Channels
Connect WhatsApp with your own Meta account
Connect your WhatsApp Business number yourself: what to prepare in Meta, the console form, the webhook, templates, the number's health and opt-in.
Steps
Prepare your Meta account
You need a Meta business account with a WhatsApp Business Account and a phone number added to it, and a Meta app with the WhatsApp product. In Meta's Business settings create a System User, give it your WhatsApp Business Account with full control, and generate a token with the whatsapp_business_management and whatsapp_business_messaging permissions that never expires. WhatsApp messages sent on your own account are billed to you by Meta.
Collect the details
From WhatsApp Manager and your app's dashboard note the WhatsApp Business Account ID, the phone number ID (a long number, not the phone number itself), the System User token and the app secret (under App settings, Basic).
Connect the number in the console
Open Channels. In the WhatsApp section, under Connect a number, fill in WhatsApp Business Account ID, Phone number ID, Permanent access token (System User) and App secret, then choose Validate and connect. The platform asks Meta about the number, shows its verified name, quality rating and messaging limit, subscribes the app to your account's webhooks and reads your templates. If Meta refuses, you see its reason and nothing is stored. The token and secret are kept sealed and never shown again.
Set the webhook in your Meta app
On the number, choose Webhook details. In your Meta app open WhatsApp, then Configuration, choose Edit under Webhook, paste the callback URL and the verify token shown there, verify and save, and subscribe to the messages field. Send a message to the number from a phone: it appears in the inbox. Messages are checked against your app secret, so a delivery that is not from your Meta app is refused.
Check the number's health
Each number shows its quality rating (high, medium or low), its messaging limit and every template with its status: approved, pending, rejected, paused and so on. They are read from Meta once a day; choose Refresh now to read them at once. A low rating reduces how many customers you can message.
Capture opt-in before you send marketing
Marketing templates go only to contacts who opted in to marketing. Record how each person agreed and keep the proof, and make opting out easy. When people block or report a number its quality rating falls, and Meta can limit or restrict a number whose rating stays low. The console shows how many contacts have opted in and how many have withdrawn.
Answer within the window
Customers can be answered with free text for 24 hours after their last message. After that the composer shows: The 24-hour WhatsApp window is closed: only an approved template can be sent.
Good to know
- To stop using a number here, choose Disconnect. It stops sending and receiving at once and removes the access token from the platform. Also remove the webhook and the app's subscription in your Meta account.
- Signing in with Facebook to connect a number (Meta's Embedded Signup) is planned. Until then you connect with your own Meta app, as above. Keeping a number on the WhatsApp Business app alongside the platform needs Embedded Signup, which is also planned.
- The AI agent answers on WhatsApp only about your business. Meta does not allow general-purpose assistants, so off-topic questions get your scope reply.
Still stuck?
Write to hello@ringura.com, or use the contact page, and say which guide you were following.