Add support for video/gif message

[kalhimeo]

Dear gajosu,

Thanks again for your nice Whatsapp integration. At the moment it seems not possible to send videos or gif via your home assistant addon. I dug a bit the API documentation and I found this explanation : https://wwebjs.dev/guide/creating-your-bot/handling-attachments.html#sending-files-from-a-url . Is there a way to implement something like that with your addon ?

Thank you !

[gajosu]

Hi, have you tried this endpoint https://github.com/gajosu/ha-whatsapp-web-rest-api?tab=readme-ov-file#send-media-message? This endpoint theoretically sends any type of file, whether it's an image or a video.

[kalhimeo]

Thanks for your feedback. It is possible to send a video as an attachment with the "sendMediaAsDocument" option, but not as media file to be watched within whatsapp, similar to a standard video or gif that i would send from my mobile gallery

[kalhimeo]

Here is the script response if I dont use the "asdociment" option, trying an .mp4 file as url:

content:
  error: Internal Server Error
status: 500
headers:
  X-Powered-By: Express
  Access-Control-Allow-Origin: "*"
  Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
  Content-Length: "33"
  Etag: W/"21-Fau8GdrOCOyGNNH/IiTxy2DuMu0"
  Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2025 13:14:26 GMT
  Connection: keep-alive
  Keep-Alive: timeout=5

EDIT: after further testing the error above may not be caused by the video file itself but because of API server timeout due to large file size. I tested with a small gif file and it s sent correctly, but in whatsapp the gif shows as a static image instead of an animation.

[gajosu]

I'm preparing an update with improvements to file downloads. As for GIFs, I believe the package does not allow animated GIFs to be sent, but what you can do is send a video as a GIF or sticker in the following way:

{
  "url": "https://media1.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExaGZicDg1NnA4aDNnaDZ1cjRzbDVzMzU2anZxZTJsY21pbmgyZzRseCZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/OhRRABiZEf6URNJVLR/giphy.mp4",
  "options":{
    "sendVideoAsGif": true
  }
}

Docs:
https://docs.wwebjs.dev/global.html#MessageSendOptions

[kalhimeo]

thank you gajosu, this option works with your sample link 👍 For my videos, even with the "sendVideoAsGif" option, the API server times out at the moment, probably because the files are too large (frigate CCTV captures), but hopefully you can find a fix with the next update then :-) thanks again for your support

[gajosu]

Check out the latest version and PR #192. I've improved file downloads and set a configurable size limit in the env, but I don't recommend exceeding 60 MB because WhatsApp gives an error when sending it.

[kalhimeo]

Thank you gajosu. Would you mind to update as well the HA-addon repository with the new version so I can test it ? Thanks

[gajosu]

Hi, I just updated the add-on!

[kalhimeo]

Thank you for the update. I just tested it with one of the mp4 video generated by Frigate and unfortunately it still does not work for me :/ the file is only 36Ko so it should not be a problem.

I would be happy to share the external link of such cctv video with you but I would rather not post it here, maybe I can send you an email ?

Here is the error from the add-on :

12/15/2025, 15:10:35 [error]: 	Failed to send media from URL https://xxxxxxx/api/frigate/notifications/xxxxxx/review_preview.gif?format=ts
Error: Evaluation failed: t
  at ExecutionContext._ExecutionContext_evaluate (/app/node_modules/puppeteer-core/lib/cjs/puppeteer/common/ExecutionContext.js:229:15)
  at async ExecutionContext.evaluate (/app/node_modules/puppeteer-core/lib/cjs/puppeteer/common/ExecutionContext.js:107:16)
  at async Client.sendMessage (/app/node_modules/whatsapp-web.js/src/Client.js:1038:25) 
12/15/2025, 15:10:35 [warn]: 	Failed to send media from URL 

Note that with such link Frigate generates an mp4 video based on the gif, so it's not sending a gif unlike the link name may suggest

[gajosu]

I think Frigate is not generating a download file for you, but rather a video stream, which may be why it is giving an error when sending it. I suggest you use the Frigate events API to send the video /api/events/{event_id}/clip.mp4. In this case, Frigate does return a Content-Disposition: attachment, which the WhatsApp API can use to download the video and send it to the recipient.

[kalhimeo]

I have tried with the clip.mp4 from the event, but unfortunately I have exactly the same error. The clip is 24Mb.

Strange enough, if I replace the clip.mp4 from frigate with your sample mp4 above, it works fine.

By the way I forgot to post the result from the the rest_command itself :

content:
  error: Failed to send media from URL
status: 502
headers:
  X-Powered-By: Express
  Access-Control-Allow-Origin: "*"
  Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
  Content-Length: "41"
  Etag: W/"29-E6JFbQh0BNP+g3QNUyW5PwB2y+M"
  Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2025 20:55:44 GMT
  Connection: keep-alive
  Keep-Alive: timeout=5

I hope this can help 🤞

[kalhimeo]

It looks like the timeout for the video upload is set to 5 seconds by default, is there any chance to increase that ?