WhatsApp Business

Let a character answer your WhatsApp Business number in text and voice messages, and run every chat from a live inbox where your team can step in.

The character answers WhatsApp messages sent to its number — text, voice messages, photos and documents — with its own voice, model, knowledge base, memory and tools. The WhatsApp inbox keeps everything that comes in and goes out for the period you choose. Your team can read every chat, answer, send files, or stop the bot and take over a conversation.

The conversation is always started by the customer. IAMX does not send template (business-initiated) messages and does not handle WhatsApp voice or video calls.

Where to find it

The inbox needs a signed-in studio session; it cannot be opened with an API key.

What you need from Meta

You use your own Meta assets:

1. A verified Meta Business account

   Business Verification completed in Meta Business Settings.

2. A WhatsApp Business Account (WABA)

   With the phone number your customers will write to.

3. Your own Meta app

   An app in the Meta App Dashboard with the WhatsApp product added. Because you reach your own data with your own app, Meta’s App Review is not needed for this.

Create the access token

1. Add a system user

   Business Settings › System users › add a new system user.

2. Assign assets

   Give it Manage app on your app and Full control on the WhatsApp Business Account.

3. Generate the token

   Select your app, set the expiry to Never, and grant business_management, whatsapp_business_messaging and whatsapp_business_management.

4. Copy it

   Meta shows the token once. Paste it into the IAMX Settings card.

Connect WhatsApp Business

1. Open the Settings card

   Open My workspace › Settings and find the WhatsApp Business card.

2. Enter your credentials

   Fill in Access token, App secret and WhatsApp Business Account ID (WABA ID), then Save. The token and app secret stay on the server and are never shown again; the card shows only the last four characters of the token.

3. Test the connection

   Test the connection checks the token and the WABA at Meta and lists the phone numbers on the account.

4. Connect the webhook

   The card shows a Webhook URL and a Verify token made for your workspace. They are created on the first save and never change. Choose Connect the webhook to subscribe your WABA automatically; it needs the WABA ID and a saved app secret. Or connect it by hand: Meta App Dashboard › WhatsApp › Configuration › Webhook › Edit, paste the webhook URL and the verify token, and choose Verify and save.

5. Subscribe to messages

   In the Meta App Dashboard, under WhatsApp › Configuration › Webhook fields, subscribe to the messages field. Without it no messages reach IAMX.

6. Assign a character to the number

   See the next section. Until a number has a character, its messages are not answered.

The card’s badges show the state of the connection:

Remove deletes the access token and app secret, and your characters stop answering on WhatsApp. The webhook URL and the verify token stay the same, so you can reconnect later without changing Meta’s settings.

Choose which character answers each number

Under Numbers and characters on the same card, every number on your WABA is listed with its Number and Verified name. Choose a Character for each; the assignment is saved immediately.

• A number has one character. Choosing it for another character moves it there.
• A number set to Unassigned shows a red does not answer badge. Messages to it are not answered.
• Characters that use a realtime voice model (Gemini Live or OpenAI Realtime) are greyed out with “(realtime model, not supported)”: they cannot answer on WhatsApp.
• Without a WABA ID, use Assign a number by hand: enter the Phone Number ID from API Setup, optionally a Number shown, and choose Assign.

Cloning a character does not copy its WhatsApp number or its chats.

Character options

In the character editor, open Channels › WhatsApp. The settings save with the toolbar Save.

A few replies always go as text, whatever the voice setting: answers that contain a link, a number of six or more digits or a price, and answers longer than 600 characters — they are hard to take in by ear and cannot be copied from a voice message. A voice reply is sent as a WhatsApp voice message without a separate text; the text is visible in the inbox. If the audio cannot be made, or would run longer than about two minutes, the reply goes as text.

The tab also repeats the Webhook URL and Verify token, and Open the call centre takes you to the inbox. The customer’s WhatsApp number is given to the character as context, so it can use it for bookings and contact details.

The WhatsApp inbox

Open Channels › WhatsApp in the top bar. The layout is like WhatsApp Web: conversations on the left, the selected conversation on the right. On screens narrower than 1024 px the two are stacked; choose a conversation, and use the back button to return to the list. The list and the open conversation update live (Live); if the live connection drops, the page shows Refreshing every 10 seconds.

The conversation list

• Search number, name or message finds a conversation by phone number, profile name or message text.
• Filters: All, Unread, With operator and Bot, plus a character filter (All characters).
• Each row shows the profile name (or the number), the last message, the time, the unread count, and whether the bot or an operator is answering. The most recently active conversation is at the top.

