Connect your WhatsApp number

Have these three things ready before you start — the flow itself takes about ten minutes:

• A phone number that is free to use with the API. It must not be active on the WhatsApp consumer app or the WhatsApp Business app — or you must be ready to migrate it (see migrating a number below). A fresh SIM works, and so does a landline — the only hard requirement is that the number can receive a one-time code by SMS or voice call.
• A Facebook login with business access. The embedded signup runs inside a Meta popup, so you log in with a Facebook account that can access — or create — your company's Meta Business Portfolio. If your business has never had one, the flow creates it for you.
• Your business details. Legal business name, website or social page, address, and the display name you want customers to see. Having these ready avoids stalling mid-popup.

Everything happens on one screen in the dashboard plus one Meta popup. The popup is Meta's own interface, so its wording can change slightly over time — the sequence below is what you should expect.

1. 1

   Open the connect screen

   Log in to your dashboard and open the WhatsApp connect screen. It has two tabs at the top — Numbers and Templates. On the Numbers tab, click the Add New Number button. A Connect WhatsApp dialog opens.
2. 2

   Choose the Embedded Signup tab

   The dialog has two tabs: Manual Input and Embedded Signup. Pick Embedded Signup — it finds your IDs for you, applies webhooks automatically, and authenticates directly with Facebook. (Manual Input is only for teams that already hold a WABA ID, Phone Number ID and access token from an existing setup; it validates and connects with those three values.)
3. 3

   Click Continue with Facebook

   Press the blue Continue with Facebook button. The page briefly shows Initializing and then Waiting for Facebook while a Meta popup window opens. If nothing appears, your browser probably blocked the popup — see troubleshooting. Log in with the Facebook account that has access to your business.
4. 4

   Pick or create your business assets

   Inside the popup, Meta walks you through selecting or creating your Meta Business Portfolio and a WhatsApp Business Account (WABA), and asks for your business details — name, website, address. If this is your first time, accept the defaults and let the flow create both assets; you can edit them later in Meta Business Manager.
5. 5

   Enter the number and verify with an OTP

   Type in the phone number you prepared, then choose how to receive the one-time code: SMS or voice call. For a landline, pick the voice call. Enter the code when it arrives. If it does not arrive, wait for the cooldown and retry — see troubleshooting.
6. 6

   Set your display name

   Meta asks for the display name customers will see in their chat list. It must represent your business — the rules are in the next section. Pick carefully: changing it later requires another Meta review.
7. 7

   Finish and confirm in the dashboard

   Complete the final popup screen. Back in the dashboard you will briefly see Verifying & Connecting while RichAutomate exchanges the authorization with Meta and saves the connection — webhooks are applied automatically, nothing to paste. Your number then appears as a row in the Numbers table showing the number itself, its WABA ID and Phone ID, a status (usually Connected), and your current messaging limit — new numbers usually start at 250 customers per 24 hours, and Meta raises the tier as you message with good quality. If anything looks stale, click Sync Details to refresh the data from Meta.

The display name is what customers see at the top of the chat, so Meta reviews every one. Approval is usually quick, but Meta may reject a name or ask you to change it. The rules that matter in practice:

• It must represent your business. Use your brand or trading name as customers know it — ideally matching your website and Business Portfolio. A name with no clear relationship to your business is the most common rejection reason.
• No generic terms on their own. "Offers" or "Support" alone will not pass; "Acme Support" usually does.
• Use clean formatting. Proper capitalisation, no ALL CAPS (unless your brand is an acronym), no extra punctuation, emoji, or keyword stuffing.
• Changing it later triggers a fresh review. After connecting, the Edit Profile action on your number row shows the current display name with a Change Display Name link that takes you to Meta's form — the change only applies once Meta approves it.

The rest of your public profile — photo, category, about text, description, address, email and websites — is editable any time from Edit Profile on the number row, with a live preview of how it looks in WhatsApp.

If the number you want to connect is currently active on the WhatsApp consumer app or the WhatsApp Business app, you must release it first. A number can only be registered in one place at a time.

1. 1

   Back up anything you want to keep

   Export or back up your chats from the app first. Message history does not carry over to the Business API — your new inbox in RichAutomate starts empty.
2. 2

   Delete the WhatsApp account in the app

   In the app, open Settings → Account → Delete account and confirm. This deletes the app registration for that number — it does not cancel your SIM or phone line. Meta usually releases the number within a few minutes.
3. 3

   Run the embedded signup

   Go back to the step-by-step flow above and connect the number normally. If Meta still reports the number as in use, wait a little longer and retry — propagation can lag.

Once your number shows Connected in the Numbers table, you are ready to message. Next: send your first messages and create a message template so you can start conversations, not just reply.