Connecting WhatsApp Business

Connect your WhatsApp Business number to BillionBiz so you can sell and support customers directly in chat, using Meta's one-click Embedded Signup or manual credentials.

WhatsApp is where a huge share of your customers already spend their day. Connecting it to BillionBiz turns it into a real sales and service channel — customers can browse your catalog, ask questions, place orders, and track deliveries without leaving the chat they already have open.

What you get

One-click connection to your WhatsApp Business number through Meta's Embedded Signup flow.
A manual credential form as a fallback if the one-click flow isn't available for your account yet.
A live connection test, so you know immediately whether the channel is healthy.
A setup checklist that tells you exactly what's still missing before you can send messages.

Where to connect it

Go to Plugins → WhatsApp Business → Setup. If you haven't installed the WhatsApp plugin yet, open Plugins from the left navigation, find the WhatsApp card in the Communication category, and install it first — that opens the dedicated WhatsApp screen with its own tabs (Dashboard, Setup, Catalog, Templates, Conversations, Orders, Broadcasts, Bot, Analytics).

The fastest way to connect is Meta's Embedded Signup — a guided, in-browser flow that authorises BillionBiz to manage your WhatsApp Business Account without you copying tokens from Meta's own dashboard.

Click Connect WhatsApp Business

On the Setup tab, click the green Connect WhatsApp Business button. This opens a Meta popup window.

Log into Facebook

Sign in with the Facebook account tied to your business (or the account you use to manage your business's WhatsApp number). You only need to do this once per popup session.

Pick or create your Business Portfolio, WhatsApp Business Account and phone number

Inside the popup, choose an existing Meta Business Portfolio or create a new one, then choose or create the WhatsApp Business Account (WABA) and the phone number you want to connect.

Verify your phone number

If you're connecting a new number, Meta sends a verification code by SMS or voice call. Enter the code in the popup to confirm the number.

Let BillionBiz finish connecting

Once the popup closes, BillionBiz automatically exchanges the authorisation it received for a long-lived connection, subscribes to your account's message webhook, and registers the phone number. You'll see a progress indicator moving through these steps, then a success message with your connected phone number and business name.

Once connected — whether through Embedded Signup or the manual form below — the Setup tab shows a compact Connected card at the top with your phone number and a Reconnect button. Click Reconnect at any time to reopen the Embedded Signup popup, for example to connect a different phone number or WhatsApp Business Account.

If Meta shows a business-verification or domain step

Depending on your Business Portfolio's history with Meta, the popup may occasionally ask you to confirm additional business details (such as a business email) as part of Meta's own account requirements. That step belongs to your Meta account, not to BillionBiz — follow Meta's on-screen instructions and the popup will return control to BillionBiz when it's done.

Already using the WhatsApp Business App on your phone?

You don't need to give it up. If the number you connect is still active in the WhatsApp Business App, Meta automatically keeps it working alongside BillionBiz — your last 180 days of chats and contacts import in, and anything you send from your phone still shows up in BillionBiz. See Onboarding — Keep Your App (Coexistence) for what to expect.

Not every attempt finishes cleanly. The Setup tab handles two interruptions, both with a way to pick back up immediately:

You closed the popup before finishing. BillionBiz shows a message: "No problem — the Meta window was closed before completing." Click Try again to reopen the Embedded Signup popup and start over.
Something went wrong while connecting. If the connection attempt fails after the popup closes (for example, Meta didn't return the details BillionBiz needed), you'll see the specific error message next to a Try again button — click it to restart the flow.

Even when the popup itself completes successfully, a few of the follow-up steps (subscribing to the message webhook, registering the phone number) can occasionally fail individually. When that happens, the success card still shows your connected phone number, but adds a warning line listing which optional steps couldn't be completed — for example "Some optional steps could not be completed: webhook subscription failed." Your number is still connected; check the Setup checklist (below) to see which item still needs attention, and retry from there if needed.

A restriction you may run into

Embedded Signup may not complete for every account right now

Meta occasionally shows "Feature Unavailable" partway through the popup instead of completing. This is a Meta-side rule, not a BillionBiz setting. If it happens, do not try to work around it by creating a WhatsApp Business Account (WABA) directly on business.facebook.com — Meta currently doesn't support creating a new WABA that way for business portfolios with an India or Brazil address, so that path will also fail. Wait a few minutes and retry the popup, or use Connect manually below if you already have an existing WABA and phone number from a previous setup.

Is your number already connected through another WhatsApp provider?

