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Inbox and texting

Connect WhatsApp to a number

Connect WhatsApp to your business number so WhatsApp chats and calls land in the same inbox thread as your calls and texts.

WhatsApp is included on Business Plus. Once a number is connected, customers can message and call it on WhatsApp, and you answer from the same inbox as your texts. Owners, admins and the person the number belongs to can connect it.

Connect a CallRoute number

  1. Select Numbers in the sidebar and select Connect WhatsApp on the number's row.
  2. If the number already uses the WhatsApp Business app on a phone, tick This number already uses the WhatsApp Business app. You keep using the app, your recent chats and contacts come over, and new messages show in both places.
  3. Select Continue with Meta and sign in with the Facebook account that manages your business. Pick or create your business, then add or choose the number.
  4. When Meta asks how to send the code, choose Text message. The code appears in the dialog under Your WhatsApp code from Meta and in your inbox. Sometimes there is no code to type at all.
  5. When you see WhatsApp is connected, select Done. The row now shows WhatsApp connected.

Select WhatsApp on the row to edit the Business profile, check Message quality, or Disconnect WhatsApp. Under WhatsApp calls, select Turn on to let customers call you from WhatsApp. Those calls ring in the CallRoute web app and do not use plan minutes.

Connect a number you keep with another provider

On the Numbers page, in the WhatsApp card, select Use a number I already have on WhatsApp. It connects for WhatsApp chats and WhatsApp calls only. Phone calls and texts to that number stay with your current provider. Meta sends a code to that phone by text or call, and you type it into Meta's window.

A WhatsApp only number is $9 a month from your wallet, and the first month is taken when you connect, so add funds first. Owners and admins can add one.

The 24 hour reply window

WhatsApp lets a business reply for 24 hours after the customer last wrote. New WhatsApp chats start when the customer writes to you. Above the reply box, pick how to send:

  • Auto sends on WhatsApp while the chat is open and as a text when it is not.
  • Text or WhatsApp sends on that channel only.
  • Both sends on both. The text counts toward your plan.

The line under the box says which channel your message will use, and when WhatsApp replies close. After that, carry on by text in the same thread. On a WhatsApp only number, replies wait until the customer writes again.

Meta's number limit

A number can be on one WhatsApp service at a time. If another provider set up WhatsApp on it, ask them to remove it first. For how WhatsApp messages look in a thread, see Use the inbox.