WhatsApp

An agent on WhatsApp answers customers who message your number there, and can message them first with templates Meta has approved. WhatsApp is a plan feature. If it isn't on your plan, the agent's WhatsApp channel shows a Pro badge instead of settings.

You connect your own WhatsApp Business account to one of your Subcontext phone numbers, using Meta's Embedded Signup, a Facebook window that opens from the dashboard. One number answers as one agent.

Before you start#

• The Facebook login that manages your business. You need to log in to Facebook as someone who can manage your business in Meta Business Suite (or can create a business there). The WhatsApp Business account is created in, or added to, that business.
• A Subcontext number. WhatsApp is added to one of your Subcontext numbers (see phone numbers). The number's texts and calls keep working alongside WhatsApp. If you have no number free, email hello@subcontext.com.
• A number that isn't on WhatsApp already. If the number was ever registered with WhatsApp or the WhatsApp Business app, delete it from that account first, or Meta refuses it.
• Your display name. The name customers see on WhatsApp. It should match your business name or brand. Meta checks it against its rules.
• Pop-ups allowed for subcontext.com in your browser. The Facebook window is a pop-up.
• Phone number compliance, possibly. WhatsApp runs on a Twilio account of your organisation's own. The first time you set that up, any regulatory details your numbers need have to be approved before SMS, calls and WhatsApp can be configured again (see phone number compliance). The dashboard warns you before this happens.

Connecting#

In the dashboard, open the agent, its Channels tab, then Configure on WhatsApp.

1. Pick the number.
2. If you see Get ready, press it. It sets up your organisation's own WhatsApp account and moves the number into it (this can take a minute, so refresh if the page asks you to).
3. Press Connect with Facebook and log in. In Meta's window, choose or create your business and WhatsApp Business account, and set the display name.
4. When Meta asks for the phone number, the dashboard shows exactly what to type: the country code, then the rest of the number. Choose Text message to verify it. The code is sent to your Subcontext number, so it appears in the dashboard for you to copy into Meta's window.
5. When you've finished, the page reloads automatically (it can take up to 30 seconds) and shows Registering while the number comes online, usually a minute or two.

Start over lets you choose a different number.

Some organisations use Subcontext's own WhatsApp account instead of their own. For them, numbers appear on the WhatsApp settings ready to attach, with no Facebook connection step.

After connecting#

• Display name. Meta reviews the display name you entered. Until it's approved, customers may see your number rather than the name.
• Business verification. Meta may ask you to verify your business in Meta Business Suite, for example before you can start conversations with more people each day. You do this directly with Meta.
• If the number goes offline (Meta restricts it, or the account is changed), owners and managers are told, with Meta's reason, and WhatsApp messages from it fail until it's back.
• Disconnect WhatsApp on the channel's settings stops the number being a WhatsApp sender. Its texts and calls carry on.

The 24-hour window#

WhatsApp only lets a business send free-form messages for 24 hours after the customer's last message to it. Every new message from the customer restarts the clock.

• Inside the window, the agent replies as it does on other channels.
• Outside the window, WhatsApp only delivers templates Meta has approved. If the agent sends a message then, it's held back and the channel's Outside-window fallback template goes instead, inviting the customer to reply. When they do, the window reopens and the conversation carries on.
• Automatic messages (follow-ups, reminders, lifecycle messages) each use their own template, chosen in the WhatsApp center. Without one, they use the fallback.

Templates#

Templates are written and submitted in the dashboard, under WhatsApp templates, and approved by Meta for your own WhatsApp Business account, so connect WhatsApp first.

• Essentials first. The page shows how many essential templates are approved. Without them, messages sent more than 24 hours after a customer's last message can fail. Add essentials submits the missing ones.
• Ready-made starters can be submitted as they are, or customised first.
• Category. Utility is for updates about something the customer already has or did. Marketing is anything else, including quotes and offers. Meta may change the category when it reviews a template.
• Review. Meta usually decides within minutes to a few hours, and can take up to a day. Subcontext checks for the result. A rejected template shows as rejected. Change it and submit it again.
• Writing your own. A message can't start or end with a variable, and WhatsApp formatting (bold, italic, strikethrough) works.

Costs#

Every WhatsApp message is billed through Subcontext, with your other messaging, and shows on your Usage page. Its price covers Meta's charge for the message, Twilio's fee for carrying it, and Subcontext's margin:

• Templates, which start a conversation or reach a customer outside the 24-hour window, cost the most.
• Replies inside the 24-hour window cost much less.
• Messages customers send you cost a little too.

Meta also limits how many marketing messages each person receives, and how many new conversations a new number can start each day. The limit grows as the number is used well.

Keeping the number healthy#

• Only message people who agreed to hear from you on WhatsApp.
• Opt-outs. A customer who sends STOP is opted out, as on SMS (see opt-outs).
• Quality rating. Blocks and reports from customers lower your number's quality rating, which can cap how many conversations you can start or restrict the number.
• People not on WhatsApp. If a customer's number isn't on WhatsApp, Subcontext uses your setting in the WhatsApp center for them: send by SMS, send by email, or don't send.