If your number currently runs through a different WhatsApp Business Platform provider (a "BSP" — for example Twilio, Gupshup, WATI, or AiSensy), it can move to BillionBiz without losing anything: Meta's migration keeps your display name, quality rating, approved templates, and Official Business Account badge. Before you start, turn off two-step verification for the number in your current provider's settings (Meta requires this during migration), then run the Connect WhatsApp Business flow above and pick that number in the popup. Chat history does not transfer between providers — only the number and its account assets do.

Connecting manually instead

The manual form is for entering credentials from a WhatsApp Business Platform setup you already have — it doesn't create a new WhatsApp Business Account (WABA) for you, so you'll need one to already exist before you start. If you don't have one yet, use Embedded Signup above; it can create a WABA as part of connecting.

Open the manual form

On the Setup tab, click Advanced: enter manually to expand the credentials form.

Get a permanent Access Token (System User)

Go to business.facebook.com → Business Settings → Users → System Users. Select an existing System User or create one, then click Generate New Token. Choose the app connected to your WhatsApp Business Account, select the whatsapp_business_management and whatsapp_business_messaging permissions, and generate the token. Copy it immediately — Meta only shows it once. Unlike a personal access token, a System User token doesn't expire.

Get your Phone Number ID and WABA (Business Account) ID

Go to developers.facebook.com → your app → WhatsApp → API Setup. The Phone Number ID and WhatsApp Business Account ID both appear on this page next to the phone number you're connecting.

Get your App Secret

On the same app, go to Settings → Basic. Click Show next to App Secret and enter your Meta password if prompted.

Choose a Webhook Verify Token

This one isn't copied from Meta — pick any string yourself (for example a random password). You'll enter the same value on both sides: here in BillionBiz, and again when you configure the webhook in Meta's dashboard in the next section.

Get your Catalog ID (optional at this stage)

Go to business.facebook.com → Commerce Manager, open the catalog linked to your WhatsApp Business Account, and copy its ID from the catalog's settings. You can leave this blank for now and add it later — it's only needed for product catalog sync.

Enter the values and save

Fill in each field, then click Save Configuration. Access Token and Phone Number ID are required before you can save.

Once credentials are saved, BillionBiz shows them masked (for example abcd************); click Show values to reveal them, or Edit to change them. While editing, a Cancel button sits next to Save Configuration — click it to discard your changes and return to the masked view without saving.

Configuring the webhook in Meta

Meta delivers incoming messages, delivery receipts, and (for coexistence numbers) history and contact sync through a webhook — you need to tell Meta where to send it.

Copy the webhook URL and verify token

On the Setup tab's right-hand panel, click the copy icon next to the Webhook URL. You'll also need the same Webhook Verify Token you entered in the credentials form.

Open your app's webhook configuration in Meta

Go to developers.facebook.com → your app → WhatsApp → Configuration → Webhooks, and click Edit.

Paste the URL and verify token, and subscribe to fields

Paste the webhook URL and Webhook Verify Token into the callback URL and verify token fields, then subscribe to the messages field so incoming messages and delivery statuses reach BillionBiz. If you're using coexistence, also subscribe to history, smb_app_state_sync, and smb_message_echoes so your chat history, contact imports, and phone-sent messages sync in too.

Checking your connection

Click Test Connection at any time — from the masked credentials view or the manual form — to verify your setup live against Meta. A successful test shows the connected phone number and the verified business name; a failed test shows the error Meta returned so you know what to fix.

If a connection that used to work starts failing — most commonly because the authorisation was revoked on the Meta side (a password change, a removed System User, or someone disconnecting the app in Meta's Business Settings) — Test Connection will show the authorisation error. To recover: if you connected through Embedded Signup, click Reconnect and run the popup again; if you connected manually, generate a fresh System User token (step 2 of the manual form above) and save it over the old one.

The Setup checklist panel on the right tracks what's configured:

Required	Recommended
Access token	Catalog ID (product sync)
Phone Number ID	An approved message template
App Secret	Bot configured
Webhook Verify Token
Catalog connected

Catalog: save now, connect later

You'll notice Catalog connected sits in the checklist's Required column even though the save form only insists on the Access Token and Phone Number ID. Both are true: you can save your credentials and start messaging without a catalog, but the checklist keeps flagging it because product features (catalog sync, product messages in chat) won't work until it's connected.

Going live

Once the checklist's required items are green and a test connection succeeds, you're ready to use the channel. Head to the Catalog tab to sync your products and the Templates tab to get your first message template approved — you'll need at least one approved template before you can send broadcasts or message customers outside an active conversation window.