Best Practices for WhatsApp Business

In order to get you set up quickly and successfully, we have collected some best practices. We would advise getting familiar with these before starting the application process.

Your Application Details

When you apply for WhatsApp Business make sure you are using your official email domain and you use your business Facebook account. There should also be a clear relationship between your display name and your business. Please check Facebook's guidelines for picking a display name for more info: Facebook page for Display Names

The Verification Process

Businesses are able to start messaging customers immediately and only need to complete Business Verification when they’re ready to scale business-initiated conversations, add additional phone numbers, or request to become an Official Business Account (OBA). If you are looking to get an Official Business Account and have the green tick please see this article: How to get a WhatsApp Official Business Account.

Please note that the verification decision is entirely at the discretion of Facebook. If your business does not get verified this is out of our control.

Your Template Messages

When submitting the Template Message for approval, you should keep in mind that it needs to contain the full body of the message, with the option to add unique parameters represented as placeholders. At least one parameter is required and the template should not contain any spelling mistakes. Below is an example of a Template Message submission:

Name: account_registration

Hi {{1}}! Thanks for starting your personal training plan. We’ll send you a {{2}} update with your new schedule. You can log in online using your training ID {{3}}. Stay fit!

Your customer will receive:

Hi Joey! Thanks for starting your personal training plan. We’ll send you a weekly update with your new schedule. You can log in online using your training ID 123456. Stay fit!

For more information on Template Messages, please check here: Working with WhatsApp Template Messages

Your WhatsApp Phone Number

The number needs to be 'clean', which means it mustn't have been registered with another WhatsApp user. Since you will need to receive a code to activate your channel, the number you use must be able to receive a call or SMS. For more info on picking a number, please check here: How to pick a number for WhatsApp Business

If you are using a number in the WhatsApp App and would like to use this in the Business API, it is possible to migrate the number. Please follow the steps in this Phone Numbers Migration article, skipping steps 1, 2 and 8.

Once your number has been set up for the WhatsApp Business API, this cannot be disconnected. If you have switched from the WhatsApp Business App to the API using the same number and are now looking to switch back, you cannot use your number in the Business App anymore; you will need to connect a new clean number.