WhatsApp

With more than 2 billion monthly users and counting, WhatsApp is arguably the most popular consumer messaging and communication app in the market today. This tutorial walks you through the process of configuring your WhatsApp Business Account on Webex Connect.

Register for an Official Account on WhatsApp

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Embedded Sign-Up for WhatsApp Asset Creation

Please note that we now support and recommend WhatsApp Embedded Sign-Up for adding new WhatsApp assets on Webex Connect. Manual onboarding option that we supported previously is being phased out and may no longer be available in your tenant. If you need assistance in setting up a WABA, please reach out to the Support Team using the details mentioned in the ‘Contact Support’ section within your ”Webex Connect account.

You can use a phone number that is already registered in the Android, iPhone, or Business application versions of WhatsApp. However, in order to register this phone number with us, you need to follow the steps below to delete the WhatsApp account associated with that phone number mentioned here.

Configure WhatsApp App Asset on Webex Connect

1. To configure the WhatsApp app, sign in to the Webex Connect platform, go to Assets > Apps .

   

2. On the Apps page, click the Configure New App button and choose WhatsApp from the drop-down list of apps.

3. Enter the name of the WhatsApp account in the Name field on the Configure New App page.
4. Select the Sign-up Method: Sign-up with Facebook (Embedded Sign-up Onboarding) or Manual.

If you selected Sign-up with Facebook in the step 4 above, follow the below embedded signup process.

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Note

Manual onboarding may be disabled for your tenant, please proceed with embedded signup to onboard your WhatsApp business.

The following is the screen for Embedded Sign-up.

Embedded Sign-up

Using the embedded signup feature, the Business Providers can onboard their businesses directly from their websites to the WhatsApp Business Platform.

Prerequisites

The following are the prerequisites for WhatsApp onboarding using embedded signup method:

• A valid Meta user account.
• A valid phone number.
  1. You should not have any personal WhatsApp account or WhatsApp Business App associated with this number. To migrate a number, you must first delete that WhatsApp account. For more information, refer to this link.
  2. You also must have this number handy, because you’ll receive an SMS or a voice call during the verification process.
  3. The number must not be a short code or a toll-free number incapable of receiving an OTP message.
     1. Registering 1-800 and Toll Free Numbers
        Phone numbers behind an IVR system can be registered, but must be able to accept calls from international numbers and be able to redirect WhatsApp SMS message or voice call to a real person.
        To register a phone number that is behind an IVR system:
        If you need to create an allowlist of the WhatsApp number you will receive a call from on your phone number behind an IVR system, please reach out to your support contact.
• In addition, you should be ready with the following details:
  1. Business Phone Number
  2. Company Name
  3. Representative’s Email Address
  4. Address
  5. City
  6. State / Province / Region Country
  7. Website
  8. Business number Display Name
  9. Business Category
  10. Business Description

Embedded Sign-up Onboarding

1. If you select Sign-in with Facebook.
   A pop-up appears.

2. Click Add WhatsApp Business. You can use the existing account or create a new account.

3. Click Get Started.

4. Click Continue.
5. Select the existing Meta Business Account or Create a new Meta business account.

6. Click Continue.
7. Select the existing WhatsApp Business account (WABA) or Create new WhatsApp Business account.
   Click Continue. A confirmation page appears.

8. Click Continue to Step 2.

9. Select the existing WhatsApp Business Profile or create a profile.
10. Click Continue.

11. Select the existing WhatsApp number or create a number to integrate to your WhatsApp Business Account and click Next.

12. When prompted, enter the OTP to confirm the number.
13. The screen shows that the information is being processed.

14. Once the process is done, Steps to verify your business screen appears.

15. Click one of the following:

• Verify in Facebook: a new tab opens with the verification screen. Complete the verification. To know more about WhatsApp Business verification, refer to the link.
• Done with Verification? Proceed: takes you to Step 20.
• Skip Verification: displays the following screen. Click Proceed.

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Note

If you skip the verification, you can only send notifications to two numbers and have 10 customer -initiated conversations. Once you submit the documents for verification, you will be allowed for 1500 customer -initiated conversations.

16. The Setup process for your WhatsApp Business Account starts.

17. On the Fetched WABA ID’s screen, click Integrate with Webex Connect associated with the account you would like to integrate.

18. Once the permission to manage account is received, the phone numbers associated with the WABA are fetched. Select the number you want to integrate and click Integrate with Webex Connect.

19. Once the pre-approved templates are added and the shared Webex Connet’s credit line with WABA is set up, the screen shows a Ready for Setup message.

