Prerequisites
- A Keloa workspace on Growth or higher, and the owner or admin role.
- A phone number your business owns that can receive an SMS or a call, for the verification code.
- Admin access to your company’s Meta (Facebook) Business account.
- Your website online. Meta checks it during the review.
WhatsApp numbers have their own limit. They don’t count against your plan’s channels or integrations cap. A request that’s still being set up counts toward the limit.
Is your number on WhatsApp today?
Connect WhatsApp
1
Open WhatsApp in Integrations
Sidebar → Integrations → WhatsApp. The Connect WhatsApp form opens.
2
Your number
Pick the Country, enter the Phone number contacts should message, and answer Is this number on WhatsApp today?
3
Business profile
Enter the Display name contacts see in WhatsApp, your Legal business name (as registered with the Chamber of Commerce) and, optionally, your Website. A preview shows how the name looks in a chat.
4
Contact & confirm
Tell Keloa who to call to finish the verification: Name, Phone and Email, plus any notes. Tick the confirmation and click Send request.
5
Keloa sets it up with you
Keloa contacts you within one business day to verify the number with Meta. Keep the phone at hand: Meta sends a code by SMS or call. You get an email the moment the number is live.
If the form offers Connect with Facebook, you can also set up the number yourself in about 5 minutes: log in with your company’s Facebook account, pick or create your WhatsApp Business account and verify the number. Tick This number already runs the WhatsApp Business app and I want to keep using it if that applies. If the Facebook setup doesn’t finish, choose Let Keloa set it up for me instead.
Display name rules
Meta reviews the display name, so keep it close to your business name. The form checks it as you type:- 3 to 60 characters
- Doesn’t contain “WhatsApp”
- No web address
- Letters, digits and simple punctuation only
- More than a generic word like “Shop” or “Support”
- Not all in capitals
Follow your request
While Keloa sets up the number, Integrations → WhatsApp shows the request and its progress: Request received → Keloa registers your number with Meta → Live in your inbox.
Changed your mind? Click Cancel request. You can send a new request any time.
Test it
On WhatsApp the contact starts the conversation, so test it the way a contact would.1
Open the test panel
In Integrations → WhatsApp, click Test it on your number.
2
Message your number
Scan the QR code with your phone camera, or click Open on this device or Open WhatsApp Web, and send the prefilled message. Use a different phone than the one running the business number.
3
Check the inbox
The panel shows Message received! It is in your inbox. Click Open conversation to see it, together with your AI agent’s answer.
The 24-hour reply window
WhatsApp only lets businesses reply within 24 hours of the contact’s last message. When the contact came in through a click-to-WhatsApp ad, the window is 72 hours. Every new message from the contact opens the window again.- Inside the window, you and your AI agent reply freely.
- Before it closes, the conversation shows a banner: “WhatsApp reply window closes in…”.
- After it closes, the reply box is locked and the AI agent stops answering. You can reply again as soon as the contact writes to you. If the contact has an email address, the banner offers a button to email them instead (for example Email Sam).
What the AI does
- One AI agent per number. Pick it on the number’s card under Answered by, or choose No agent (team only) so every message waits for your team. You can also bind a number from the agent editor: Channels → Social channels → WhatsApp Business → Bind to this agent.
- Inside the window only. The AI agent answers while the reply window is open, like on other channels.
- The whole conversation as context. The AI agent reads the full conversation, not only the latest message. See Conversation memory.
- Long answers are split into several WhatsApp messages of up to 4,096 characters, sent in order.
Messages and media
Contacts can send text, photos, videos, voice messages, audio, documents, stickers, locations, shared contacts, reactions and button replies. When a contact replies to an earlier message, Keloa shows the quoted message.- WhatsApp keeps media for 7 days. Keloa downloads files as they arrive. A file that couldn’t be fetched in time shows as no longer available.
- Large files over 25 MB aren’t previewed.
- Unsafe files are blocked and never stored.
- Delivery status. Your messages show Sent, Delivered and Read.
- Outbound is text and GIFs. You and your AI agent send text. Teammates can also send GIFs when Let teammates send GIFs in WhatsApp and website chat replies is on in Settings → Helpdesk. Sending files isn’t supported yet.
The number’s card
Each connected number has a card in Integrations → WhatsApp:
To add another number, click Add number in the WhatsApp panel. The panel shows how many numbers your plan allows.