7x24hrs What you need
- A website or Shopify store set up with us, on a paid plan (Basic, Standard, Elite or Enterprise). Sign up with your e-mail if you have not yet.
- A Meta developer app with the WhatsApp product and a WhatsApp Business number on the Cloud API. Meta's own guide walks you through it, including a free test number to try with.
- From that app: the number's phone number ID (WhatsApp → API Setup), a permanent access token (a system user in Meta Business settings with the whatsapp_business_messaging permission) and the App Secret (App settings → Basic).
Connect it
- In your dashboard, open Your assistant in Telegram, Discord and WhatsApp, enter the phone number ID, the access token and the App Secret next to WhatsApp, and press Connect. We check them with Meta.
- The dashboard then shows a callback URL and a verify token. In your Meta app, open WhatsApp → Configuration, press Edit next to Webhook, paste both, and press Verify and save.
- Under Webhook fields, subscribe to messages.
- Send a message to your WhatsApp number from your phone. The assistant answers in a few seconds.
Every message Meta sends us is checked against your App Secret, so nobody else can post to your assistant. Your token is stored encrypted and removed when you press Disconnect.
WhatsApp's 24-hour rule
WhatsApp lets a business write freely to a customer only within 24 hours of the customer's last message. The assistant always answers within that window, so this only matters for your team: an answer you write more than 24 hours after the customer's last message cannot be delivered, and you are told so. Reply by e-mail instead, or wait until the customer writes again. The assistant never starts a conversation or sends marketing messages.
When a person is needed
When the assistant is not sure, or the customer asks for a person, it says so and gives your contact address, and your team is told as usual, marked “via WhatsApp”. Answer from Slack, Discord or Telegram and your reply reaches the customer on WhatsApp, marked as coming from your team.
Which plans include WhatsApp?
Every paid plan: Basic $19 a month for 90 conversations, Standard $59 for 275, Elite $199 for 1,000 and Enterprise $1,099 for 6,000. Conversations on WhatsApp come out of the same monthly allowance as your chat button. Meta may charge you separately for WhatsApp conversations under its own pricing. See pricing.
Can I keep using the WhatsApp Business app on the same number?
A number on the Cloud API is managed through the API. Whether it can also stay in the WhatsApp Business app depends on Meta's current rules for your number; check Meta's documentation before you move a number you use every day.
Does it handle pictures or voice messages?
Not yet: it answers text messages and leaves other kinds for your team.