Connect your WhatsApp Business number to Atera and give your users and customers an easy, familiar way to reach support. Messages sent to your number reach your technicians instantly, while a ticket is opened in Atera with the full real-time conversation documented and organized for your team. You can also let Robin step in as the first responder, resolving issues on WhatsApp before they reach your technicians.

After setup, WhatsApp becomes a fully integrated ticketing and communication channel:

• End users open tickets by sending a WhatsApp message.
• Users chat directly with technicians inside a ticket.
• Conversations are logged automatically, in real time, in the ticket's Conversation tab.
• Robin can respond as a first line of support and resolve issues automatically.
• Users and contacts can view conversations in the Service Portal (users) or Customer Portal (contacts).

Important: The WhatsApp Business Cloud API is different from the WhatsApp / WhatsApp Business mobile app. It is set up through Meta (Facebook) developer tools, and a phone number connected to the API cannot be used in the WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business mobile app. If the number is already registered in WhatsApp, remove it before continuing.

Prerequisites

Setup must follow this order - each step depends on the previous one:

Verified Meta (Facebook) Business Account > Meta Developer Account > Meta App (WhatsApp)

1. Verified Meta (Facebook) Business Account - represents your business in Meta; must be verified to use the WhatsApp API without limitations.
2. Meta Developer Account - required to create and manage your app; connected to your Facebook account.
3. Phone number - must NOT be registered on the WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business app; used only for API messaging; verified via OTP (SMS or call).
4. Business website - must be live and display your official business name.
5. Business documents - for verification (e.g., Tax ID, Certificate of Incorporation, utility bill).

Key components

Set up WhatsApp in Meta

Create a Meta Developer account

1. Go to Meta for Developers.
2. Log in with your personal Facebook account.
3. Click Get Started or My Apps.
4. Verify your email and register as a Developer.

Create a Meta app

1. In the Developer Dashboard, click Create App.
2. Use Case: select Other, then click Next.
3. Choose Business.
4. Select your Meta Business Account (if none is available, create a Business Portfolio).
5. Click Create App.

Add WhatsApp to your app

1. In your app dashboard, go to Add Products, find WhatsApp, and click Set Up.
2. Select or confirm your Meta Business Account.
3. Click Continue.

Configure your phone number

1. Navigate to WhatsApp > API Setup > Add Phone Number.
2. Enter profile information - Display Name (official brand name) and Category (business industry).
3. Verify the number via SMS or phone call.

Note: Once added to the API, this number cannot be used in standard WhatsApp apps.

Business verification

1. Go to Meta Business Settings > Security Center > Start Verification.
2. Upload legal documents (tax registration, utility bills, etc.).
3. Typical verification takes 2-48 hours (up to 14 days if documents are missing).

Verification is required to remove the "Trial" limit of 250 conversations.

Generate a permanent access token

1. In Business Settings (business.facebook.com/latest/settings), go to Users > System Users.
2. Click Add to create a new System User (Role: Admin).
3. Click Add Assets and assign your WhatsApp app to this user with Full Control.

4. Click Generate token, select your app, and check these permissions:

   whatsapp_business_messaging
   whatsapp_business_management
   whatsapp_business_management_event

5. Copy and save this token immediately - Meta will not show it again.

Publish the app

After configuring and testing everything, publish the app so incoming messages can be delivered to the configured webhook.

1. Go to App settings > Basic and set the Privacy policy URL (each customer must use their own).
2. Go to App Review > Review and publish the app.

Subscribe your WABA (advanced)

Even with a webhook URL configured in the dashboard, you may need to tell the WhatsApp Business Account to send data to your specific App ID. You can do this with a single POST request in the Graph API Explorer.

1. In the Meta Developer Dashboard, under WhatsApp > API Setup, find your WhatsApp Business Account ID (not the Phone Number ID).
2. Open the Graph API Explorer, change the method from GET to POST, and set the endpoint: v21.0/{your-waba-id}/subscribed_apps
3. Use a System User / permanent token with whatsapp_business_management and whatsapp_business_messaging permissions.
4. Click Submit. On success you'll see {"success": true}.

Find your connection values

Atera's Connection settings form needs seven values from your Meta setup. Use the map below to locate each one. The example values shown are from a demo account.

Meta app ID

Open developers.facebook.com/apps and select My Apps. The App ID shown under your app is your Meta app ID.

Meta app secret

In the same app, go to App settings > Basic. This page shows your App ID and your App secret - click Show next to the App secret and copy it into Atera's Meta app secret field.

WhatsApp business ID (WABA asset ID)

Go to Meta for Developers (developers.facebook.com/apps) > your app > WhatsApp > API Setup. Your test number's card shows both the Phone Number ID and the WhatsApp Business Account ID directly, no need to dig through URLs.

Alternatively, in WhatsApp Manager (business.facebook.com > WhatsApp accounts), click the ... menu next to your account and select Copy WhatsApp account ID.

Access token

Use the permanent System User token from Step 6. Generate it under Settings > Users > System Users > Generate token, then copy it into Atera's Access token field.

Connect WhatsApp to Atera

Add phone numbers in Atera first

WhatsApp identifies who's messaging by their phone number. So that tickets are created under the right user/contact (and appear in the Service/Customer Portal), every user/contact must have a number saved on their Atera profile.

Before a customer can create tickets via WhatsApp, their contact must first be created in Atera with a Mobile phone number assigned. Atera uses the Mobile phone field to identify the contact and associate incoming WhatsApp messages with the correct user.

If no existing contact with a matching Mobile phone number is found, the WhatsApp integration won't be able to associate the conversation with the customer.

For more, see Manage users / contacts.

Enable the integration in Atera

Once your WhatsApp configuration is set up in Meta, enable the integration to connect WhatsApp as a support channel.

1. In Atera, go to Admin > Support and ticketing > WhatsApp settings.

The WhatsApp settings page appears.

2. Toggle on Connect WhatsApp Business.
3. Under Connection settings, enter the seven values from Part B (use the screenshots there to find each one in Meta).

Communication settings

Under Communication settings, choose:

• Enable Robin: for accounts with Robin activated, lets Robin manage all Notification settings automatically.
• Send reply on new ticket: sends an automatic WhatsApp reply with the ticket ID and a portal link.
• Send message on new comment: notifies the end user when a technician adds a public response.
• Send message on status changed: notifies the end user when their ticket status changes.
• Send message on ticket assignment changed: notifies the end user when their ticket is reassigned.

4. Click Update.

Your connection to Meta is set up automatically - webhooks are created between your business phone number and Atera ticketing, and Meta is told where to send incoming WhatsApp messages, so you don't need to configure a callback URL.

What your users and customers experience

Once setup is complete, share your business phone number so people can message it to open tickets. All messages reach your technicians in Atera, and replies stay in the same WhatsApp thread. The full conversation is saved in the ticket's Conversation tab, and users/contacts can view it in the Service/Customer Portal (if their number is linked).

Note: WhatsApp chats support text, audio, video, images, and document attachments.

Quick reference - Meta credentials