Connect WhatsApp Business

On the Pro and E-commerce plans, your chatbot handles WhatsApp too: your customers write to your WhatsApp Business number and the assistant replies straight away, 24/7, with the same knowledge it already uses on your website. You make the connection yourself, from your dashboard, in a few minutes. No credentials to paste, no wrestling with Meta's settings.

Before you sit down to do it, read the prerequisites: there are four, none of them complicated, and if one is missing the connection stops halfway.

First: choose how you want to connect it

In your dashboard, under WhatsApp, you'll see two options. The difference between them is significant and worth understanding before you touch anything.

Keep your phone · the one we recommend

Your number stays on your handset. You keep writing from the WhatsApp Business app as always, and the assistant replies too, in those same chats. When you answer someone yourself, the assistant steps back in that conversation for a while so it doesn't talk over you; in every other chat it carries on as normal.

It's the natural option for almost any business: your usual number, your history intact, and an assistant covering the hours you can't.

Move it to the cloud

Your number leaves the app and is handled only from the dashboard. This is the right option when the number is purely for the bot — a new SIM, a landline — and nobody on your team needs to reply from a phone. Bear in mind this one is hard to undo, so choose it knowing that.

The dashboard summarises what changes either way before you confirm anything.

Step 1 · Open the WhatsApp section of your dashboard

You need the Pro or E-commerce plan. On Free or Basic, you can switch from Billing.

Press the button for the option you chose. If it's "Keep your phone", before anything opens we show you a screen with the prerequisites and with what is about to change in your WhatsApp. Read it: it's the last stop before the point of no return.

Step 2 · Meta's window opens

You sign in with your Facebook account and Meta asks you to choose a business portfolio. That's Meta's "company" account, the one that groups your assets (Facebook page, Instagram, WhatsApp…).

• If you already run ads or a business page, you have one: select it.
• If you don't have one at all, you can create it right there, inside the window.

Your WhatsApp number will be tied to that portfolio, so pick your business's one rather than an improvised personal account.

Step 3 · Confirm your number with the code

You type the number and WhatsApp sends you a 6-digit code by SMS (on a landline, via the "Call me" option). It can take up to 10 minutes: have that phone in front of you and don't guess the code — several failed attempts lock the number for a while.

Then, if you chose "Keep your phone", you confirm the connection from your WhatsApp Business app: Settings › Account › Business Platform.

⚠️ One red flag. If that window offers to create a new WhatsApp Business account instead of connecting the one you already have, close it and write to us at info@chatme.es. It means something isn't configured properly, and carrying on would have consequences.

Step 4 · WhatsApp signs out your linked devices

With "Keep your phone", when it finishes WhatsApp signs out all your linked devices: WhatsApp Web, tablet, laptop. You re-link them yourself afterwards, one by one.

This always happens. It is not a fault, and it does not mean anything went wrong.

Step 5 · Try it

Send a WhatsApp to your number from another phone: the assistant replies within seconds, and the conversation appears under Conversations in your dashboard, just like the ones from your website widget.

Do it that way — writing first from another handset — rather than with the test-message button: that button uses a Meta template when the number has never written to the assistant, and templates *are* billed.

What it costs

Nothing, for what your assistant does. Meta charges neither for the messages your customers send you nor for service conversations — which is exactly what the bot does: reply to whoever writes in. Only templates are billed, and those are messages a business starts before the customer has written; your assistant never sends one on its own.

The WhatsApp Business app is free, and so are the messages you type by hand in it. The WhatsApp channel is included on the Pro and E-commerce plans at no extra cost.

What to expect afterwards

• 24/7 replies with the same brain and the same knowledge base as your web chatbot — any improvement you make applies to both channels.
• The bot only replies to inbound messages: it never starts conversations or sends promotions.
• Leads and forms work exactly as they do on the web.
• When you reply yourself from your phone, the assistant goes quiet for a while in that conversation. That's deliberate: it stops the two of you answering the same customer at once.
• Open WhatsApp on your phone regularly. If the main handset sits inactive for about two weeks, WhatsApp drops the connection.

If you change your mind

With "Keep your phone" you can disconnect yourself whenever you like, from the app itself: Settings › Account › Business Platform › Disconnect account. The number is still yours and still on your phone.

Would you rather we walked you through it?

You don't have to, but it's there and it costs nothing. From the same WhatsApp section of your dashboard you can book a session: we get it running with you, step by step, on a video call of about 20–30 minutes.

You can also write to us at info@chatme.es if you get stuck at any point.

*Availability may vary by country.*