TindavoTindavo
← All articles

Connecting WhatsApp

Connect your assistant to WhatsApp.

Connecting WhatsApp lets your assistant answer customers on the channel most businesses use every day. The connection is official: you connect through Meta's own window, with no QR codes and no unofficial bridges, fully within Meta's terms.

What you'll need

  • A Facebook account — in Meta's window you pick or create a business portfolio and a WhatsApp Business account.
  • A phone number. If the WhatsApp card shows Connect my WhatsApp Business app number, connect a number from that app with it: the app keeps working on your phone and the assistant answers alongside. Otherwise you need a number that is not on WhatsApp: Meta connects a number that already runs WhatsApp only after that account is deleted in the app — together with its chat history.
  • A few minutes: Meta sends a code to confirm the number by SMS or a call.

The flow

  1. In Channels, open the WhatsApp Business row, click Set up, then Connect with Facebook.
  2. Meta's window opens. Log in with your Facebook account.
  3. Select or create a WhatsApp Business Account and pick your phone number.
  4. Approve the permissions. Meta sends a verification code to confirm the number.
  5. You're connected — messages to that number now reach your assistant, and it replies in the same chat.

Paying for messages — directly to Meta

Your company pays Meta for WhatsApp messages, not Tindavo: Meta bills you, and Tindavo does not receive this money. Each month Meta doesn't charge for the first 1,000 replies to customers per number; after that, its own rates apply. Without a payment method, Meta stops delivering replies once the month's 1,000 are used.

So the last step is adding a payment method: on the WhatsApp card press Open WhatsApp Manager → Overview → Add payment method and follow Meta's steps.

Meta's limits for a new number

Meta's limit for a new business portfolio — up to 250 recipients a day — applies only to messages the business sends first (template broadcasts). It grows once Meta verifies the company. The assistant replies to people who wrote first, so this limit doesn't affect it. If customers report a number's messages, Meta may lower its quality rating and restrict sending.

On the Trial, and no broadcasts

WhatsApp connects on the Trial too — with your own number. If the number is in the WhatsApp Business app, the app keeps working: when the trial answers run out or you decide not to continue, the phone works as before. On the Trial you can add the payment method in Meta later — trial answers fit within Meta's free thousand.

Tindavo sends no broadcasts on any plan: the assistant and you reply only to people who wrote first, and only within Meta's window. That is Meta's rule, and it keeps the number clear of Meta's restrictions. The one exception is a booking reminder: on paid plans with Bookings, on the day of the booking a guest who hasn't written for a day gets it via a Meta utility template. Meta charges such a message to the payment method in WhatsApp Manager; Tindavo creates the template and submits it to Meta for review itself. It is not available on the Trial — the owner gets a «Write on WhatsApp» button with a ready text in Telegram.

Handing a chat to a person

When a customer asks for a real person, the assistant tells them the request has been passed on, and the conversation is marked waiting for you in Conversations (plus a push or Telegram ping if you have them on). Reply in the Reply to the customer… box — the message goes out from the same business number, and the assistant stays quiet for 10 minutes after your last message. Return to the assistant hands the conversation back.

How to leave and return the number to the app

A number from the WhatsApp Business app: press Disconnect on the WhatsApp card — the app on the phone keeps working as before.

A number connected only to Tindavo: press Return the number to the WhatsApp app. Tindavo releases the number; then install WhatsApp or WhatsApp Business on the phone and verify the number by SMS. The history in Conversations stays, and the number and its WhatsApp account at Meta remain yours.

Good to know

  • One number connects to one assistant.
  • Your message templates and quality rating are managed by Meta.
  • You can disconnect anytime from the Channels tab.

If the connect window doesn't appear, disable popup blockers and retry. For anything else, see Troubleshooting.