Connect WhatsApp to omotto

This guide takes you from nothing to a WhatsApp number that omotto can use. You start in omotto. Then a window from Meta opens, and you finish there. Meta is the company behind Facebook and WhatsApp, and it decides who can use WhatsApp for business.

You do not need technical knowledge. If you get stuck, see fixing connection problems, or ask the Coach to look at your setup with you.

Two words to know first

• WhatsApp Business app is the free phone app that many small businesses already use. If you reply to customers from a phone app with a green “B” icon, this is it.
• WhatsApp Business account is your business’s WhatsApp setup at Meta: its name, its phone number and its settings. You manage it through Meta. omotto connects to this account.

Before you start

Have these ready:

1. A Facebook login that is an administrator of your business. Meta may call it a business account or a business portfolio.
2. Your business phone number, with the country code. Meta may send a code to this number by text message or phone call, so you must be able to receive it.
3. Your business details and the name you want customers to see on WhatsApp.
4. If you already use the WhatsApp Business app: your phone, with the app updated to the latest version.

Do not delete a working WhatsApp account to “make room” for the connection. First decide whether you want to keep using the phone app. If the number is on regular personal WhatsApp, or already connected to another service, read connection problems before you go on.

Step 1: Start in omotto

1. Open Settings, then Chat services, then WhatsApp, then Lines. A line is one WhatsApp number connected to omotto.
2. Click Add line.
3. Type a Line label. It is only a name for you, for example “Customer service”.
4. Click Connect with WhatsApp.

If you cannot click Add line, ask the owner of your omotto workspace to check your access and how many lines your plan includes. If the only choice is Advanced — use your own credentials, contact omotto support. This guide does not cover it.

Step 2: Say whether you use the WhatsApp Business app

omotto asks How do you use this number today? This choice decides how the number connects, so answer it carefully.

• The number is not used in the WhatsApp Business app. Choose No, then Continue.
• The number is used in the WhatsApp Business app and you want to keep using the app. Choose Yes, then Keep using the app, then Continue. This is called Coexistence: your phone app and omotto work on the same number side by side.
• You want to stop using the phone app and work only in omotto. Choose Move fully to omotto. omotto then shows a warning that you must delete the WhatsApp account from the app first. Save anything you need before you do that. If you are unsure, ask omotto support first.

If you use the phone app and the question or the Keep using the app option does not appear, stop and contact omotto support. Do not carry on as if the number were new, and do not delete the account to get past it.

Step 3: Finish in Meta’s window

When you click Connect with WhatsApp, a Facebook login window opens. Keep omotto open in the background. If no window appears, allow popups for omotto in your browser and try again.

Meta’s screens depend on your accounts, so yours may look a little different from the steps below.

If the number is new, or you are not keeping the phone app

1. Log in with the Facebook account that administers your business.
2. Read and accept what Meta asks for.
3. Choose your business, or create it if Meta offers that. Then choose or create the WhatsApp Business account for it.
4. Enter your business details, the name customers will see, and the phone number.
5. Choose how to get the verification code (text message or call), and type in the code you receive.
6. Finish the last screen. Meta may also ask you to add a payment card. The templates guide explains what you are paying for.

If you are keeping the WhatsApp Business app

1. In Meta’s window, choose to connect your existing WhatsApp Business app number, and type the number.
2. Meta shows a code and sends a message to your phone app from an official account called Facebook Business Account. Open the app and read that message.
3. In the message, tap Connect, then Connect to the Business Platform, then Confirm.
4. Meta asks whether to share your past chats. This is your choice, and the next section explains what happens to them. Then enter the code where Meta asks, and finish.
5. Keep the phone app open while Meta copies your chat history, if you chose to share it.

Step 4: Check the line in omotto

Go back to your line in omotto. Finishing Meta’s window does not always mean the setup is done. The line shows one of these:

• Working or Setup complete. Sending and receiving work.
• Waiting for Meta. Nothing is needed from you right now. Read the note on the screen and let the check finish.
• Needs you. Do what the screen says. You may need to confirm the number in Meta’s WhatsApp Manager, or type the number’s existing six-digit PIN and click Finish registration. The PIN is a code you chose for the number earlier. It is not the code Meta sent by text message.

After you finish a step at Meta, click I’ve done it, check again or Check again. If it still does not move forward, go to connection problems.

When you kept the WhatsApp Business app

You can keep replying to customers from your phone. When you reply from the phone app, omotto’s bot stops answering that conversation for the time set in your support-team settings. Your customer talks to you, not to the bot.

Some phone-app features change once the number is connected:

• Broadcast lists become read-only.
• Disappearing messages, view-once messages and live location are switched off in one-to-one chats.
• Groups and voice or video calls keep working in the phone app, but they do not appear in omotto.
• Phones and computers linked to your WhatsApp are disconnected during setup. You can link the ones that Meta supports again afterwards.

Open the phone app regularly. If it is not used for about 14 days, Meta can break the link. omotto’s setup note suggests opening it at least every 13 days.

The rules about messaging customers from omotto are in WhatsApp message templates. They do not take away normal messaging in your phone app.

Your old chats

If you chose to share your history, Meta can send omotto up to 180 days of your one-to-one chats, once. Group chats are not included, and older photos, voice notes and files may be missing.

• Where to find them. Open the Inbox and, in its conversation filter, choose All conversations. Old chats appear there marked as imported history, and you can read and search them. You cannot reply in them: the message box says Imported history — read-only.
• They are not new requests. omotto does not treat old chats as new customers waiting for an answer, and the bot does not reply to them.
• They can teach omotto about your business. omotto can look through the imported chats and suggest things worth knowing, such as answers you give often. New business knowledge that omotto suggests this way waits for your approval before it is added. You can find this under Settings, then Import knowledge, and the Coach can help you review it. Importing knowledge depends on your plan. See also importing knowledge and what the bot knows.

If you decided not to share history in Meta’s window, there is nothing to import, and nothing to do. See your chats in the Inbox as they arrive from now on.