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    Note

    Credit line cannot be changed after being attached to a WABA. If you have integrated with a different credit line in the past, you must create a new WABA to use Webex Connect's credit line and then migrate the phone numbers to the new WABA if needed.

20. Go to your tenant and navigate to Assets → Apps. Select WhatsApp from App Type.
21. Select the WhatsApp number that is integrated using the above steps.
22. On the Mange WhatsApp page:
    • The credentials that are approved show the Approved icon.
    • The credentials that are pending approval show the Pending-approval icon.
    • The credentials that are rejected show the Rejected icon.

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Note

WhatsApp allows you to use two numbers without having to verify, with limited conversations and limited number of transactions.

What is Phone Number Display Name?

This is the display name which your customers see on your WhatsApp Business profile. Whenever you add a phone number to your WABA, you are prompted to add a display name for it as part of Embedded signup pop-up.

Display names should be related to your business and must not violate WhatsApp Commerce and Business policies. In addition, the display name must comply with formatting guidelines. Refer to this page for comprehensive guidelines.

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Note

The name status shows the status of the current display name.

Whenever there is a change in the display name, the display name approval happens automatically. Upon approval, the old name will transition to the current name.

Business verification and Display Name review

Business verification and WhatsApp Business Display name review aren’t required now as a mandatory step to start messaging on WhatsApp. After signup an automated compliance check with the WhatsApp Business Platform Policy is conducted. Following which you can immediately start sending messages to customers but only to a limited number of recipients

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When to initiate Business verification?

You are only required to initiate the business verification process when you’re ready to scale your business-initiated conversations or request to become a WhatsApp Official Business Account.

After the business verification is complete, the display name review for all phone numbers associated with your account will be initiated. Once the display name review is initiated, any new display name change will have to be reviewed and approved before it can be used.

Once the business verification is completed and the display names for all phone numbers are approved, your business can have increased messaging and phone number limits.

Starting in April 2024, businesses can scale with more phone numbers and daily conversations by demonstrating a record of quality messaging. This will also allow businesses to complete display name review without having to business verify

Follow these tips for driving high-quality conversations. Businesses can track progress in WhatsApp Manager and will be notified of the increased messaging and phone number limits within WhatsApp manager as well as on their Meta login email address used during Embedded signup Onboarding.

Manual Sign-up

Using the manual configuration, the user will be able to add WhatsApp numbers to manually onboard WABAs and register assets using Cloud APIs for WhatsApp business messaging. Additionally, we have limited manual onboarding, by making this only available to tenants who have at-least one phone number live with manually onboarded WABA.

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Note

With this, we are announcing the deprecation of On-premises APIs for new assets. Existing assets using On-Premises will continue to function as before, but businesses are encouraged to promptly migrate to Cloud APIs to avoid future enforcement.

If you selected Manual in the step 4 of the procedure above, follow the below procedure:

1. Enter the name of the WhatsApp account in the Name field on the Configure New App page.

2. Choose Manual signup from Select Sign Up Method option.

   
   

3. Enter the WhatsApp Business Account ID (WABA ID) obtained from the support team/your account manager.

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   Note

   You can create your own template via tools -> templates section in the platform, which needs to be approved by the WhatsApp. Once approved it will be available in the send node. In other words, every template message should be registered in business manager to be send to the customers.

   You don't need to manually refresh WhatsApp template registration status.
   The status will be refreshed automatically on the UI as soon as WhatsApp provides an update.
   You can also view the reason for rejection in case a WhatsApp template is rejected.

4. You can either select the phone number in the Phone Number field or Add a number.

   

5. If the selected phone number is not verified, you can verify it by choosing SMS or Voice as the Verification Method .Click the Verify Number button to verify your account and complete the configuration. The OTP initiates a few minutes after clicking Verify Number and is valid within 24 hours after it is initiated. Once the verification is complete, a notification will be displayed on the top of the screen.

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   Alert

   Verification OTP on Virtual numbers - WhatsApp

   If you are using a virtual number, you can face issues receiving verification SMS/Voice OTP. Please contact your regional support contact/account manager for assistance on setting up your WhatsApp app.

   
   

   

6. Click Add Number to add WhatsApp number to the list. Add Phone number that can be seen by people when they chat with you. Enter your WhatsApp Business Display Name which should match your business name and adhere to WhatsApp Business’s display name guidelines and click Save to capture the WhatsApp number.

   

7. Toggle on Data Streams to choose from available integrations to receive data for events enabled by admin.

8. Click Create. You can see your WhatsApp app on the Apps page.

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Template API usage

The template should be registered and approved from Tools -> Templates section within Webex Connect platform, before it can be used to send notification messages. You can also use interactive message templates like Call-To-Action buttons or Quick Replies buttons. You can also use authentication templates for OTP and Auto-fill features.

