Prerequisites Before Integration
To send messages via the WhatsApp Business Platform, you need the following:
- A Meta Business Manager account (BM)
- A WhatsApp Business Account
- A phone number
If you meet all these requirements, you can start sending messages to customers via the WhatsApp Business Platform.
BM Account
A Meta Business Manager account (BM) is a management tool provided by Meta to manage businesses on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp on behalf of an organization.
If you don’t already have a BM account, you can create one at Meta Business Suite.
You must have a personal Facebook account before you can create a BM account.
Recommendations:
- Before creating a new BM account, verify with all stakeholders whether your company already has an existing BM account to avoid duplicates.
- Link all Facebook Pages, Instagram Pages, ad accounts, and WABA accounts to the same BM account to prevent data loss. This also helps improve the trust level of the WABA account, making it less likely to be suspended unexpectedly.
WhatsApp Business Account (WABA)
A WhatsApp Business Account (WABA) is used to manage phone numbers registered on the WhatsApp Business Platform. When you use YCloud to contact your end users via WhatsApp, YCloud will create and manage the WABA on your behalf.
Each WABA has its own unique ID.
You can create an unlimited number of WBAs within a BM account, and each YCloud account can be linked to an unlimited number of WBAs. However, a WABA itself cannot be used to send messages; you need to send and receive messages through the phone numbers associated with the WABA.
Phone Number
The phone number must be linked to a WhatsApp account (WABA) so that the account can send and receive messages.
The phone number serves as the sender for your WhatsApp messages and is linked to the WABA.
Each phone number has its own display name, which is the brand name shown to users in WhatsApp messages.
A single enterprise-verified BM account can contain up to 20 different phone numbers. This limit can be extended to 120 numbers upon request (by submitting a ticket to the YCloud team). For non-enterprise-verified BM accounts, you can only link two phone numbers, with a daily message sending limit of 250 messages.
To register a phone number within a WABA, your business phone number must meet the following conditions:
- You must be the owner of the phone number.
- The phone number must include a country code, such as landlines or mobile numbers.
- The phone number must be capable of receiving voice calls or SMS messages.
- The phone number must not have been previously registered with WhatsApp (for any type of account).
Integration Steps
Access the YCloud Integration Page
There are two ways to access the YCloud integration page:
- Go to the “Omnichannel” page and click on WhatsApp.
- Navigate to the page via the left-side navigation menu: “Channels” → “WhatsApp”.
Complete YCloud Account Integration Following the Wizard
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Go to YCloud to complete account registration and log in to your YCloud account.
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After logging in, it is recommended to first complete the integration of the WhatsApp Business Account. You can refer to the article Create a WABA via Embedded Registration
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In the left-side menu navigation, find “Developers” → “API Keys” and create a key. Copy this key, return to 3Chat, paste the key into the input field in step 2, and click Save.
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If you have already bound the WABA, click “Sync Account” in step 3 to automatically complete the account integration.
