What is Unipile?

Unipile is an innovative API designed to provide seamless integrations of various messaging, mailing and social services into your application.

We call platforms like LinkedIn, Google, WhatsApp... a Provider, as it provides the data.

Each Provider API is different in term of design, data modelling, authentication and have their own specificities. They are not always public or well documented, so it can become a hassle to implement and maintain your own connector to each of them.

This is where Unipile comes in:

• Hassle free authentication. Let your users authenticate their Provider Accounts easily with Passwords, QR Code scanning, 2FA, OTP, Oauth... with few lines of code only.
• Unified API design for all providers. For exemple, a Message object from LinkedIn and Instagram have the same schema. The request to get a list of chats is the same for LinkedIn and Instagram. Learn once, integrate everything!
• Simple yet powerful Realtime. Use webhooks to receive new data (Messages, Emails, Posts...) in realtime, without the need to setup servers that maintain opened connections through various protocols.
• Maintenance free. If a provider update its API, we handle the update of the connector so you don't have to.
• Developer first experience. Unipile provide a fully documented API along tools to easily debug your integrations, including mock accounts and webhook logs.

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Core Concepts

1. Platform Management

Organizations are collaborative workspaces where teams manage applications and billing together.

Applications are containers that group related resources (accounts, API keys, webhooks) within an organization. You can create multiple applications to separate different environments or products.

2. Provider Accounts

A Provider is an external platform (LinkedIn, Gmail, WhatsApp, etc.) that provides data through Unipile.

A Provider Account is a user account from one of these providers that has been linked to Unipile. Once linked, you can interact with that account through Unipile's unified API.

3. Methods

Methods are API endpoints that provide access to read, write, and update resources from providers. They are organized into API groups: Messaging, Emails, Calendar, Users, Posts, and provider-specific APIs.

Unipile adds a layer of security with built-in cache and rate limiters to prevent bot detection.

4. Realtime

Webhooks allow your application to receive instant notifications about events occurring on connected accounts (new messages, emails, account status changes, etc.) instead of polling the API repeatedly.

Configure a webhook endpoint URL, select which events you want to receive, and Unipile will send HTTPS POST requests to your endpoint when events occur.

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The Unipile Workflow

To start using Unipile, follow these essential steps:

1. Create a Unipile account → Sign up and create your organization on the Dashboard V2
2. Create an Application → Set up your application within your organization
3. Link Provider Accounts → Connect accounts from providers (LinkedIn, Gmail, WhatsApp, etc.)
4. Create API Keys → Generate authentication keys for your application
5. Call Methods → Use the unified API with the API Key to interact with provider data
6. Setup Webhooks → Configure real-time event notifications

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Next Steps

Explore each concept in depth: