Connect WhatsApp

Your number stays on your WhatsApp Business app. insideDM is added beside it — same number, same chats — so you can answer from your phone or from your dashboard.

Before you start

• The WhatsApp Business app, version 2.24.17 or newer, on the number you want to connect. Meta offers this in some regions only; its window tells you if yours isn’t one of them.
• Your Meta (Facebook) login for your business.
• A card for Meta. Meta charges your card for WhatsApp messages. insideDM doesn’t charge you for them.

What changes on your number — for good

Read this before you start. Meta makes these changes when you connect, and they can’t be undone:

• Broadcasts and marketing messages, greeting and away messages, quick replies and labels stop working in the app. You do all of that in insideDM instead.
• The app’s catalogue and orders stop working, and so do voice and video calls on this number.
• Group chats never reach insideDM. In one-to-one chats, disappearing, view-once and live-location messages are turned off.
• Sending is capped at 20 messages a second.
• Linked devices, like WhatsApp Web, are signed out once during setup. You can link them again afterwards.
• Once, within 24 hours, your app asks whether to share your contact list and up to six months of past chats. Share them and they appear in insideDM. Decline and nothing else changes.

Connect your number

1. In setup’s Channels step, press Connect with WhatsApp on the WhatsApp card. From your dashboard: go to Set up › Connections, choose Channels, and press Connect on the WhatsApp tile. A panel opens on the right with the same list of changes — press Connect with WhatsApp there.
2. In Meta’s window, sign in to Meta, pick or create your WhatsApp Business account, and verify your number.
3. If your number has a two-step verification PIN, insideDM asks for it. Type it into Two-step verification PIN and press Finish setup.
4. Wait for Finishing setup… to finish.

Add a payment method

If Meta has no payment method for your WhatsApp account, the card says Connected — add a payment method to send. Until you add one, Meta limits what your number can send and refuses templates — the pre-approved messages WhatsApp requires more than 24 hours after a customer’s last message.

1. Press Add a payment method. WhatsApp Manager opens.
2. Add your card there.
3. Come back and press Check again.

When it’s done, the card says Connected. with your number.

What your agent can do once it’s connected

• Read and reply to customer messages.
• Send your approved templates after the 24 hours have passed, once your payment method is in place.
• Put a payment link in the chat.

Replies you send from the app on your phone show up in the same chat in insideDM, and your agent stops answering once you’ve replied yourself.

Disconnect

Open the WhatsApp tile in Set up › Connections and press Disconnect. This disconnects insideDM only. To remove insideDM from your phone as well, open your WhatsApp Business app and disconnect it under Settings › Business tools.

If something’s not right

• “Your browser blocked Meta’s sign-in window.” — turn off the ad blocker for this page, or use another browser, and try again.
• “You closed Meta’s setup.” — nothing was connected. Press Start again when you’re ready.
• “That WhatsApp number is already connected to another InsideDM workspace.” — disconnect it in that workspace first, or connect a different number.
• “Meta’s sign-in code expired before we could use it.” — press Try again. It usually takes a few seconds.
• “Too many attempts.” — wait a minute, then try again.
• “Paused by Meta while your number re-registers.” — this happens after a phone change or a re-install. There’s nothing to do: messages waiting to go out send themselves once Meta is done, usually within a few minutes.
• “You disconnected InsideDM inside your WhatsApp Business app” — press Reconnect to start again. Your past conversations are still there.