Connecting
Connect WhatsApp, at the top of the WhatsApp section in the sidebar. Two cards there, each opening Meta’s own signup:
You sign in with your Facebook account and choose the number. We never see your
login, and the account stays yours: you can move it to another provider whenever
you want.
Then add a payment method in Meta
Your balance here doesn’t pay WhatsApp’s message fees. Meta charges those to the card on your own Meta account; your balance pays only our 10% platform fee on each message (how the two bills work). Without a card on your Meta account, WhatsApp won’t deliver your templates. Add one in Meta Business, under Billing & payments → Payment methods (open it), in the business that owns your WhatsApp account. Then tick I’ve added it on Connect WhatsApp. Step by step, with which cards work: Adding a payment method in Meta. We can’t see your Meta payment details, so until you tick it we ask once more before your first send: on Send, in the inbox’s template dialog, and before a broadcast. Disconnecting and connecting a different account asks again, since that account needs its own card. If Meta later reports a problem with the card, the step comes back in red with Meta’s own words, even after you’ve ticked it.Finish setting up
After you connect, Finish setting up WhatsApp at the top of Connect WhatsApp lists what’s left. Each step is checked against Meta and your workspace, not just ticked off:
The list disappears once every step is done.
Which number to use
A mobile number with a SIM in it is the smoothest path. During signup Meta sends that number a six-digit code by SMS, and you type it into Meta’s window to prove the number is yours — nothing else to do. A number from the Phone Numbers page can be verified too, by call rather than text. It cannot receive SMS, so that option will never arrive on it — but Meta’s verification call does reach it, including from outside India. That has its own recovery, right there on the row:1
Call with the code
Bypasses the popup’s picker and asks Meta directly for a call — the only
method that can reach a Phone Numbers page number. Text the code sits
beside it for a number that can take SMS.
2
Type back what Meta says
Type the code into the field beneath the buttons, and the number is
verified and ready to send and receive.
- It cannot already be active on WhatsApp or the WhatsApp Business app. Delete the WhatsApp account on that phone first, or use a different number.
- Asking for a code again is limited. After a failed attempt Meta makes you wait before requesting another, sometimes an hour. Check the number before you start.
The account is your workspace’s; the number belongs to an agent
Your WhatsApp Business Account belongs to your business, not to any one agent — so it is connected once, for the whole workspace, and every agent works against it. A number is different. It answers for exactly one agent, because a message arrives at a number and something has to decide which agent replies. So connecting and assigning are two steps, and the second one is yours to make:- Connect your account on Connect WhatsApp. The number arrives with no agent.
- Give it one — from that same page, or from the agent’s own Channels page.
A number with no agent still receives. Messages arrive in your
inbox and wait for a person; nothing answers on its own
until you have said who should. That is deliberate — an agent replying from a
number nobody chose it for is worse than a message waiting a few minutes.Give the number an agent and the messages that were waiting become theirs,
so nothing from your first day is stranded.
Moving a number from one agent to another works the other way round: the
agent that had it loses it, but conversations already open stay with the
agent handling them — nobody mid-conversation is suddenly answered by a
different agent. New conversations go to the agent that took it.
Your click-to-chat link
Every connected number has one, on the Connect WhatsApp page. It opens a WhatsApp chat with you, and it needs no integration — put it in an Instagram bio, behind a button on your site, in an email footer, on a printed sign. You can set what their message already says. That matters more than it sounds: an empty chat asks somebody to think of an opening line, which is where most of them stop. And if you word it differently per place you put the link, the first thing they send tells you where they came from.The same link as a QR code
Underneath the link is a QR code for it, and Download PNG saves a print-quality copy. Point a phone camera at it and it opens the same chat, with the same message already typed. It is for the places a link cannot go: a counter card, a menu, a packing slip, a poster in the window, the back of a business card. The code changes as you edit the message above it, so download it after you have worded it, not before.Disconnecting
Disconnect on the Connect WhatsApp page stops a number sending and receiving. Your WhatsApp Business Account is untouched — it is yours, and disconnecting here does not close it.Your conversations are kept. Everything that number sent and received stays
in your inbox and stays searchable. Disconnecting ends the connection, not the
history.
What customers see when they tap your name
Business profile on the Connect WhatsApp page, beside Disconnect. Your picture, the line under your name, a description, your email, website, address and business category. It is read from WhatsApp when you open it and written back when you save, so it is never a stale copy of what your customers actually see. An empty profile is why some businesses show a blank circle and nothing else.Your business NAME is not here. That is the display name on the number
itself, WhatsApp reviews it before it appears, and it is set in Meta’s
WhatsApp Manager under Phone numbers → Display name. The tagline, picture and
the rest are yours to change whenever you like.
Your name, and the badge, are two different approvals
Two separate things get conflated because they show up in the same place — the top of a chat with you. Your business name, with no badge, is the ordinary Display Name above. Any verified business can have one; it is not gated behind anything else. Once WhatsApp approves it, it is what every customer sees instead of your number — most businesses stop there. A badge beside the name — WhatsApp’s own equivalent of a “blue tick” — is a separate, optional step: an Official Business Account. WhatsApp grants it at its own discretion, generally to a business it considers well-known or notable in its own market, on top of your business already being verified. There is no published checklist and no guaranteed outcome, and it is applied for from Meta’s WhatsApp Manager on your number’s profile — not from here. Most verified businesses run without one; it changes how your name looks, not whether messages reach anyone.When WhatsApp stops the number sending
WhatsApp can stop an account starting new conversations — most often because the payment method on your Meta account failed, and sometimes after a run of complaints. It is quiet when it happens: WhatsApp accepts what you send and delivers none of it. The Connect WhatsApp page and the agent’s Channels page show the reason in WhatsApp’s own words whenever that is the case, and the workspace is told once when it starts. Replies inside an open 24-hour window keep working throughout — it is only conversations you start that stop.A failed payment method is fixed in Meta, not here. Add a working one in
Meta Business Manager under Billing & payments, on the business that owns
your WhatsApp account. Then open or reload Connect WhatsApp: that is when
we ask Meta for your account’s status, and the warning clears there and then.
