Download and Save WhatsApp Media Using Media ID (WhatsApp Cloud API) in Laravel and Core PHP

When working with the WhatsApp Cloud API, media files such as
images, videos, documents, and audio are not sent directly. Instead,
WhatsApp provides a Media ID, which you must use to fetch the actual
file and store it on your server.

• Laravel Method (Recommended)
• Core PHP Method
• MIME Type Helper Function

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Step 1: MIME Type to Extension Function

protected function _get_extension_by_mime($mimeType)
{
    $map = [
        'image/jpeg' => 'jpg',
        'image/png' => 'png',
        'image/webp' => 'webp',
        'video/mp4' => 'mp4',
        'video/3gpp' => '3gp',
        'audio/mpeg' => 'mp3',
        'audio/ogg' => 'ogg',
        'audio/amr' => 'amr',
        'application/pdf' => 'pdf',
        'application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document' => 'docx',
        // Add more mime types as needed
    ];

    return $map[$mimeType] ?? null;
}

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Method 1: Laravel Method (Recommended)

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Http;

public function downloadWhatsAppMedia($media_id, $access_token)
{
    if (!$media_id) return false;

    $url = "https://graph.facebook.com/v18.0/" . $media_id;

    $response = Http::withToken($access_token)->get($url);

    $response = json_decode($response->body(), true);

    if (!isset($response['url'])) return false;

    $media_url = $response['url'];

    $ext = $this->_get_extension_by_mime($response['mime_type']);

    $folder = public_path("/whatsapp_media/"); // or storage_path("/whatsapp_media/")

    if (!is_dir($folder)) mkdir($folder, 0777, true);

    $file_name = date('Ymd') . '-' . uniqid() . time() . '.' . $ext;

    $file_path = $folder . $file_name;

    Http::withToken($access_token)
        ->sink($file_path)
        ->get($media_url);

    return "/whatsapp_media/" . $file_name;
}

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Method 2: Core PHP Method

function get_media_url($media_id, $access_token)
{
    if (!$media_id) return false;

    $curl = curl_init();

    curl_setopt_array($curl, [
        CURLOPT_URL => "https://graph.facebook.com/v18.0/" . $media_id,
        CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
        CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
            "Authorization: Bearer " . $access_token
        ],
    ]);

    $response = curl_exec($curl);

    curl_close($curl);

    $response = json_decode($response, true);

    if (!isset($response['url'])) return false;

    $media_url = $response['url'];

    $ext = $this->_get_extension_by_mime($response['mime_type']);

    $folder = __DIR__ . "/whatsapp_media/";

    if (!is_dir($folder)) mkdir($folder, 0777, true);

    $file_name = date('Ymd') . '-' . uniqid() . time() . '.' . $ext;

    $file_path = $folder . $file_name;

    $command = 'curl -k -L -s "'.$media_url.'" -H "Authorization: Bearer '.$access_token.'" > '.$file_path;

    // if any issue with above command, use this
    // $command = 'curl -L -s "' . $media_url . '" -H "Authorization: Bearer ' . $access_token . '" > "' . $file_path . '"';

    shell_exec($command);

    return "whatsapp_media/" . $file_name;
}

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