WhatsApp Business

WhatsApp is an inbox account: customers' messages arrive in the inbox and agents answer them there. WhatsApp voice calls are coming soon. It never publishes posts, so it does not appear in Create.

OmniBrand is a Meta Tech Provider. You connect your own WhatsApp Business Account through Meta's sign-up window (Meta calls it Embedded Signup), and your business pays Meta directly for WhatsApp messages. OmniBrand never sees your Facebook password.

What you can do with WhatsApp

Once your number is connected:

• Receive and reply to customers' WhatsApp messages in the inbox, from your own number (Replying on each channel).
• Send approved template messages, also outside the 24-hour window, and send one approved template to many opted-in contacts with WhatsApp broadcasts.
• Meta bills your WhatsApp Business account directly through Billing Hub; OmniBrand adds no markup (Paying Meta for WhatsApp).

Before you start

• You are an Owner or Admin in OmniBrand.
• A Facebook account that is an admin of your Meta business portfolio, or that can create one.
• A phone number that can receive a text message or a call for the verification code. It must not be registered with another WhatsApp Business Platform provider. Connecting a number while it stays in the WhatsApp Business app is coming soon.
• Meta may limit new accounts until your business is verified (Meta Business Settings → Security Centre → Business verification).

Step by step

1. Set up → Accounts → click WhatsApp Business under Connect an account (or + Connect another on the WhatsApp Business card).
2. The Connect WhatsApp Business dialog opens. Click Continue with Facebook:

• Using your WhatsApp Business app number (scan a QR code and keep chatting in the app on your phone) is coming soon.
• Connect a new number (Cloud API) - for a number that is not on the WhatsApp Business app, or an existing WhatsApp Business account. Meta sends a code by text or call.

3. Meta's window opens (allow pop-ups for OmniBrand if nothing appears). In Meta's window:

1. Log in to Facebook and allow OmniBrand to use your information.
2. Choose your business portfolio and WhatsApp Business account, or create new ones. Enter the business details and the display name customers will see.
3. Add the phone number and choose Text message or Phone call for the code, then enter the code.
4. Review the permissions OmniBrand asks for (manage and message with your WhatsApp account) and confirm.
5. On the last screen click Finish.

4. Back in OmniBrand you see Connecting your WhatsApp number… and "Keep this window open: the PIN for your number is shown here once, when this finishes." While it shows, Close, Escape and clicking outside do not close the dialog. Then WhatsApp connected with each number and its state:

• Registered for the Cloud API - OmniBrand registered the number. The dialog shows a Two-step verification PIN once: click Copy PIN and keep it safe. You need it to move the number or change two-step verification in WhatsApp Manager. OmniBrand keeps it encrypted, and when you connect the same number again through this dialog it keeps the PIN it stored for it, so Finish registration uses the same PIN.
• Already on the Cloud API - nothing more to do.
• Also on the WhatsApp Business app (coming soon) - the number keeps working in the app.
• Needs its two-step PIN or Not registered yet - see Finish registration below.

5. Under Next steps, click Open Meta Billing Hub and add a payment method for your business. Until you do, Meta does not deliver paid template messages (broadcasts, reminders). OmniBrand does not bill you for WhatsApp messages.
6. Click Done. Each number is its own row on Accounts, named with the business name and phone number. OmniBrand subscribes the account to messages and starts syncing your templates by itself; you type no IDs or tokens.
7. Add a payment method to the WhatsApp Business Account in Meta. Meta bills that account directly for WhatsApp messages; OmniBrand adds nothing. The number's row reminds you: Meta bills this number's WhatsApp Business account directly. Press Settings to check its payment method. Click Settings on the row: the Paying Meta for WhatsApp box shows the status and has Open Meta Billing Hub. Every step is in Paying Meta for WhatsApp.

Finish registration

A row that shows Registration not finished has a short form under it (owners and admins):

1. Read the sentence above the field; it says what Meta answered.
2. If the number already had a two-step verification PIN (for example from another provider), type it in Two-step verification PIN (optional). Otherwise leave it empty and OmniBrand uses the PIN it saved (also after you reconnected the number through Connect WhatsApp Business).
3. Click Finish registration. When it works you see … is registered and ready to send. and the form disappears.

Calling settings (owners and admins)

WhatsApp voice calls are coming soon: this section applies once they open. On a number's row click Settings, then Calling settings. OmniBrand loads the number's settings from Meta into the Calling section:

• Voice calling - customers can call this number from WhatsApp and agents can call them from the inbox.
• Customers who call you may be called back - an inbound call grants a short-lived permission to call the customer back.

Each switch is saved immediately (Calling settings saved). If Meta refuses, you see WhatsApp rejected the change with Meta's reason, for example that the number is not eligible for calling.

What happens next

• Incoming messages arrive in the inbox within seconds; replies go out from that number with text, images, documents, audio or video.
• WhatsApp's 24-hour rule: you can send a free-form reply only within 24 hours of the customer's last message. After that the inbox says More than 24 hours have passed since this person last wrote… and you need an approved template: press Send a template in that note (Replying on each channel), use WhatsApp broadcasts for many people, or wait for the customer to write again.
• A number also on the WhatsApp Business app: open the app at least once every 14 days or Meta disconnects the number. Replies you type in the phone app and chats from before you connected are not shown in OmniBrand yet.

If something goes wrong

• You closed Meta's window before finishing, so nothing was connected. - click Continue with Facebook again.
• Meta's sign-up answer expired… - Meta's answer lasts 30 seconds. Connect again and stay on the page until it says WhatsApp connected.
• Meta has not finished verifying your business yet… - finish Business verification in Meta Business Settings (Security Centre), then connect again.
• Meta has not approved this number's display name yet… - check the name in WhatsApp Manager; once Meta approves it, click Finish registration.
• This phone number is still registered with another WhatsApp account or provider… - remove it there first (in the WhatsApp Business app: Settings > Account > Business Platform > Disconnect, then wait 15 minutes), then connect again.
• OmniBrand was not given access to this WhatsApp Business Account… - connect again and, in Meta's window, share the WhatsApp account and allow every permission.
• This number already has a two-step verification PIN… - type that PIN in Finish registration (or turn two-step verification off in WhatsApp Manager).
• Sign-in expired, Disconnected or Inbox webhooks not subscribed - reconnect - click Reconnect on the row (when the row has no Reconnect, click + Connect another on the WhatsApp Business card instead). The row reminds you: Reconnect opens Meta's sign-up window: pick the same business portfolio, WhatsApp Business account and number, then press Finish.
• Messages do not arrive at all - see WhatsApp messages not arriving.

Good to know

• Meta charges for WhatsApp messages at its own rates and bills your WhatsApp Business Account directly, through the payment method you add in Meta; OmniBrand adds nothing. See Paying Meta for WhatsApp and WhatsApp costs, limits and free windows.
• On an OmniBrand that has not set up Meta's sign-up window yet, WhatsApp Business opens Facebook's permission window instead: log in, choose Edit settings, opt in to every WhatsApp Business Account and number you want (a number on the Cloud API already), and allow the permissions. The row's reminder then reads When Meta's window opens, choose Edit settings and opt in to all WhatsApp accounts so this number is included. If that sign-in reaches more than one number, nothing is connected yet: the window Choose which accounts to connect opens. Tick the numbers this workspace should use and click Connect selected. See Choose which accounts to connect.