Connecting your WhatsApp business number allows you to manage conversations from WhatsApp right in your inbox. This means your customers can contact you in the most convenient way for them, while you benefit from powerful automations.
You can also send outbound WhatsApp messages to people or provide WhatsApp as a follow-up channel in Messenger, allowing customers to continue the conversation with them for optimal ease.
What you’ll need
A verified Meta Business Account. You can connect to a WhatsApp business profile without this, but you will be unable to utilize its phone number. See instructions.
A WhatsApp business profile to manage your WhatsApp messaging.
A valid phone number to receive SMS or calls for verification. It should not be linked to other WhatsApp profiles.
Your business details. Get your legal business name, address, and display name ready. Your display name should be the same as your business name.
Disabled two-factor authentication (2FA). This must be disabled if you are migrating an existing profile.
Important: Please be cautious of the currency settings while connecting your WhatsApp Business Account (WABA) to Hilal Software. According to Meta’s own criteria, once a WABA’s currency is set at creation, it cannot be changed. Meta also demands that your WABA’s currency correspond to your business’s area (for example, enterprises in India use Rupee).
To work with Hilal Software’s integration, we presently require that all associated WhatsApp Business Accounts be set to USD. As a result, if you are creating a new WABA expressly for usage with Hilal Software, you must verify that its currency is set to USD during the formation process in order for it to meet the requirements of our interface. If your current WABA is not in USD and you want to connect it to Hilal Software, you must create a new WABA with USD as the currency and move your phone number(s) to it.
Meta enforces this limitation, which prevents you from changing your currency after creation, and Hilal Software has no control over it.
Set up WhatsApp
Go to Chatbots > Your ChatBot > Actions > Integrations > WhatsApp and click Connect WhatsApp business number to start the integration with Hilal Software.
This will open a window where you can follow the necessary steps with Meta.
- Select or create a relevant Meta Business Account.
- Create a WhatsApp Business Account.
- Create a WhatsApp Business Profile, with a description, industry, and phone number.
Verify your Meta Business Profile
Once you’ve connected your WhatsApp business number, you’ll need to request verification from the Meta Business Manager. This process can take upwards of 48 hours.
Follow the steps outlined in the following article to submit your business for verification.
While you wait for the business’s verification, you can use WhatsApp with a limited range of features:
- You can initiate up to 250 business-related discussions in a 24-hour period.
- You can connect up to two telephone numbers.
Once Meta approves your application, these restrictions are lifted.
Setup Business Profile
To finish setting up your WhatsApp business profile, click to Settings > Channels > WhatsApp and select the Set your company profile option.
This allows you to enter the information that your clients will see on your WhatsApp business profile, such as your profile photo, status, email, business address, and website.
Click Save to update these details on your business profile.
Test WhatsApp as a channel
You’re ready to start testing WhatsApp as a channel and see how it works in the inbox. Go to Settings > Channels > WhatsApp and click Get a link or QR code.
Then select your phone number and navigate to the Message links tab where you can add new message link and copy to clipboard to share with a teammate, or download it as a QR code and scan it with your mobile phone to send a message.
When you send a WhatsApp message to the number you connected, it will appear as a conversation in the inbox.