An open conversation

• The header shows the profile name, number and character, the Stop the bot / Hand back to the bot switch, and the 24-hour window, for example 24-hour window open · 3 h 12 min left.
• Messages are grouped by day: incoming on the left, outgoing on the right, with the sender of each outgoing message (Bot or the operator’s name).
• Photos open larger with a click; documents have a Download button; voice messages play with their Transcript underneath; videos load on request; locations open in maps. Files the bot cannot read, such as spreadsheets or videos, are still kept for you.
• Grey system notes in the middle record events: an operator took over or handed back, a message could not be sent, a message arrived too late and was not answered, the bot could not answer (quota, plan or an error).

Every incoming message raises the unread count; opening the conversation resets it. While the bot is answering and Read receipts and typing is on, the customer sees blue ticks straight away. While an operator has the conversation, the blue ticks are sent when someone opens it in the inbox.

Send messages and files

• Type in Write a message. Enter sends, Shift+Enter starts a new line. What you type is sent as written; long text is split into parts of up to 4,000 characters.
• Attach a file, add an optional caption (Add a caption (optional), up to 1,024 characters; audio is sent without a caption) and choose Send.
• You can write while the bot is on; the bot then keeps answering too, and the line above the composer reminds you. To run the conversation alone, choose Stop the bot first.
• Operator messages do not use your IAMX quota.
• Viewers can read conversations but cannot write or stop the bot.

Each sent message shows its delivery state: Sending, Sent, Delivered, Read, Played (voice messages), or Not delivered with Meta’s error code. If the customer has turned off read receipts, Read does not appear.

Stop the bot and take over

• Stop the bot moves the conversation to an operator. A bot reply that is being prepared is cancelled, and the bot stays silent in this conversation. New messages are still saved and counted as unread. A system note records who took over.
• Hand back to the bot lets the bot answer again. It sees what you wrote in the conversation history and carries on from there.
• The mode belongs to one conversation; the bot keeps answering all the others.

The 24-hour window

WhatsApp accepts a business’s free-form messages only within 24 hours of the customer’s last message. The conversation header shows the time left. When the window is closed, sending is still attempted, but Meta rejects it (error 131047) and the message shows as Not delivered. Since IAMX does not send template messages, wait for the customer to write again; that reopens the window.

Retention and storage

On the Settings card, Keep messages and files for sets how long the inbox keeps conversations and files: 7, 30, 90, 180 or 365 days, or Forever. The default is 180 days. Messages and files past this period are deleted every night, permanently. A new period applies to everything already stored: if you go from 30 days to 7, records older than 7 days are deleted that night.

Storage used shows how much of the WhatsApp storage quota is in use (2 GB per workspace by default). When it is full, new media is not kept and the card shows Storage full; shorten the retention period or contact IAMX about the quota.

Delete a chat

Owners and admins can remove a single conversation at once: choose Delete chat in the conversation header and confirm with Delete (Cancel keeps it). The chat and all its messages and files are deleted immediately and permanently.

• The customer is not notified. If they write again, a new conversation starts.
• Only the inbox record and its files are removed. The bot’s conversation records under Insights › Sessions and Insights › Analytics, and the character’s memory of the customer, remain.

Limits

The bot also reads shared locations (with a map link) and button or list replies as text. Stickers and reactions are kept but not answered.

Costs and quota

• Meta bills WhatsApp messages to your own Meta account, at Meta’s current rates. Bot and operator replies are both service messages; IAMX does not send template messages.
• IAMX: each bot reply uses your monthly quota units like any other conversation turn (messages answered together count as one reply). When the quota is used up, the bot tells the customer it cannot help right now, together with your Reaching a person text. Operator messages do not use IAMX quota. Media counts toward the WhatsApp storage quota.

Data and policy

IAMX stores the customer’s WhatsApp number and profile name, every incoming and outgoing message, voice message transcripts, all media, and the bot’s voice messages, for the retention period you set. Bot replies are also recorded in Insights › Sessions and Analytics, which follow the platform’s general retention, not the WhatsApp setting. The customer’s full number is visible in the inbox. Messages pass through Meta’s infrastructure. As the business that runs the number, you are responsible for informing customers and for the legal basis of processing (for example under KVKK or GDPR).

Troubleshooting

Next steps

Give the character the documents it should answer from on Mind & knowledge, tune its voice on Language & voice, and review conversations in Sessions & analytics. For phone calls, see AI phone assistants.

Maintained by IAMX. Updated 7 November 2026.