Can your number use the WhatsApp Business API?
Five questions about your number and you’ll see how to connect it to the WhatsApp Business API: how it’s verified, what happens to the app and what to have ready. All in your browser.
Your number is ready to connect
- In your Zatio dashboard you click “Connect WhatsApp”, log in with Facebook and choose your business and your number.
- Meta texts a 6-digit code to that number and you type it into the window. Zatio registers the number for you.
- Meta reviews the name your customers will see. When that review finishes is up to Meta, and your dashboard shows where it’s at.
Good to know
- Calls and texts to that number keep working as they do now. What changes is where WhatsApp messages are answered.
- You need a Facebook account with admin access to your business. Meta may ask to verify the business, and how long that takes is up to Meta.
- If you’d also like Zatio to answer the calls you miss, set up conditional call forwarding on your line to your Zatio number. Customers keep calling the number they know.
WhatsApp Business API basics
Meta sets the rules and they can change. This is how they work with Zatio today.
Mobile or landline both work
What you need is a way to receive a code to verify the number, by text or by phone call.
One number, one place
A number works either in the WhatsApp app or on the API. The exception is coexistence, which Meta offers for some numbers so you can use both at once.
Your calls stay the same
Connecting the number to WhatsApp doesn’t change your calls or texts: they keep arriving as usual.
What Meta decides
Business verification, the display name review and which numbers can use coexistence are up to Meta.
Further reading
WhatsApp Business app or API
Who replies and from where, the 24-hour window, Meta’s charges and business verification, side by side.
Forward calls to an AI receptionist
The standard divert codes (**21*, **61*, **62*, **67* and ##002#), landlines and phone systems, and letting your team answer first.
Questions
Can I use a landline for the WhatsApp Business API?
Yes. When you verify it, you choose to get the code by phone call instead of by text. If the landline goes through a phone system with an options menu, switch it off for a moment or divert the line to a mobile while you verify.
Can I keep using the WhatsApp Business app with the same number?
For some numbers, yes: Meta calls it coexistence and usually offers it to numbers that have been using the app for a while. If Meta offers it to you, we set it up with you. The app has to stay installed and be opened every so often, and groups and calls stay in it. If Meta doesn’t offer it for your number, the number moves to the API and you reply from the Zatio dashboard, which also works on your phone.
Can I use a cloud phone system or VoIP number?
Often yes, as long as it can receive the code by text or by call. Meta doesn’t accept some virtual numbers, so if yours is one of them, message us and we’ll look at it with you before connecting it.
What happens to my chats if I move to the API?
The chats you already have stay on your phone. With coexistence, the app also lets you share recent history so you can see it in Zatio.
Do I need a new number?
Usually not. You can connect the one you have by following the steps the tool gives you, or use a new one that isn’t on WhatsApp.
How long does it take to connect?
Connecting from the Zatio dashboard takes a few minutes. The display name review and, if Meta asks for it, business verification are up to Meta.
More free tools
Missed call calculator
Put in your calls, your close rate and what a customer is worth, and see the sum.
WhatsApp away message and voicemail generator
Pick your sector, your hours and how formal you want to sound, and get your WhatsApp away message and voicemail greeting.
Try it with your own business
Zatio reads your website and prepares your assistant in a few minutes. Try it in the chat and by voice from your browser, then decide.
No card needed. 14 days free.
Behind it there’s a team that helps you get started and keeps building the improvements customers ask for.
Rather talk it through? Message us on WhatsApp and we’ll walk you through it.