Edit/Manage/Delete the WhatsApp App Asset

1. Go to Assets > Apps.
2. Search for the WhatsApp that you want to edit and click Manage in the drop-down list box at the right to manage the settings of this app.

You see the Manage – WhatsApp page, where you can manage the settings of the app.

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Managing WhatsApp account settings

Please use the Manage - WhatsApp page of the Webex Connect platform for updating the Business Account Settings. Although you can access your WABA from within the WhatsApp Manager portal if you have onboarded using the Embedded signup model, the following updates made from the WhatsApp Manager portal can impact your existing services - Business Account Settings, Template content, or the two-factor authentication settings.

Delete WhatsApp App

1. Go to Assets > Apps.
2. Search for the WhatsApp app asset that you want to edit and click Delete in the drop-down list box at the right to manage the settings of this app.

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Alert

Please note deleting the phone number from within Connect will not automatically delete the number from WABA, the number will be listed and show up as offline. In order to delete the number and re-use you should disable the two-factor authentication PIN before registering the number again.

Disable the two-factor authentication PIN from WhatsApp Manager

1. Login to WhatsApp Manager and search with the WABA ID from the POC Account drop-down.

   

2. Search your phone number, and click Settings > Two-Step Verification.

   

3. Click Turn off two-step verification to disable the PIN. A mail will be sent to your registered email.

   

   

WABA Account/number updates

You can view the WABA Status, Number Status, Quality Rating and Messaging Limit metrics as part of the WhatsApp app manage screen.

Following are the parameters of the WABA Account/number updates:

• WABA Status: This tracks your WhatsApp Business Account's review status. Status property can have one of the following values: PENDING, APPROVED, or REJECTED.

• Name Status: This tracks your WhatsApp Business phone number display name status.

• Quality Rating: Quality rating is based on how recipients have received messages over the past seven days and is weighted by recency. A combination of quality signals from conversations between your business and users determines it. Examples include user feedback signals such as blocks, reports, and the reasons users provide when they block a business.

• Message Throughput: This field indicates the number of inbound and outbound messages that can be sent and received on your WhatsApp business number in a second. Please note this limit is subject to the allocated throughput limit for your account, please reach out to your support contact for more information.

  

Learn more

• How to Change Your WhatsApp Business Display Name
• Display Name and Formatting Guideline
• Start Messaging Customers on WhatsApp Business Platform
• About Your WhatsApp Business Phone Number’s Quality Rating
• Capacity, Quality Rating, and Messaging Limits

WhatsApp Data Localization

WhatsApp Cloud API Local Storage allows you to control where your message data is stored at rest. Suppose your company is in a regulated industry such as finance, government, or healthcare. In that case, you may prefer to have your message data stored in a specific country when at rest because of regulatory or company policies.

WhatsApp Cloud API provides such an extra layer of data protection by implementing additional data management controls. The local Storage feature comprises of two additional constraints in Cloud API runtime environment:

• Data-in-use TTL (Time-to-Live): Whatsapp has been implemented, enforcing how long message content is accessible to Cloud API outside the target jurisdiction while being processed. Cloud API will automatically delete message content from its “data in use” storage (e.g. cache, queues) after 60 minutes. There will be no sensitive message content on the Cloud API US servers after TTL.
• Data-at-rest location: WhatsApp has implemented, enforcing which physical location Cloud API is allowed to use as a persistent storage for sensitive message content. Text and media payload of both incoming and outgoing messages will be stored in the Cloud API in-country (non-US) data stores.

You can enable local storage for your phone number during the time of WhatsApp app creation or by browsing to manage app for existing WhatsApp apps and enabling local storage. With such a setting enabled, Cloud API uses a localized storage in the specified country for persisting message content, instead of using its default storage based in the US.

Whatsapp Local Storage feature supplements other Cloud API privacy and security controls, and allows customers to ensure a higher level of compliance with local data protection regulations.

Localized Data

WhatsApp Cloud API implements localization for message content. The following message flows are covered by Local Storage feature:

• Outgoing messages: messages you are sending to recipients with Cloud API
• Incoming messages: messages you are receiving back via Cloud API

The Local Storage feature covers the following message types:

• Text messages: textual payload (message body) is localized
• Media messages: media (audio, document image or video) payload is localized
• Template messages: components with text/media payload are localized

WhatsApp includes a limited set of metadata attributes in the localized data set, in order to correctly associate encrypted localized message payload with the originally processed message and to audit the fact of localization. Metadata is protected with tokenization and encryption by WhatsApp.

