Webhook
A webhook is an automatic notification that one program sends by itself to another at a set address the moment an event occurs: a new message, a payment, a request.
In plain words
An ordinary API request is when you call and ask, “any news?” A webhook is when someone calls you as soon as news appears. You do not have to check every minute: the message arrives at the moment of the event.
What it looks like in practice
A customer pays an invoice. The payment system immediately sends a webhook: who paid, how much, under which contract. The records system receives it and changes the deal status, and the manager sees the payment within seconds, not the next day.
Incoming messages to a bot, new website requests and delivery status changes arrive the same way. The event happened, the notification went out.
Why it matters to a manager
Webhooks give speed. The faster the team learns of an event, the faster it reacts: replying in a minute instead of an hour, and not sending a reminder to someone who has already paid.
But a webhook is a point of failure. If the receiving side was unavailable at the moment of the event, the notification may be lost. Some senders retry, others do not. So important events should be reconciled periodically: for example, once a day compare the list of payments with what reached the records.
A common mistake
Not verifying who a webhook came from. The receiving address is essentially an open door. Without checking a signature or secret key, anyone could send “payment received”.
A second risk is a broken webhook that nobody notices for weeks, until lost requests surface.
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