WhatsApp Business setup guide

Agents read conversations and write messages for your company. Anything a customer or the public sees, such as a sent email or a posted message, is tier 3, so it asks first unless you decide otherwise.

Ways to connect

Company admins connect apps, on the Integrations page in Everdeck: open WhatsApp Business, choose one of the ways below, follow its steps and fill in its fields. Everdeck checks what you enter before it saves anything, and asks you to confirm it’s you (your second factor) before you type any secret. How connecting works.

System user access token

Token.

1. You need a Meta app with the WhatsApp product and a registered business phone number (https://developers.facebook.com/apps). Business verification raises your sending limits.
2. In Business Settings (https://business.facebook.com/settings/), open Users > System users, add a system user, assign it your app and your WhatsApp account with full control, and click Generate token. Select the app, choose the longest expiry offered, and grant whatsapp_business_messaging, whatsapp_business_management and business_management.
3. In the App Dashboard, open WhatsApp > API Setup and copy the Phone number ID and the WhatsApp Business Account ID into the form.
4. To let incoming WhatsApp messages start agent work, copy the App secret from App settings > Basic.

Field	What to enter
System user access token	A secret: Everdeck saves it encrypted and never shows it again. Where to find it.
Phone number ID	Text. For example 106540352242922.
WhatsApp Business Account ID	Text. For example 102290129340398.
App secret (lets incoming messages start agent work) (optional)	A secret: Everdeck saves it encrypted and never shows it again.

Disconnecting deletes the credentials Everdeck saved, but Everdeck can't revoke them: the key, token or password itself keeps working at WhatsApp Business until you delete or rotate it there.

What agents can do

An agent uses an action only when its charter grants it, on the agent’s Tools tab, where you choose whether each one runs by itself (Auto), asks first or never runs. Each action has a risk tier: tier 3 actions, which customers or the public see, ask first unless you choose otherwise, and tier 4 actions (money, deleting things, access) always need a person. How tools and tiers work.

Actions marked Reads outside content return things people outside your company may have written. Agents treat what they read as information, never as instructions, and their riskier actions later in the same session need approval.

• Send a WhatsApp messageTier 3 · Externalwhatsapp_business_send_text

  Send a text message (up to 4,096 characters). Works only within 24 hours of the customer's last message; outside that window use send_template.

• Reply to a WhatsApp messageTier 3 · Externalwhatsapp_business_reply_to_message

  Reply quoting a specific incoming message. Same 24-hour rule as send_text.

• Send a template messageTier 3 · Externalwhatsapp_business_send_template

  Send an approved message template; the only way to message a customer outside the 24-hour window. Meta charges per delivered template (marketing and authentication always; utility only outside the window). components fills the template's variables, for example [{"type": "body", "parameters": [{"type": "text", "text": "Ana"}]}].

• Send an imageTier 3 · Externalwhatsapp_business_send_image

  Send a JPEG or PNG (up to 5 MB) from a public HTTPS link, with an optional caption. 24-hour rule applies.

• Send a documentTier 3 · Externalwhatsapp_business_send_document

  Send a document such as a PDF (up to 100 MB) from a public HTTPS link. 24-hour rule applies.

• React to a messageTier 3 · Externalwhatsapp_business_send_reaction

  React to a customer's message with an emoji (messages up to 30 days old). The customer sees it.

• Mark as readTier 3 · ExternalReads outside contentwhatsapp_business_mark_as_read

  Mark an incoming message, and every earlier one in the conversation, as read (within 30 days of receipt). The customer sees blue ticks, and it can't be undone.

• List message templatesTier 0 · ReadReads outside contentwhatsapp_business_list_templates

  List the account's message templates with status, category, language and text.

• Download mediaTier 0 · ReadReads outside contentwhatsapp_business_get_media

  Save an image, voice note or document a customer sent (by media id from the message) to the company's files.

Testing, problems and disconnecting

Everdeck checks the connection when you save it. On the connection’s page in Integrations, Test checks it again at any time.

If WhatsApp Business later refuses the connection, for example because a key was deleted or a sign-in expired, the connection shows Needs attention on the Integrations page and the people who manage connections are told. Agents can’t use it until a company admin fixes it with Edit.

To stop agents using WhatsApp Business, open the connection and select Disconnect. Agents stop using it at once and its saved credentials are deleted. What else happens depends on how it was connected: each way above says.