Connect your WhatsApp number

Before your team can send or receive WhatsApp messages, you connect your WhatsApp Business Account (WABA) and its phone number to IconEngage. You do this once, through Meta's own sign-up window, and it takes a few minutes.

Before you start

• A Facebook account that can manage your business at Meta, or that you're happy to create your business with. IconEngage never sees your Facebook password.
• The phone number you want customers to message, and a way to receive the verification code Meta sends to it.
• Pop-ups allowed for IconEngage in your browser. The Meta window opens as a pop-up.
• Your plan's number limit. Every plan except Enterprise includes one WhatsApp number. If you have reached your limit, the connect button is disabled and the page shows Your plan allows 1 WhatsApp number. Contact IconEngage to add more.

Connect with Facebook

1. Go to WhatsApp › Numbers and accounts. (You can also get there from Go to WhatsApp settings on the setup checklist, or the WhatsApp tile on the Home page.)
2. The page shows WhatsApp is not connected. Click Connect with Facebook.
3. If IconEngage asks you to Confirm your password (or Confirm it is you if you use two-factor authentication), enter it and click Confirm. This protects sensitive actions.
4. The Connecting WhatsApp dialog opens and Meta's window opens on top of it. Leave the IconEngage page open: the connection is completed there.
5. In Meta's window, sign in to Facebook and follow Meta's steps to choose or create your business, your WhatsApp Business Account and your phone number. Allow every permission it asks for.
6. When you finish in Meta's window, it closes. The IconEngage dialog moves through Verifying with Meta and Connecting your account.
7. When asked to Enter your registration PIN, type a 6-digit Registration PIN and click Register. See The registration PIN below.
8. When you see WhatsApp connected, you're done.

The dialog's progress list shows where you are: Launching Facebook, Waiting for Meta, Verifying with Meta, Connecting your account, Registering your number, Done.

The registration PIN

WhatsApp asks for a 6-digit PIN before a number can send and receive messages. This is the number's two-step verification PIN.

• If you have already set a PIN for this number in WhatsApp Manager, enter that PIN.
• If you haven't, choose a new 6-digit PIN now and keep it somewhere safe.

If Meta already has the number registered, IconEngage skips this step.

If you see That PIN was incorrect, check the PIN you set in WhatsApp Manager and try again.

If you close the PIN dialog

Closing it asks Cancel WhatsApp number registration? Choose Keep registering to go back, or Cancel registration to stop.

If you stop, your account is still connected but the number can't send or receive yet. You see WhatsApp connected, one number still needs its PIN, and the number shows registration pending. Click Register number (or Register the number on the number's alert) to enter the PIN later.

What happens next

Once connected, IconEngage subscribes to your account's messages at Meta. New messages to your number start arriving in the Inbox, and the setup checklist ticks off Connect WhatsApp and Register your first phone number.

A few things are then up to Meta:

• Display name review. Meta reviews the display name customers see above your messages. Until it's approved, customers see your phone number instead. The number shows display name in review. If Meta declines the name, you see display name declined: messages still send, but you need to submit a name that matches your business in WhatsApp Manager. Use Open at Meta to go there.
• Account review. Meta may review your WhatsApp Business Account. Some features stay limited until the review is complete; you don't need to do anything.
• Payment method at Meta. To send template messages, your WhatsApp Business Account needs a payment method in Meta. IconEngage shows Add a payment method in Meta as a reminder. Without one, Meta refuses template messages.
• Messaging limit and quality. Meta limits how many customers a new number can start conversations with in 24 hours and raises the limit over time. See Quality and messaging limits.

Next, you'll usually want to create your first message template, set up your business profile and invite your team. To manage numbers after this first connection, see Numbers and accounts.

Another way: connect with an access token

If you already have a system-user access token from Meta Business Manager, an Owner or Admin can connect with that instead.

1. Go to WhatsApp › Numbers and accounts.
2. Open Another way to connect and click Connect with access token. (If Connect with Facebook isn't available, this button is shown directly.)
3. Enter the WhatsApp Business Account id: the numeric WABA id from Business Manager.
4. Paste the System-user access token. It needs the whatsapp_business_management and whatsapp_business_messaging permissions.
5. Click Connect.

The token is sent once and stored encrypted. It is never shown again. If the number still needs registering, use Register the number on its alert.

If something goes wrong

If a problem persists, contact support and quote the Request ID shown in the dialog.