Connect WhatsApp to your support
Once connected it works like any other channel: whatever people write to you lands in the inbox as a ticket and is answered from the same screen. Setting it up, on the other hand, takes more work than the rest — and almost all of it happens in the Meta panel, not here.
Before you start: this is not a ten-minute job
You need a WhatsApp Business account with a verified number. An ordinary WhatsApp number will not do: the API only talks to numbers registered on Meta's business platform. If you are trying the product out and want something working today, start with Telegram and come back to this later.
The four details you need
All four come from the Meta dashboard; the platform doesn't generate any of them. It helps to have them at hand before you start:
| What | Where it is | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| App Secret | App settings → Basic | Meta signs every notification with it. It is what proves that what comes in really comes from them. |
| Phone number ID | WhatsApp → API setup | Identifies the number replies are sent from. |
| WhatsApp Business Account ID | WhatsApp → API Setup, next to the Phone number ID | With it, CALADESK subscribes to your account. Without that subscription, Meta doesn't send any messages. |
| Permanent access token | System users → Generate token | Authorises sending. It is a password. |
1. Create the channel in CALADESK
Go to Settings → Inbound channels. Under "Create a channel", pick WhatsApp and press Create channel. An address will appear: copy it, because that is what goes into Meta in the next step.
2. Paste that address into Meta
In the Meta dashboard, go to WhatsApp → Configuration. Paste the address you copied as the Callback URL. As the Verify token, paste only the code at the end of the address, the part between /whatsapp/ and the last slash, without the slashes.
Meta will call immediately to check that the address answers. If everything is right, it accepts it on the spot.
After that, subscribe to the messages field. It is the only one you need — no others have to be turned on.
3. Go back and paste the credentials
Back in CALADESK, on the channel card, paste the four details and click Save credentials. When you save, CALADESK subscribes to your WhatsApp account and tells you whether Meta accepted it.
The token is stored encrypted and never shown again, just like a password. If you later change something else on that screen and leave it blank, it is not deleted: the one you had stays.
4. Switch your Meta app to live mode
While the app is in development mode, Meta only sends the tests you trigger from its dashboard, not anyone's real messages, not even yours. In App settings → Basic fill in the privacy policy, terms of service, icon and category, then switch the app mode at the top to Live.
While a credential is still missing
Messages still come in and become tickets, but the agents' replies do not go out: they stay saved on the ticket. That is on purpose — better to receive and not be able to answer yet than to lose what people write to you while you finish setting things up.
The channels screen warns you in amber about what is missing.
The 24-hour window
This is the big difference from the other channels, and it is not a CALADESK limitation but a WhatsApp rule: you can only write to a customer during the 24 hours after their last message.
After that window your reply is not lost: it stays saved on the ticket and goes out on its own as soon as the customer writes again. And if you register a template approved by Meta, they are told a reply is waiting.
Telegram has no such limit. If your support replies hours or days later, bear that in mind when choosing where to handle things.
Three things worth knowing
- Photos and documents travel both ways. Whatever the customer sends shows up as an attachment on the ticket, not as a notice that it exists.
- What counts is the signature, not the address. Even if someone works out the channel's address, they cannot slip in fake messages: every notification comes signed with your App Secret and is checked before it is accepted.
- One conversation is one case. While the ticket is open, everything the customer writes is added to it. If you closed it and they come back weeks later, a new one is opened.
Not using CALADESK yet?
WhatsApp is one of the channels. Emails, Telegram and a form on your website come in too, and it all ends up in the same inbox.
Let's talk