Connecting your WhatsApp number

A number already registered to the ordinary WhatsApp app has to be migrated to the Business Platform — and once it is, it can no longer be used in the WhatsApp app on a phone.

That catches people out badly. If the number you are about to connect is the one your sales team currently answers on their handsets, connecting it takes that away. Think about it in this order:

WhatsApp draws a hard line between replying and initiating. For 24 hours after a customer's last message you can send whatever you like — that is the service window, and it is where the assistant does nearly all of its work. Outside it, you may only send a pre-approved template.

Almost every surprising WhatsApp rule follows from this one. It is why follow-ups are timed the way they are, why a broadcast is not the same thing as a reply, and why re-engaging an old lead is a different operation from answering a new one.

A template is a message written in advance and approved by Meta, so that businesses cannot message people out of the blue with whatever they like. You need them for anything sent outside the 24-hour window.

Approval is not instant and rejected templates are common — usually for sounding promotional when they were submitted as utility. Get the ones you actually need approved before you need them, not on the evening you want to send something.

What the platform charges for each category, and what changed on 1 October 2026, is covered in what the WhatsApp Business Platform actually costs in India.

Do not sit idle. The website chat widget needs approval from nobody, runs the same assistant, and lands in the same inbox — so you can be answering real enquiries with the real thing while WhatsApp is still pending.

It is also the honest way to test your knowledge base. Whatever the widget cannot answer, WhatsApp will not be able to answer either.

A customer replying STOP is honoured immediately and permanently: business-initiated messages to them are suppressed until they opt back in. This is enforced for you, in follow-ups and broadcasts alike.

It is worth knowing this is not a courtesy setting you could switch off if you wanted to. Ignoring opt-outs is the fastest route to losing the number entirely.

Meta reviews the name customers see, and rejections are common for brands whose name does not obviously match the registered business behind it.

The fix that works is usually evidence rather than argument: a public page on your own domain stating the brand, the legal owner, the official website and a contact address, and the same website linked from your Facebook Page and Instagram profile. Changing an already-verified legal name is the riskier path, because it restarts verification.