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WhatsApp

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This guide is for

Your own WhatsApp Business number, connected through Meta. Every chat is in Inbox → WhatsApp, where the team answers it.

Before you start

  • A Meta business account, a Meta app with WhatsApp on it, and a phone number added to it.
  • From Meta Business Suite → WhatsApp → API setup: the number's Phone number ID and an access token. Use a system user's token that never expires: a temporary one stops working, and the test then says Meta no longer accepts it.
  • The Meta app's App secret. The desk uses it to check that incoming messages really come from Meta.
  • The WhatsApp plugin switched on in Admin → Apps.

Connecting the number

  1. Open Admin → Messaging → WhatsApp. Enter Phone number ID, Display phone number, Access token and App secret.
  2. Enter a Verify token of your own choosing, and press Save changes. The pill reads Set up once nothing is missing.
  3. Give Meta the webhook. In your Meta app under WhatsApp → Configuration, enter the callback URL the page shows and the verify token you saved.

The 24-hour rule

  • WhatsApp lets a business write freely for 24 hours after the customer's last message. After that only an approved template may be sent, and the reply box says so.
  • Where the page has Send template, enter the name and the language of a template approved for your WhatsApp account.
  • The team answers by hand, with text and one attachment of up to 1 MB. Follow-ups and Autopilot are not available in this workspace yet.

Your own WhatsApp Business number, connected through Meta. Every chat is in Inbox → WhatsApp, where the team answers it or Autopilot does. After a call, the desk can follow up with a message from a template Meta has approved.

WhatsApp: the set-up page in Terramine Desk Admin, before anything is entered
WhatsApp in Admin, as the page looks before anything is entered.

Before you start

  • A Meta business account, a Meta app with WhatsApp on it, and a phone number added to it.
  • From Meta Business Suite → WhatsApp → API setup: the number's Phone number ID and an access token. Use a system user's token that never expires: a temporary one stops working, and the test then says Meta no longer accepts it.
  • The Meta app's App secret. The desk uses it to check that incoming messages really come from Meta.
  • The WhatsApp plugin switched on in Admin → Apps.

Connecting the number

  1. Open Admin → Messaging → WhatsApp. Enter Phone number ID, Display phone number, Access token and App secret.
  2. Press Save changes, then Test connection. The answer Connected carries the verified name and the number Meta holds for it.
  3. Give Meta the webhook. In the Webhook panel, press Generate to make a verify token. Then copy the Callback URL and the Verify token into Meta under WhatsApp → Configuration.
  4. Set the follow-up. Template name and Template language must match a template approved in Meta. Send follow-up messages automatically decides whether the messages leave by themselves or wait for review.
  5. Decide who answers. Autopilot answers WhatsApp chats lets Autopilot reply in the customer's language. Each chat has its own switch in Inbox → WhatsApp, and a person writing there switches it off for that chat.

The 24-hour rule

  • WhatsApp lets a business write freely for 24 hours after the customer's last message. After that only an approved template may be sent, and the reply box says so.
  • Template after a letter names the template Autopilot uses to tell a WhatsApp customer that a quotation or an invoice has gone by email, once their 24 hours are over. It needs a template approved in Meta with one variable.
  • Templates go from the office number only.

More numbers

A person's own work number can be connected beside the office number, so that its chats come to the desk as theirs.

  1. Add the number in WhatsApp Manager → Phone numbers → Add phone number, and confirm it with the SMS or voice code. Its Phone number ID is shown there.
  2. In the More numbers panel, enter the Number with its country code, the Phone number ID and Whose number it is, and press Connect number.
Take a number that is on WhatsApp on no phone, a new SIM for instance: once it is registered to the account, it works only through the desk.
  • Disconnect on a number stops its messages coming to the desk; its chats stay its owner's.
  • Rate per message (USD) is used only to show message costs in Admin → Usage → Costs. Meta bills you directly.