You can now connect your chatbot to reach your customers through WhatsApp. You can easily sign up for your WhatsApp chatbot through our Settings tab and, later on, follow up with all the settings concerning your number and bot.
The WhatsApp guidelines
Here you will find all the information required from you to start the WhatsApp API process. Kindly read all the guides carefully to minimize the back-and-forth and get your request approved sooner. The more compliant you are with Facebook’s guidelines, the better chance you have of getting approved instantly.
Before we start
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Your Facebook Business account has to be verified as an official business by Facebook. If you don’t have a Facebook Business account, you need to create one and have it verified by Facebook. You can read more here. Please note that this usually takes 3-4 business days.
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We need you to provide us with the phone number you’d like the WhatsApp API to be connected to. This number must not be connected to a WhatsApp account, and if it is, you will need to delete the account before proceeding. For more information about the phone number guidelines, read this.
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Once your number is connected to WhatsApp API, you cannot reverse it to become a regular or business account again; moreover, you can only reply to the messages through the dedicated Inbox within our platform.
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You will need to provide us the company’s official name bearing in mind that the name you provide us has to comply with the information in the Facebook Business account and your legal documents in addition to your company’s address, email address, and phone number. You can read Facebook’s name guidelines from here.
You can always view all of your requests and track their status.
How-to Guide: How to sign up for your WhatsApp chatbot through the WideBot platform
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From within the platform, go to the Settings tab
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In the Connect Your Bot section, click on Connect next to WhatsApp
3. You will get this pop-up guiding you through connecting to WhatsApp. This pop-up will also tell you about any limitations concerning building a WhatsApp bot. As you proceed, This pop-up will also lead you to a Facebook pop-up where you’ll proceed with all of the steps.
Your request will be under review and you can always track it from within the same section you sign up through.
Your request will be reviewed and possibly accepted in a span of a few minutes.
Sandbox
If your WhatsApp number is still not verified, the process might take a bit more time.
Until your number is approved, you will be in the Sandbox (also known as an Unverified Trial Experience) which will allow you to send messages to up to 10 numbers and notifications to up to 2 numbers.
This is very helpful because it gives you the time to work on, enhance, and test your chatbot so that once your number is approved for a WhatsApp bot, your bot is ready to launch.