The goal of the Local Storage feature is to allow your business to control where your sensitive data-at-rest is stored directly.

Updating Local Storage

This feature is available for both embedded signup-based WABAs and OBO i.e. manually onboarded WABAs.

Prerequisites

• The phone number needs to be verified.

Updating Local Storage for New Asset

Steps to update local storage for a new asset:

1. Navigate to Assets > Configure New App > WhatsApp page.
2. Upon verifying the phone number, you can choose toggle on Local Storage.
3. Select your preferred locale from the drop-down.
4. Click Save.

Updating local storage of an Existing Asset

Steps to update local storage of an existing asset:

1. Navigate to Assets > Configure New App > WhatsApp page.

2. If the selected phone number is not verified, you can verify it by choosing SMS or Voice as the Verification Method . Click the Verify Number button to verify your account and complete the configuration. The OTP initiates a few minutes after clicking Verify Number and is valid within 24 hours after it is initiated. Once the verification is complete, a notification will be displayed on the top of the screen.

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   Alert

   Verification OTP on Virtual numbers - WhatsApp

   If you are using a virtual number, you can face issues receiving verification SMS/Voice OTP. Please contact your regional support contact/account manager for assistance with verifying your number.

   

3. You can toggle Local Storage to disable or update the locale only when the phone number is verified successfully.

4. Click Save.

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   Note

   Downtime for the localization update is less then 5 minutes.

To enable Local Storage, please refer to this section and follow the steps provided.

Request to become WhatsApp Official Business Account

If your business desires to have an WhatsApp Official Business Account, it must be considered a notable business that has a substantial presence in news articles from publications with sizeable audiences. WhatsApp Official Business Accounts are issued for phone numbers. With the same phone number, you can use the current or a new business name to apply for the WhatsApp Official Business Account.

Once you have initiated business verification, please reach out to your support contact it you intend to become a WhatsApp Official Business Account.

Learn more

• How to Change Your WhatsApp Business Display Name

• Display Name and Formatting Guideline

• Start Messaging Customers on WhatsApp Business Platform

• About Your WhatsApp Business Phone Number’s Quality Rating

• Capacity, Quality Rating, and Messaging Limits 

Registering your WhatsApp App Asset with Webex Engage

1. Go to Assets > Apps > WhatsApp.
2. Select the required WhatsApp app asset for which you want to register with Webex Engage.
3. Click Manage under Actions.
   The Manage - WhatsApp page displays.

5. Click Register to Webex Engage.
6. Select the required service (this should be the Webex Connect service that would be used for configuring WhatsApp flows for Webex Contact Center) and click Register.

A message displays “Asset registered successfully”. This completes the asset registration for Webex Engage.

As shown above, you will see a Webex Engage icon and a PCI check-enabled flag next to the App name once it's been successfully mapped with Cisco Webex Contact Center.

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Entrypoint Configuration

Once the asset is registered on Webex Connect, the entry point mapping should be done on the Cisco Webex Contact Center portal as well.

Business Account Settings

You can register the details of the business account like the About, Address, Business Category, Contact Email, Business Description, Website URL 1 (the primary website), and Website URL 2 (the secondary website). Click the Upload button to browse and select an image that will be displayed as the logo.

As per the WhatsApp guidelines, when you upload the image, the WhatsApp Business Platform Client will scale and crop the uploaded the profile pic and render it as a square image. Therefore, the image that you use for your business logo must comply with the following:

• Maximum size of 5 MB
• Image height or width not less than 192 px
• Image resolution of 640x640.

These business account settings appear to the users when they view your business profile on WhatsApp.

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Managing Business Account Settings

Please use the Manage - WhatsApp page - Business Account Settings section of the Webex Connect platform to update any Business profile information. Although you can access your WABA from within the WhatsApp Manager portal if you have onboarded using the Embedded signup model, it may impact your existing services.

Refer to the screenshot below:

Configuring Outbound Webhook for WhatsApp

To configure a Outbound Webhook for WhatsApp:

1. Go to Assets → Apps.
2. Select WhatsApp from the App Type drop-down.
3. Click the number for which you want to enable the Outbound Webhook.

4. Click Configure Outbound Webhooks.
   Configure New Integration - Outbound Webhook is displayed.

5. Enter the Name for the webhook.
6. Entity is automatically populated.
7. Select the notifications you want to receive – Incoming Message, Postback, List Message, and/or Reply Buttons Message.
8. Enter the webhook URL for the Endpoint Configuration.
9. Select Enable Hub Signature if you want to enable the hub signature and enter all the relevant details.
10. Click Save.