Connect your WhatsApp Business number straight to Meta's WhatsApp Cloud API, with no provider in between, by signing in with Facebook. Contacts can reply with photos, videos, documents, voice notes and locations or by tapping buttons, and you can reach them at any time with templates approved by Meta.

Before you start

You'll need the Facebook account you manage your business with on Meta. When you sign in with it, Meta lets you choose a WhatsApp Business number you already have, or set up a new one.

Meta charges for the messages you send, and its pricing explains what each kind of message costs.

Adding the channel

Go to Settings > Channels and click New Channel. WhatsApp is under Social & Chat, or you can type its name in the search box.

Click Add Facebook Business and sign in with Facebook. Choose the business and WhatsApp number to share, and approve the permissions, as they're needed to send and receive messages for you.

You'll then see the numbers you shared. Click the one you want to add, and the channel is added. Its approved templates are synced to your workspace's Templates.

Considerations

If Meta asks you to verify your number with a code, open the channel and choose Verify Number from its menu.

Contacts can be sent any message within 24 hours of their last message to you. Outside that window, messages have to use one of your approved templates.

If Meta has enabled Direct Send for your WhatsApp Business Account, messages sent outside that window can go as utility messages without a template. Open the channel, choose Edit from its menu and check Direct Send.

To learn more about WhatsApp channels, see Using WhatsApp, and about channels in general, see Introduction to Channels.