How to move your number to WhatsApp Business without losing your chats

This guide covers only the switch from regular WhatsApp to the WhatsApp Business app on your own phone. It is a preparatory step: it is not the ChatME connection, and it does not touch your chatbot yet. If your business number is already on WhatsApp Business, skip it and go straight to connecting WhatsApp Business.

Why it is needed

One number cannot be on regular WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business at the same time. But WhatsApp lets you move it between the two apps, and it is their own official process — no tricks, no middlemen.

For your assistant to handle WhatsApp without you losing your phone, that number has to be on the WhatsApp Business app. It is a different app from regular WhatsApp, it is free, and it is available on Android and iPhone.

Your personal WhatsApp can carry on exactly as it is on a different number.

Before you touch anything: the two steps that cannot be undone

This is the part that actually matters. Do the first two before you start, because afterwards there is no going back.

• Back up your account. WhatsApp explicitly recommends this before moving the number. Check that you have a recent backup: on Android it is saved to your Google account, on iPhone to iCloud.
• Save your contacts to your phone's address book. Contacts you created *inside* WhatsApp do not exist in WhatsApp Business and are lost in the switch. You can export them to the address book from WhatsApp's settings.
• Have the phone with that line to hand. WhatsApp will send a 6-digit code by SMS to verify the number. Do not guess it or you will be locked out for a while, and be patient: the SMS can take up to 10 minutes.

A note on the number itself: WhatsApp cannot register VoIP, toll-free, premium-rate or universal access numbers. A mobile you own or a landline you own can be. Landlines verify with the "Call me" option and extensions cannot be used.

Android, step by step

1. Update WhatsApp and install WhatsApp Business from Google Play.
2. Open WhatsApp Business.
3. Read and accept the WhatsApp Business Terms of Service (and, in some regions, its own Privacy Policy).
4. The app detects the number you use on WhatsApp on its own; tap it. If that is not the one you want for the business, tap "Use a different number".
5. Tap Continue › Allow so WhatsApp Business can access your chat history and media.
6. Enter the 6-digit code from the SMS.
7. Create your business profile.

Watch step 3: these are legal terms different from the ones you already accepted on regular WhatsApp. They are worth reading.

And on step 5: that permission is there to bring your chats into the new app. If you decline it, the history is not imported — it is not deleted.

iPhone, step by step

The order is not the same as on Android, so follow this list rather than the previous one.

1. Update WhatsApp and install WhatsApp Business from the App Store.
2. Open WhatsApp Business.
3. Accept the WhatsApp Business Terms of Service.
4. The app detects your number on its own; tap it.
5. Enter the 6-digit code.
6. Tap Continue › Continue or Don't Allow, to grant or deny access to your phone's address book.
7. Create your business profile.

You may not be asked for the code at all: if you have iCloud Keychain switched on and you already verified this number on this same iPhone, WhatsApp skips that step.

After the switch

That number now works in WhatsApp Business and no longer in regular WhatsApp.

Your handset, your calls and your SMS are unaffected. And you can keep using regular WhatsApp on that same phone with a different number.

If you want to go back

You can return to regular WhatsApp, but it is worth knowing how: it is a restore from a backup, not a hot switch. That means backing up first — on Android to your Google account, on iPhone to iCloud — and then restoring.

The catalog and collections are exclusive to WhatsApp Business and cannot be moved to regular WhatsApp.

And now, the ChatME connection

With your number on WhatsApp Business, the next step is connecting it to your assistant. In your dashboard, the WhatsApp section walks you through it and shows you, before you start, everything that will change: what you need, what happens to your linked devices, what it costs and how to disconnect if you change your mind.

Full guide: Connect WhatsApp Business. Questions? Write to info@chatme.es and we will go through it with you.