WhatsApp Business setup

WhatsApp Business is the company version of WhatsApp: messages from your business number, shared by the team, alongside SMS. Meta owns the setup, so it runs on Meta's own screens, from a link we email you. There is no session to book. Open the link, follow the screens, and we finish the connection on our side.

Before you start

Three things, and the setup takes a few minutes.

1. Be signed in to Facebook on the computer you will use, with the account that is an admin of your business on Meta, or the one that will create it. If you are not signed in, Meta asks you to sign in first. That is fine.
2. Make sure you can get the code on the number you are connecting.
   • An office number that is not on WhatsApp today: Meta sends a one-time code by text or by phone call. Choose the call. Make sure that number rings a phone a person can answer right then. If the number forwards to a menu, a queue or a cell, forward it to yourself for the few minutes of setup, or make sure the call reaches a person.
   • A number already on the WhatsApp Business app: have that phone with you, unlocked, with the app updated. You will type a code into the app on it. The app keeps working exactly as before.
3. Have your business website address and the name customers should see, your business name the way it appears on your website.

Step by step

1. Open the link. It works for two weeks and is made for your business only. Press Continue with Facebook. There is nothing to choose first: the messages land where your texts land.
2. Meta's window opens. If asked, sign in to Facebook. Press Continue as your name, then Get started.
3. A number on the WhatsApp Business app. On Meta’s first screen, choose to connect your existing WhatsApp Business app, then enter the number. Meta shows a code. Copy it. On the phone, WhatsApp shows a message from Facebook Business. Tap Connect, then Connect to the Business Platform, then Confirm, and type in the code. Never disconnect the number from the app, because that takes your chats off it.
4. An office number not on WhatsApp yet. Enter it and choose the phone call. Type in the code Meta reads to you.
5. Your business. Pick your business if it is listed, or create it: business name, your email, website, country.
6. Your WhatsApp account. Create it, or pick it if you already have one. Enter the display name customers will see, the category, and the website.
7. Review and finish. The last screen lists what Vocatech will be allowed to do: manage this WhatsApp account and send and receive its messages. Press Continue, then Finish. Keep the window open until it says it is done.
8. Back on our page you see Connected and where the messages land. Nothing to install. Messages arrive with the WhatsApp icon where your texts arrive, and you reply from there. A number with no texting, like a cell phone, arrives in the Messaging page of your Vocatech portal. Turn on its notifications there so a new message reaches you.

Meta may show a screen or two in a different order. Every screen tells you what it needs. If something gets stuck, reply to the email the link came in, or call 718.395.1550.

Where the messages land

Messages land where your texts land: in Webex through Textdock, in the portal's Messaging inbox, or in your email, marked with the WhatsApp icon. You reply from there. There is no separate app and no separate login. A number with no texting, like a cell phone on the WhatsApp Business app, lands in the portal's Messaging inbox for your administrators, and the app keeps every message as well. To have them land somewhere else, tell us.

A reply sent more than a day after the customer's last message goes out as a short reopen message first, and is delivered when they answer. If they do not answer within three days it is dropped, and we tell you.

What it costs

Nothing from us beyond your seat. Meta bills you directly, and only for two things: a message you send more than a day after the customer's last message, at a third of a cent each, and, from October 1, 2026, replies past 1,000 in a month on one number. To send those you add a card in WhatsApp Manager, under Payment settings. Otherwise there is nothing to add.

A second number, or a second brand

Same link, same steps. On Meta's screens pick the business you already have and the WhatsApp account you already have, then add the new number. Each number has its own name, its own profile and its own free monthly allowance, and it shows up beside the first one on your account with us.

A second brand with a different name gets its own WhatsApp account inside the same business: on the account screen choose to create a new one and name it after the brand. Meta compares a number's display name to its account, and the brand's website on the profile helps it pass. A name written as Brand by Legal Name passes too. Business verification at Meta comes first for a second number.

What it will not do

• No group chats. Conversations are one-to-one.
• No status posts.
• No WhatsApp voice or video calls.
• No patient information. WhatsApp is not covered by our HIPAA agreement; see HIPAA and the BAA.

Common snags

• Meta says the number is already registered to a WhatsApp account. The number is on the WhatsApp Business app and was typed on the screen for a new number. Press Back to the first screen and choose to connect your existing WhatsApp Business app. Do not disconnect the number.
• The code did not arrive. Choose the call, and make sure the number rings a person. A number that forwards to a menu or a queue does not hand the code to anyone.
• The app says the number is not eligible. The app is old, or the number is new to it. Update the app and use it for a few days.
• Meta declined the name. Write it as Brand by Legal Name.
• Meta asks for documents. That is business verification, in your own Business Manager.
• The link says it expired. Ask us for a fresh one. Nothing on your account changed.
• Your phone was off for two weeks. Open the WhatsApp Business app. It reconnects on its own.

Which channel fits which customers is in texting on your number.