient registration - Each recipient must register with the Gateway first
3. Visual Studio 2022 - Latest .NET development environment with modern C# features
4. Image file ready - Have the image you want to send available locally
5. Modern .NET libraries - This version uses System.Text.Json for serialization (included in .NET 6+)

⚠️ Important: Recipients must register with the WhatsMate WA Gateway before they can receive messages. Unregistered users will not receive any messages from the Gateway. Registration instructions are available on the official WhatsMate site.

📝 Step-by-Step Implementation

Follow these steps to send your first image to a WhatsApp user from a C# application using Visual Studio 2022:

1. Copy the C# Code Template

Start by copying the following source code into your C# file:

2. Configure a few Parameters

Customize these key parameters in the C# code:

• Line 10: Replace YOUR_INSTANCE_ID with your WhatsApp gateway instance ID
• Lines 11-12: Update YOUR_CLIENT_ID_HERE and YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET_HERE with your Client ID and Secret
• Line 20: Replace 12025550105 with the target phone number (including the country code)
• Line 22: Replace C:\\TEMP\\cute-girl.jpg with the path to your image file
• Line 23: Replace Lovely Gal with an optional caption for your image

3. Send Your Image

Build and run your C# application in Visual Studio 2022 to deliver your image to WhatsApp:

1. Press F5 to build and run in debug mode
2. Or use Ctrl+F5 to run without debugging
3. Check the console output for success confirmation

🔧 Common Use Cases

This modern automation approach is ideal for:

• Modern Windows applications - Send images to WhatsApp from Windows Forms, WPF, or MAUI apps
• ASP.NET Core web applications - Integrate WhatsApp image sharing into modern web apps
• Microservices and APIs - Add WhatsApp notifications to .NET microservices
• Cloud-native applications - Use with Azure Functions or AWS Lambda for serverless image delivery
• Cross-platform .NET apps - Works with .NET Core on Linux, macOS, and Windows

🚀 Get Started Today

Ready to automate your image sharing over WhatsApp with modern C#/.NET and Visual Studio 2022? You’ll need a trial account to access the API. Sign up for a 2-week trial and start sending images within minutes!

Next Steps: Once you’ve mastered basic image sending, explore advanced features like sending documents or group messages through the WhatsMate WA Gateway API documentation.