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Connecting WhatsApp is done once, by an administrator of your business’s Facebook account. Most of it happens inside Meta’s own wizard; Watx opens it, stores the result and then tells you whether the number is live. You choose between two routes first. WhatsApp Business API moves the number onto the Cloud API and the WhatsApp Business app stops working on it. Coexistence leaves the number on the app, so you keep replying from your phone — that route has its own page, Coexistence. The rest of this page follows the first route.

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Before you start

  • A Facebook account that administers your business. Sign in with the profile you already use to manage WhatsApp, not a personal one you keep separate.
  • A phone number for customers to message, on which you can receive an SMS or a call to verify it. You can either add a new number, or bring the number already running on your WhatsApp Business app.
  • A payment method on your WhatsApp Business Account. Meta charges you for conversations directly. Watx does not resell or meter them.
A phone number can be connected to one Watx workspace at a time. If the number is already linked to another workspace, the connect is refused with a message saying so.

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Connect

1

Open the channel settings

In the sidebar, open WhatsApp → Channel Settings. With nothing connected, the page asks How do you want to connect? and offers two cards: WhatsApp Business API and WhatsApp Business app (coexistence).Pick WhatsApp Business API. You then get a seven-step preview of Meta’s wizard, with Connect with Facebook underneath. Choose a different way at the top goes back.The same checklist is on Onboarding, which shows one card per channel and whether it is connected.
2

Press Connect with Facebook

A Facebook popup opens. Sign in with the admin account of your Meta business and grant the permissions it asks for.
3

Fill in your business information

Select an existing business portfolio or create one, then add your business name, website and country. Customers do not see any of this on WhatsApp.
4

Choose how to connect

Either bring the number from your existing WhatsApp Business app, or start fresh with a new phone number.
5

Add your business phone number

Enter the number customers will message and verify it by SMS or call inside the popup. If you are migrating, it must match the number on your WhatsApp Business app account.
6

Confirm the WhatsApp Business Account

Review the account name that will be shared and set its time zone.
7

Share chat history, if Meta offers it

If you are bringing a number across, Meta asks whether to share your existing chats. Open your WhatsApp Business app, find the message from the official Facebook Business account and tap Scan QR code.
Whether you share existing chats cannot be changed later. Sharing them is between you and Meta: the Watx inbox is not backfilled either way, and fills from the next message onwards.
8

Let Watx finish

When the popup reports success, Watx exchanges the authorisation code for an access token, registers the number for the Cloud API, subscribes to your WhatsApp Business Account so Meta delivers incoming messages, and stores the credentials encrypted. Nothing is stored before Meta has verified the number.

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What “connected” means

Once the connection is healthy, the settings page replaces the wizard with a single card showing: Two separate facts sit behind that card, and they are worth keeping apart:
  • Credentials valid — your access token authenticates with Meta, so sending works.
  • Registered — Meta is delivering incoming messages to Watx.
A valid token with no registration is the failure that looks like success: you can send, and nothing ever arrives. When those two disagree, Watx splits them back into separate banners rather than showing one green box. Verify with Meta re-runs the check on demand and lists what it found — whether the phone metadata reads back, whether your WhatsApp Business Account has a subscribed app, and whether Meta itself considers the number registered.

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Coexistence — keeping the WhatsApp Business app

If you picked the second card, the number stays on the WhatsApp Business app and you keep replying from your phone. Watx records the connection as coexistence, skips the registration call — Meta forbids re-registering a number the app still owns — and says so on the connected card under Mode. That route has different prerequisites, a different wizard and restrictions Meta applies for as long as the app keeps the number, including a fixed send rate and no catalogue. It is all on Coexistence.

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After connecting

  1. Add a payment method to your WhatsApp Business Account in Meta Business Settings, if you have not already. Without it, incoming messages work but anything your business starts will fail.
  2. Create or sync your templates — see Message templates. If you already had templates approved elsewhere, Sync from Meta pulls them in.
  3. Send a first message from the inbox, or follow the Quickstart.

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Reconnecting or changing the number

Connect a different number at the bottom of the connected card runs the signup again and replaces the credentials stored for this workspace. It is also how you refresh an access token that is about to expire — Watx warns you when the expiry is within seven days, because messages stop sending once it lapses. Reset Configuration deletes the credentials stored for this workspace so you can enter them again. Your conversations, contacts and templates are untouched, and nothing changes at Meta — but sending stops until you reconnect.

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Entering credentials by hand

Most businesses never need this. If your deployment cannot offer Embedded Signup, if this workspace was connected manually before, or if you are connecting Meta’s test number, the settings page offers a Manual setup tab instead.
  • Phone Number ID and WhatsApp Business Account ID — from WhatsApp → API Setup in the Meta App Dashboard.
  • Permanent Access Token — generated from Business Settings → System Users. Stored encrypted; the field shows dots once saved and has to be re-entered to change it.
  • Two-step verification PIN (optional) — the 6-digit PIN from Meta Business Manager → WhatsApp Accounts → Phone Numbers → Two-step verification. It is needed only to wire incoming messages for a production number. Meta test numbers have no PIN and are pre-registered; leaving it blank also leaves an existing registration untouched.
  • Webhook Callback URL (read-only, with a copy button) and a Webhook Verify Token you invent — both are pasted into WhatsApp → Configuration in the Meta App Dashboard, where you also subscribe to the messages field.
A sidebar on the same screen walks through creating the Meta app, adding the WhatsApp product, copying the credentials and configuring the webhook.
More detail on everything the settings screen shows: Channel settings.