Run the same agent on your WhatsApp Business number, with conversations landing in the same inbox.
Connecting WhatsApp lets the same agent answer on your WhatsApp Business number, with the same knowledge, behaviour and capabilities as your website widget. Those conversations land in the same Inbox.
Messaging channels are available on Growth and above. See Plans. Connecting a number needs a workspace owner.
Before you start
- A Facebook account that can manage your business in Meta Business Suite. If you don't have a business portfolio yet, Meta creates one during setup.
- A payment method on your WhatsApp Business account. Meta bills WhatsApp conversations to that card directly, separately from your Hey Support plan. See Meta's pricing.
Setting it up
- Open the agent's Deploy page and choose WhatsApp under Messaging channels.
- Pick how your number is set up:
- New number: a number that isn't on WhatsApp or the WhatsApp Business app. We register it for you.
- My number is on the WhatsApp Business app: keep using the app on your phone, and the agent answers the same number.
- Click Connect with Facebook and finish the steps in the Facebook window. If no window opens, allow pop-ups for hey.support and try again.
When the window closes, the card shows your number and business name. Send it a WhatsApp message to test it.
A new number
Meta checks a new number with a code by text message or phone call. A number that is still in WhatsApp or the WhatsApp Business app can't receive that code: Meta says its servers are temporarily unavailable, and waiting doesn't help. Either delete the number from that app first (which loses its chats), or choose the WhatsApp Business app option to keep the app.
A number on the WhatsApp Business app
In the Facebook window, Meta sends a message to the WhatsApp Business app on your phone and you confirm it there. If the window asks for a code by text message or phone call instead, this option isn't available for your number yet. Close the window and don't request the code.
Keeping the app has a few conditions, set by Meta:
- WhatsApp Business app 2.24.17 or newer.
- Open the app at least every 14 days, or the number disconnects.
- Broadcast lists become read-only.
- Disappearing messages, view-once and live location turn off in one-to-one chats.
- Linked devices need linking again afterwards. WhatsApp for Windows and WearOS are not supported.
- Turn off the app's own greeting and away messages, or customers get two greetings.
You can import the last 6 months of chats and your contacts when you connect. Imported chats arrive as closed conversations in the Inbox. Meta sends history once, so you can't import later without reconnecting the number.
Replying from your phone. Replies you send from the WhatsApp Business app show in the Inbox, and the agent pauses on that chat so you and the agent don't both answer. Choose how long the pause lasts on the WhatsApp card (30 minutes unless you change it). Hand back to AI in the Inbox ends the pause early.
How it behaves
One WhatsApp number connects to one agent. A customer messaging your number gets the same answers your website visitors get.
Differences from the widget:
- The conversation has no expiry. WhatsApp is a persistent one-to-one surface, so there is no 24-hour resume window; the thread just continues.
- Cards become WhatsApp buttons or text. Where a card can't be shown on WhatsApp, the agent shares the same information in the message instead.
- Voice notes and photos work. The agent reads a voice note's transcript and a description of a photo, and answers in text.
When you take over a chat in the Inbox, the agent stays quiet on it until you close the conversation. If nobody on your team replies for 12 hours, the agent answers the customer's next message itself and leaves a note in the Inbox saying so, so a forgotten takeover never leaves a customer without a reply.
The 24-hour window
WhatsApp lets a business reply freely for 24 hours after the customer's last message. After that, you can only send a template that Meta has approved. Once the window closes, the Inbox composer switches to a list of your approved templates. You create and get templates approved in WhatsApp Manager; the list refreshes within a few minutes of an approval.
Disconnecting
Click Disconnect WhatsApp on the same card. The agent stops replying on that number immediately, and existing conversations stay in your Inbox. Disconnecting doesn't delete your WhatsApp Business account at Meta.
One agent, many front doors. Whatever you set in Knowledge, Behavior and Capabilities applies everywhere the agent runs. A channel is not a second agent to maintain.