WhatsApp channel setup
Connect a WhatsApp Business number to NuTalk through Meta, link your agent, test it with your own phone and go live.
- A NuTalk account with an agent.
- A Meta business account. You can create one at business.facebook.com or in Meta's window during the setup.
- A phone number for WhatsApp: one in your WhatsApp Business account, or a new one you verify in Meta's window.
How a WhatsApp channel works
A WhatsApp channel connects a number of your WhatsApp Business account to NuTalk through Meta's Cloud API. Your agent answers the chats you let it: first only your test numbers, then your customers once you go live. Every chat shows up in Conversations, where your team can answer too.
Create a WhatsApp channel
- In the dashboard, open Channels in the sidebar, click Connect Channel and choose WhatsApp.
- Enter a Channel name, for example “WhatsApp Support”.
- Choose Official WhatsApp Business and click Continue to Official WhatsApp.
Sync with WhatsAppThe other option links a number you already use in the WhatsApp app: after the channel is created, you scan a QR code from the phone's Linked Devices. This guide covers Official WhatsApp Business.
Connect your WhatsApp account
- Meta's window opens. Log in with the Facebook account that manages your business.
- Choose your business portfolio, your WhatsApp Business account and the number to connect, or create them there. A new number is verified in the same window.
- Finish the window: NuTalk connects the number and opens the channel's page.
If you close Meta's window before the end, nothing is connected. Click Continue to Official WhatsApp to start again.
What Meta shares with NuTalkFinishing the window shares your WhatsApp Business account with NuTalk, with permission to manage it and to send and receive its messages. That's how Meta delivers the number's messages to NuTalk.
Register the number
NuTalk registers the number with WhatsApp as it connects, so it can send and receive messages. If the channel's page shows Phone Number Not Registered:
- Click Register Now.
- Create a 6-digit PIN for two-step verification and confirm it. Keep it safe: you need it to register the number again.
- Click Register Number.
Link your agent
- On the channel's page, open Agent.
- Choose your agent under Primary Agent and click Save Agent.
The AI stays off until you choose who answers: until then, your team answers every chat.
Test your channel
- In Who answers, add your own phone as a test number, with its country code.
- Switch to Testing: the AI answers only your test numbers, from the next message each one sends.
- From that phone, send a WhatsApp message to the number and check the agent's answer.
- Read the chat in Conversations.
Only owners and admins can change who answers.
Go live
- In Who answers, choose Live.
- Pick which chats the AI answers: New conversations from now on (recommended) or New and existing chats. Click Go live.
Chats a teammate holds or is assigned to stay with your team either way, and the AI never replies to an old message. Pause AI stops the AI in every chat at once.
Done: your agent answers your customers on WhatsApp. Follow every chat in Conversations.
WhatsApp Business policies
Meta sets these rules for every WhatsApp Business number:
- 24-hour window
- You can send free-form messages only within 24 hours of the customer's last message. After that, you need an approved template.
- Message templates
- Templates start a conversation or reopen one after the 24-hour window. Meta reviews each template before you can use it. Manage them from the channel's page with Manage Templates, or from an integration with the Channels API.
- Business verification
- To raise your messaging limits, verify your business with Meta. It asks for your business documents.