Step by step:
Adding a payment method in Meta.
Your account at a glance
Beside your numbers, Connect WhatsApp lists your WhatsApp account as Meta reports it. Each row shows its current value; click one to see what it means and what changes it.- Messaging limit: how many people your business can start conversations with in any 24 hours, across all your numbers. See quality and limits.
- Can send messages: whether WhatsApp is letting the account start conversations, with WhatsApp’s reason when it isn’t.
- Quality: your lowest-rated number.
- Business verification: whether Meta has verified your business.
- WhatsApp calling: whether your account can take WhatsApp calls. That needs a limit of 2,000.
- Marketing Messages API: whether your account is signed up for it. See Marketing Messages API below.
Two-step verification
Two-step verification protects your number with a 6-digit PIN. Meta asks for it whenever the number is registered again, and the blue tick needs it on. Click Two-step verification on Connect WhatsApp to see whether it is on and to set a new PIN. Type it twice. Keep it somewhere safe: ThinnestAI never stores it. When you put an approved display name live with Start using, ThinnestAI has to set a new PIN and shows it to you once. You can change it here afterwards. If you get a notice that a security setting changed on your number and nobody at your business did it, set a new PIN here straight away.The blue tick
A blue tick next to your name marks an Official Business Account. Click Blue tick on Connect WhatsApp to see where each number stands. ThinnestAI reads this from Meta every time the page opens, and shows Meta’s five requirements as met or not met:- the business follows WhatsApp’s Business Messaging Policy;
- it has been on the WhatsApp Business Platform for at least 30 days;
- your business is verified with Meta;
- two-step verification is on for the number;
- the number’s display name is approved.
Marketing Messages API
Meta’s Marketing Messages API is an optional programme that can deliver more of your marketing templates and report clicks. Once your business is on it, ThinnestAI sends your marketing templates through it automatically; nothing about how you send changes. Click Marketing Messages API on Connect WhatsApp to see where you stand:- On: your business has accepted Meta’s terms. Nothing to do.
- Request sent: Meta has asked your business to accept. An admin accepts it in Meta Business Suite, under Settings → Requests.
- Not set up: choose Set up. Meta opens in a small window, where an admin of your business accepts its terms for this programme. The window closes itself and the row updates. Only an owner or admin can do this.
Changing your display name
Click Display name on Connect WhatsApp, type the new name, and choose Send to Meta for review. Meta reviews it, usually within a few days. The row shows the review, and you get a notification when Meta decides. When Meta approves it, choose Start using in the same place. Meta needs this within 14 days of approving the name, or you send it for review again. Meta allows 10 changes in 30 days, and its naming rules decide what is accepted. If your number also runs on the WhatsApp Business app, change the name in the app.The WhatsApp Dashboard
Dashboard, under Connect WhatsApp in the sidebar, shows what your numbers did over the last 24 hours, 7 days or 30 days — or any days you pick with Pick dates. Choose a first and last day, up to a year apart, then Apply. Days run midnight to midnight in your workspace’s time zone, and a single day is shown hour by hour: Each figure has a small chart of its trend. When the view is by day, a badge shows how the last 7 days compare with the 7 before.- Messages sent: sent by your agent or your team. Internal notes are not counted.
- Delivered, read and not delivered: each as a share of what was sent.
- Messages received: messages your customers sent.
- Cost: what WhatsApp messages cost you, the same figure as on Usage.
- A chart of sent and received messages: by hour for 24 hours, by day otherwise, in your workspace’s time zone.
- What you sent, by type: marketing, utility, one-time codes and replies, each with its cost.
- The most common reasons messages were not delivered: WhatsApp’s words, then what they mean.
Delivery receipts are recorded from 30 September 2026. Messages sent before
then show as no receipt from WhatsApp, not as undelivered.
Before a number is connected
Templates, Forms and Send are read-only until one is. You can read what is there, and the pre-built template and form libraries, but nothing can be written, submitted or sent — all three end at Meta, and until an account is connected there is nothing to send them to.The 24-hour window
This is the single rule to understand. Meta’s rules covers it and the rest in depth.- When a customer messages you, a 24-hour window opens. Inside it, the agent can reply freely, in its own words.
- Outside it, nothing but an approved template reaches that customer.
What the agent does here
The same knowledge, instructions and tools as your website widget. Cards and buttons render as native WhatsApp messages rather than degrading to text. Delivery and read receipts arrive afterwards and show in the inbox — sent, delivered, read and failed are four different facts, each with Meta’s own reason where one applies.Free entry point
When a customer arrives from a click-to-WhatsApp ad and you reply within 24 hours, Meta does not charge for that conversation for 72 hours. The platform tracks this and it shows in your usage.Opting out
A customer can turn off “Offers and announcements” in WhatsApp itself, or simply tell your agent to stop. Either way they are recorded as withdrawn and marketing templates to them are refused. Utility and authentication messages still reach them, and must — an order confirmation is not something anybody opted out of.Calls
A customer’s WhatsApp call appears in the thread with its outcome and duration.Not built
- Catalogues. Inbound order messages parse, but there is no catalogue browsing.
- Publishing a form before Meta has verified your business. Forms build, store and preview now; Meta will not publish a flow for an unverified business, and an unpublished form reaches nobody.
- One-time password templates, which are behind the same verification gate.