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Your agent can have direct conversations with people over WhatsApp — receiving messages and responding in natural conversation, just like in the portal. Each person who messages the WhatsApp number gets their own ongoing 1:1 chat with the agent.

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Example use cases

  • A customer support agent that handles inquiries via WhatsApp 24/7
  • A booking assistant that confirms appointments through WhatsApp messages
  • An internal helper that team members can reach from their phone without opening the portal

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Prerequisites

  • A Meta (Facebook) developer account
  • A phone number to register with WhatsApp Business (can be new or existing)
  • The Abundly agent you want to connect

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How to connect

1

Create a Meta App

Go to developers.facebook.com, create a new app, and add the WhatsApp product. This gives you a test phone number and API access.
2

Create a System User and generate a permanent token

In Meta Business Settings, go to Users → System Users, create one, and generate a token with these permissions:
  • whatsapp_business_messaging
  • whatsapp_business_management
The temporary token from the API Setup panel expires hourly — the System User token is permanent.
3

Enable the WhatsApp capability

In the Abundly portal, open your agent’s capabilities and enable WhatsApp. The settings panel shows your webhook URL, verify token, and a place to store your credentials.
4

Add your credentials

Create a WhatsApp secret with your Phone Number ID (from Meta’s API Setup panel) and the Access Token you generated.
5

Configure the webhook in Meta

In your Meta App Dashboard under WhatsApp → Configuration, set the Callback URL and Verify Token shown in the capability panel. Then subscribe to the messages webhook field.
6

Publish the app

Under App Settings → Basic, fill in a privacy policy URL, app icon, and category, then click Publish. This switches the app to live mode so real messages are delivered to your webhook.
Publishing does not make your app public — it just enables production webhook delivery.
7

Subscribe the app to your WABA

This step is sometimes needed if webhooks don’t arrive after publishing. Call the Graph API to explicitly subscribe your app:
curl -X POST "https://graph.facebook.com/v21.0/YOUR_WABA_ID/subscribed_apps" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"
8

Send a test message

Send a WhatsApp message to your registered number. You should see it arrive in the agent’s activity.

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Access control

Only whitelisted phone numbers can message the agent. Add allowed numbers in the capability settings panel under Allowed Senders — the agent will ignore messages from anyone else.
WhatsApp enforces a 24-hour session window. After a user messages, the agent can reply freely for 24 hours. After that, only pre-approved template messages can be sent to initiate a new conversation.

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Learn more

Email & SMS

Other messaging channels your agent can use

Slack

Connect your agent to Slack for team communication