WhatsApp Business: connect your number

Connect a WhatsApp Business number and the AI agent answers customers there, from the same knowledge and tools as your website widget. Your team can reply from the Inbox.

Connect

1. Go to Integrations, open the Communication tab, find WhatsApp Business and click Connect.
2. A Facebook window opens. Sign in, choose or create your WhatsApp Business account and phone number, and allow everything Facebook asks for.
3. ZynfoAI finishes the setup itself. There’s nothing to copy or paste.

When it works, WhatsApp is connected shows your Business, Number and Status, and the next step: message the number from your phone to test it. Click WhatsApp settings to open the WhatsApp page, or Done. You need a Meta Business account and a phone number that can be registered with the WhatsApp Business Platform. A number already in use in the WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business phone app has to be moved to the platform first; Meta explains how during sign-up. A number can be connected to one ZynfoAI workspace at a time. If it doesn’t work, WhatsApp isn’t connected tells you why, and nothing is saved. Click Try again, or Get help to email us. The common reasons:

• You closed Facebook before it finished. Try again.
• Facebook didn’t give ZynfoAI access to your number. Try again, pick your business and allow everything it asks for.
• The number is already connected to another ZynfoAI workspace. Disconnect it there first.
• Your account can’t connect apps in this workspace. Ask the owner or an admin.
• Your trial has ended. Upgrade your plan, then connect again.

Test numbers and reconnecting

• If you connect a Meta test number, the status reads Test number. It can receive messages but can’t send replies to customers. Click Connect a real number to run the sign-in again with your business number.
• If a card says Reconnect with Facebook to keep WhatsApp working smoothly, click Reconnect with Facebook. This applies to connections made in the past by typing in Meta details by hand: that option is gone.

What customers get

• Answers from your knowledge sources, in their language.
• Product suggestions, order help, forms and quick-reply buttons, shown as WhatsApp buttons and lists.
• Meeting booking, if you’ve set up the Demo Scheduler: they pick from a list of up to 10 times.
• Cancelling or returning a Shopify order over WhatsApp needs the customer to be verified: the phone number must match the one on the order, or they confirm the order number and checkout email. Otherwise the agent says it can’t change that order there.
• Text messages and button replies are understood. If a customer sends a photo, file, voice note or video, the agent is told an attachment arrived but can’t read its contents.

Each new WhatsApp contact is saved as a contact. A lead is created only when the conversation shows sales intent, such as the customer sharing their details. See Contacts and Leads.

Handoff to your team

When a customer asks for a person, the conversation goes to your Inbox (use Filter and choose WhatsApp). While a teammate has the chat, the AI stops replying and your replies are sent as WhatsApp messages. Live chat is part of the Pro plan (and the 7-day trial); on Starter the request becomes a ticket. See Live chat. Under AI agent, the WhatsApp tab sets who answers, whether customers can ask for a person, and the tone.

Plans

On Free, the AI keeps answering on WhatsApp within the Free limits, and everything else is read-only. See Free plan and read-only mode. On Starter and Free, the Campaigns and Templates tabs show Part of the Pro plan with Upgrade to Pro. Earlier campaigns and templates stay visible. A scheduled campaign that comes due while you’re not on Pro is Paused and sends nothing.

Manage the connection

Once connected, a WhatsApp link appears in the sidebar next to the Inbox. You can also click Manage on the WhatsApp Business card. The WhatsApp page has four tabs.

• Campaigns (Pro): click Create campaign. Four steps: Name, Template, Audience and Review. Choose an approved marketing template, pick the tags whose contacts should get it, then choose Send now or Schedule for later and click Send campaign or Schedule campaign. Each campaign shows how many were sent, delivered, read and replied to.
• Contacts: click Add contact, or use the menu for Import from CSV or Add from your CRM. Only add customers who agreed to get WhatsApp messages from you. Tags are what campaigns send to. Add from your CRM brings in up to 500 recent contacts from Freshsales.
• Templates (Pro): click Create template. A template is a message WhatsApp approves before you can send it. Fill in Details (name, category and language), Header, Message, Footer and Buttons, and click Send for approval. Write it with AI drafts the template from a description of your business and what the message is for: click Write template. Statuses are Draft, In review, Approved and Rejected; approval usually takes up to a day. Refresh from WhatsApp updates them.
• Business profile: click Edit profile to change what customers see when they open your business info on WhatsApp. It also shows your WhatsApp credit, New chats you can start and Message quality.

Disconnect

On the Integrations page, open More actions for WhatsApp Business, choose Disconnect and confirm. ZynfoAI removes, right away:

• WhatsApp contacts that aren’t used anywhere else, and the WhatsApp marker and consent on the rest.
• Templates, campaigns and uploaded template media.
• WhatsApp conversation history.

Contacts shared with your CRM, leads and tickets stay, and so do records of customers who opted out. Templates in your Meta account aren’t deleted. To remove ZynfoAI’s access completely, also remove the app in your Meta Business Settings.

Related topics

• Integrations overview
• Live chat