WhatsApp group messages are not creating conversations in Chatwoot panel unless a manual message is sent from the admin's WhatsApp #1811

Welcome!

• Yes, I have searched for similar issues on GitHub and found none.

What did you do?

I integrated Evolution API with Chatwoot to handle WhatsApp group messages via webhook. When a new message is sent to a WhatsApp group (not from the admin/owner), the conversation does not appear in the Chatwoot panel. Only after sending a manual message from the admin’s WhatsApp number to the group, does the group and all subsequent messages show up correctly in Chatwoot.

Steps to reproduce:

Set up Evolution API and connect it to Chatwoot.

Receive a message in a WhatsApp group from any participant (not the admin/owner).

Check Chatwoot: the group does not show up.

Send a message in the same group from the admin’s WhatsApp.

Now the group appears and all messages are visible in Chatwoot.

What did you expect?

I expected that any new group message received (regardless of sender) would automatically create the group contact and open the conversation in Chatwoot, without needing any manual action from the WhatsApp admin.

What did you observe instead of what you expected?

If the group never received a message from the admin’s WhatsApp, the contact/conversation for the group is not created in Chatwoot. Only after an admin message is sent to the group does Chatwoot start tracking the group and show its messages.

Screenshots/Videos

N/A – Can provide logs if necessary.

Which version of the API are you using?

v2.2.3

What is your environment?

Windows

Other environment specifications

Ubuntu 22.04 (Dockerized setup)
Connected to Chatwoot v3.17
Hardware: [e.g., VPS 4 CPU, 8GB RAM]

If applicable, paste the log output

[ChatwootService] Contact not created or found
[ChatwootService] conversation not found
{
key: {
remoteJid: '5548xxxxx16674884@g.us',
fromMe: false,
id: '3FA0A8D1D7B92AA7F122',
participant: '55xxxxx30@s.whatsapp.net'
},
pushName: 'David Atendimento - OnBoard ',
status: 'DELIVERY_ACK',
message: { conversation: 'Test message' },
messageType: 'conversation'
}

Chatwoot logs:
Validation failed: Phone number should be in e164 format

Additional Notes

The workaround (sending a message from the admin's WhatsApp) is not scalable for environments with many groups.

Possibly, the webhook for group messages is missing required fields, or Chatwoot is validating fields in a way that blocks group creation.

Please advise how to programmatically create or update group conversations/contacts when group messages are received, regardless of the sender.