Read messages | Tusk WhatsApp API

List stored messages

GET/v1/whatsapp/sessions/{sessionId}/messages

Returns messages stored for the session, newest first, with filters.

Parameters
Name	Type	Description
`sessionId`required	path	The session id from the sessions endpoints.
`chatId`	string	Only messages in this chat.
`from`	string	Only messages from this sender.
`limit`	integer	Maximum messages to return. Defaults to 50.
`offset`	integer	Messages to skip.
`after`	string	Cursor for paging: the id of the last message of the previous page.
`inlineMedia`	boolean	Set false to leave out inline media data, and fetch it with the media endpoint instead.

curl "https://api.tuskmail.africa/v1/whatsapp/sessions/$SESSION_ID/messages?chatId=254700000002%40c.us&limit=20" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $TUSK_WA_KEY"

200 OK

{
  "messages": [
    {
      "id": "msg_1",
      "chatId": "[email protected]",
      "from": "[email protected]",
      "to": "[email protected]",
      "body": "Hello",
      "type": "chat",
      "direction": "incoming",
      "timestamp": 1768469400,
      "status": "read",
      "createdAt": "2026-01-15T09:30:00Z"
    }
  ],
  "total": 1
}

Fetch a chat's history

GET/v1/whatsapp/sessions/{sessionId}/messages/{chatId}/history

Fetches recent messages of a chat live from WhatsApp.

Parameters
Name	Type	Description
`sessionId`required	path	The session id from the sessions endpoints.
`chatId`required	path	The chat id.
`limit`	integer	Maximum messages to return. Defaults to 50.
`includeMedia`	boolean	Include media as base64. Slower. Defaults to false.
`deep`	boolean	Raise the limit ceiling from 100 to 2000 to reach further back. Slower.

curl "https://api.tuskmail.africa/v1/whatsapp/sessions/$SESSION_ID/messages/[email protected]/history?limit=20" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $TUSK_WA_KEY"

200 OK

[
  {
    "id": "3EB0A1B2C3D4E5F60789",
    "from": "[email protected]",
    "to": "[email protected]",
    "chatId": "[email protected]",
    "body": "Hello",
    "type": "text",
    "timestamp": 1768469400,
    "fromMe": false,
    "isGroup": false,
    "kind": "individual"
  }
]

Download a message's media

GET/v1/whatsapp/sessions/{sessionId}/messages/{chatId}/{messageId}/media

Downloads the stored media of a message. The response is the file itself with its content type, not JSON. It returns 404 when no media is stored for the message.

Parameters
Name	Type	Description
`sessionId`required	path	The session id from the sessions endpoints.
`chatId`required	path	The chat the message is in.
`messageId`required	path	The message id.

curl "https://api.tuskmail.africa/v1/whatsapp/sessions/$SESSION_ID/messages/[email protected]/3EB0A1B2C3D4E5F60789/media" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $TUSK_WA_KEY"

200 OK

Binary file